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.
The editor of this book deals with what he calls 'the Independent Tradition' in the British Society. It is a topic that has not been dealt with in this form before. In this book the editor says that he 'offers an overview of some of the clinical and theoretical areas of interest, often derived from the work of Balint and Winnicott, of some of the contemporary analysts belonging to the independent group'.
But who are these 'Independent Analysts'? In his preface, Kohon lists some of them, correctly in most cases, but incorrectly in the case of Barbara Low and Edward Glover, who were both opposed to Klein's point of view. Glover was most critical of those members of the British Society who did not support him and who learned from and valued Klein's work as well as that of Anna Freud and her father. The other members listed, continued what had been the approach of most of the indigenous members of the Society, when they had welcomed Klein to membership in 1927, and Anna Freud and her colleagues in 1938 when Hitler invaded Austria. However, informal support groups grew up around both Klein and Anna Freud, and it was soon clear that there were many theoretical differences between their approach to and understanding of psychoanalysis, and the question arose as to whether or not Klein's theories and approach to psychoanalysis should also be taught to students and presented in lectures to the public. These differences have been well described in this book. A number of Business and Scientific meetings were held in an attempt to resolve this conflict during which the question as to whether or not Klein's new ideas could be assimilated into accepted psychoanalytical knowledge. The majority of the members of the Society supported a more open attitude to the acceptance of new ideas and the inclusion of Klein and her theories, but Anna Freud and Glover left the Training Committee and Glover resigned from the Society.
In October 1944, when Sylvia Payne became President of th