The Role of Child Analysis in the General Psychoanalytic Training

I have a slightly difficult task today because I am supposed to talk about the role of child analysis in the psychoanalytic training of analysts, and this subject was debated at some length earlier in this Congress. Miss Freud kindly said she would be careful not to trample on the territory to be covered by this paper, and she did not; but when it came to the general discussion we did not just have trampling—it was a veritable stampede, and I saw the territory covered by this paper and the discussion disappearing from under my feet. So I have no ambition to say anything original or new today, and much of what I am going to say has already either been said or implied in the previous discussion. I hope, however, that it may be of some use if I bring together certain themes in my own way, and suggest some practical conclusions, this being something that has been touched on but not fully discussed at this meeting.

I start with the basic proposition, again not at all original, that psychoanalysis as we know it is at the same time a body of knowledge, a theory and a technique. The body of knowledge, the theory and the technique are intimately linked and equally important to the training of the future psychoanalyst. Insofar as teaching of the knowledge and theory of psychoanalysis is concerned, one certainly cannot divide such knowledge as has been acquired from the analysis of adults and that which has been acquired from the analysis of children; and in the last 30 years in particular many major advances in psychoanalytical knowledge and theory have been brought about by the analysis of children—advances which were naturally reflected in changes in technique.

Like Dr Diatkine, I will certainly not attempt to summarize those developments in classical theory and technique that are due to Miss Freud's work in her presence. I am sure she can do this herself very much better. I shall just make a few general statements. It is my impression, for instance, that in the class