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International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 78, 877, 1997
The author traces a debate about the concept of ‘internal objects’ that took place between 1937 and 1943 at a time when a group of British analysts was forming around Melanie Klein. The debate is set within a complex of personal, group and organizational dynamics, which the paper makes a start on unravelling The history of the British Psycho-Analytical Society at this time exemplifies Bion's notion of group schism. The events in the Society's history demonstrate defensive aspects of the interaction between the opposed groups, which support members against various anxieties. These include the stress of the work of analysis, but also in this instance the particular anxieties deriving from the collapse of psychoanalysis in Europe, the state of war of the country as a whole, and the death of Freud shortly after he came to London. This psychoanalytic anxiety/defence model clarifies some aspects of the debate about internal objects, and demonstrates the way in which these various anxieties and defences become organized around a scientific debate in a scientific society.
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 78, 899, 1997
The author proposes that the subject chosen for psychoanalytical investigation bears a relationship to autobiographical experiences. Aspects of the life of the British psychoanalyst, Joan Riviere , are examined and related to her investigation into a form of pathological femininity presented in her paper ‘Womanliness as a masquerade’. Information about her formative years is gained from a diary kept by her mother that gives details of Joan Riviere's early months and years as well as further information about her as a young adult. Riviere's own diary, which lists events and activities in which she too