Yes, we are psychoanalysts, and of course you may join us, but you know, we're just barmy people treating barmy people!

So Judith Mitrani, with a twinkle in her eye, opens her book. “Of course you may join us”? Who wouldn't hesitate with such an introduction? Yes, it is true that we do barmy work, but to an American, the Kleinians are perhaps the barmiest of psychoanalysts—they have been referred to as “connoisseurs of hatred”—and they treat the barmiest of patients—those considered “unanalyzable” (p. 6), or surely less than ideal for our usual psychoanalytic technique.