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"This book describes the essential features of the treatment situation in one particular milieu, the Hampstead Child-Therapy Clinic in London" (p. 1), as the authors modestly put it. In addition, it serves as a model for the child-analytic technique most analysts in the United States and many analysts in other countries adhere to, and which Anna Freud was instrumental in developing. This model, in accordance with the authors' high standards, encompasses ideals that are very difficult to attain. The technique described differs in theory and practice from the Kleinian approach and from other psychotherapeutic methods that derive from analytic principles.
The book emerged from a research project to determine the nature of child analysis at the Hampstead Clinic. After years of work, during which Miss Freud and her associates gathered information from therapists at this clinic and arranged the data in an extensive index, Sandler organized a weekly discussion group. The participants, who included Anna Freud and the authors as well as others, examined the indexed material in detail. The Technique of Child Psychoanalysis incorporates the substance of these discussions, which were taped. Because of their special interest and importance, many of Anna Freud's comments appear verbatim. The contributions of the other discussants blend into the text.
The result is a most thorough discussion of many basic issues of psychoanalytic theory and practice. It is not truly a textbook, for it assumes the reader has mastered the basic tenets of child analysis. It is not a handbook, not a "cookbook" volume with specific directions, but a careful examination of principles and observations. Because the discussions were based on clinical data, the reader will be gratified to find the theoretical conclusions are clarified by actual instances and the clinical data enriched by profound theoretical explorations.
The book is divided into sections on: The Framework of Treatment; the Therape