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Joseph Aguayo, a psychoanalyst with publications in the history of psychoanalytic ideas, is, as described by discussant Pinto Chaves, part of a tradition in this line of study that includes authors such as Petot, Spillius and Hinshelwood. His previous work (1997, 2000, 2002) deals with the influence of the intellectual relationships of Klein with Ferenczi, Abraham and Jones; with Freud's relationship with his daughter Anna, and with the disagreement over the analysis of children; and, lastly, with Winnicott's early collaboration and falling out with Klein.
In this panel, Aguayo précised the ideas of three significant ‘Contemporary Kleinian’ psychoanalysts working in London—Britton, Feldman and Steiner. Aguayo traced these from their origin in Klein's ideas about the paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions and projective identification on to Bion's extending of this with theories about the function of mother-infant container-contained relationships in the development of the mind. He identified more immediate forerunners of some of the specific ideas of Britton, Feldman and Steiner in the work of other members of the second generation of Kleinian analysts—Rosenfeld, Segal and Joseph.
Aguayo then framed his main questions: does the work of Britton, Feldman and Steiner articulate, however loosely, into some kind of coherent unity? If so, does this represent a new development—a difference of kind from the previous Kleinian position—or is it better understood as an essentially continuous refinement of the work of these predecessors? While not losing sight of the important contributions made to contemporary understanding by several other UK-based Kleinian analysts, this panel highlighted that these three have formed a ‘collegial network’. This cooperation of ideas has increased the influence of the work they have produced from within the London post-Kleinian professional context, both when these ideas are considered individually and when they are combined.