You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Some years ago, during the many discussions at the Anna Freud Centre of the psychoanalytic contributions to the understanding of the psychology of the psychoses (not the aetiology) the contributions of Maurits Katan came under repeated discussion. Anna Freud was very interested in Katan's theories, in spite of her disarming claim to know nothing about the psychoses of adults (in Vienna she was a regular attender at ward rounds and case discusisons conducted by Heinz Hartmann and Paul Schilder). She was aware of the value of Katan's work but viewed it with her usual questioning eye. She was on good terms with the Katans, who often stayed in a house in Walberswick, and Dr Freeman sometimes met them during holidays in ‘Freud Village’. It can truly be said that Katan had an important, if indirect, place in the Anna Freud Centre studies of psychosis.1
It is not, however, easy to get a clear and succinct account of Katan's theories and contributions: his own writings extended over a long period of time, and an adequate and authoritative introduction to them in badly needed. This Tom Freeman has now provided. What follows is not a critical review, though Freeman has pointed to one or two problems posed by the theory.
From 1946 until 1970 psychoanalytic journals were replete with papers on the schizophrenias. Today they are uncommon. This is unfortunate as these abnormal mental states confront psychoanalytic practice and theory