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Michael Fordham was a father to analytical psychology in the United Kingdom: like most fathers, he was good and bad, deeply loved and deeply hated. There is no doubt that this son of landed gentry, who lost his own mother at the age of 15 and never got over it, did pioneer a particular version of child analysis. He founded the Society of Analytical Psychology, started its Journal and, with Gerhard Adler and Herbert Read, edited the English translations of Jung's Collected Works. He was a remarkable pioneer. Like most frontiersmen he could be ornery, awkward and just plain cussed when he put his mind to it. This is cheerfully reflected in the idiosyncratic reviews and letters which form the third section of the book.
This, his last work, collects essays and teachings from a long and distinguished career. It contains an invaluable bibliography and is well indexed. There is a special hubris in the title. The not-so-hidden message is ‘Klein is to Freud as Fordham is to Jung’. Both claimed fame through work with children; both made brilliant theoretical leaps on the basis of deep intuitions; both produced ideas which recent advances in developmental and experimental psychology have not entirely substantiated (though it is unlikely that that discipline would be where it is now without these two to quarrel with). Sadly, both also succeeded in splitting their analytic societies into still-feuding bits due to their abrasive personalities and haughty preference for ‘being right’ instead of ‘being reasonable’. It isn't possible to be a Jungian in London without meeting ‘Fordham's analytic family’. Roger Hobdell, a loyal son, has done an excellent job of collating and arranging to guide us into and through Fordham's thinking.
The first section gives an historical background. The essay ‘Freud, Jung and Klein’ is a five star piece; a clear exposition of the similarities and differences between two traditions in depth psychology, with a masterly, readable comparison of Jung's and Kl