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Dr. Herman's book is so absorbing that once started it becomes difficult to put down. There is something compelling and gripping about the way we are allowed to participate in the innermost struggle of a person's determination to fight for life: the purpose of the struggle the emergence of a separate identity.
This book is an unusual kind of autobiography - it leads the reader through the gradual unfolding of an anaytical process with the unique connotation of the personal experience of an individual. However, at the same time offering with it a degree of universality.
In his article on autobiography (T.L.S. May, 1983), Dr. Rycroft says: “My own ideal conception of an autobiography is one in which the autobiographer remains in pursuit of himself while recounting himself.” This is indeed the impression one gets in the reading of “My Kleinian Home” - a trip of “at-onement” in Bion's sense as Kavafi's beautiful poem Ithaka at the beginning of the book indicates. The focus of the book is not on the actual life-events and interactions with other people, but on the forging of meaning that unifies one life and thereby creates a sense of personal identity. How this meaning is attained is conveyed to the reader both through a direct emotional impact and a reflective conceptualisation of its underlying structure. At a directly emotional level, it is a statement of hope in the