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The two volumes under review constitute a major and very valuable achievement by the editor, Elizabeth Bott Spillius. She explains in her General Introduction that she has selected Kleinian writings, published since 1950, that deal with the eight topics she has chosen, consequently omitting papers on other subjects; and that she has confined herself to developments in Britain, having 'picked out themes that have particularly stimulated Klein's colleagues to expand and develop her original formulations through new research'. She has attempted to select theoretical papers in the first volume, clinical papers in the second; however she is well aware that this separation is artificial. In these ten introductory pages Spillius gives a wonderfully concise and clear account of the essential features of the Kleinian approach; how in some respects it has changed little since originally formulated, whereas in some areas there has been a shift, for example from structure such as breast to function (in this case presumably mothering). This, I suggest, may owe something to Winnicott, a view perhaps made more acceptable to Kleinians by Bion with his concept of the 'container'. There has also been special interest in the application of Klein's theories to the analysis of psychotics as well as narcissistic and borderline patients. The work on psychotics reminds me of Edward Glover's remark in his very favourable review of The Psycho-Analysis of Children (Int. J. Psychoanal., 14, 1933, p. 126) that the test of Klein's theories will be in the field of psychosis.
Besides the general introduction there is an equally valuable introduction to each of the eight themes. The first theme (Part One of the first volume) is the analysis of psychotic patients, and there are three authors. While commenting on and summarizing their conclusions Spillius links them with 5 other papers of Rosenfeld, with another of Segal and with 7 others of Bion. She notes that although many Kleinian analyst