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This book is timely, reminding the psychoanalytic community that child analysis, meaning intensive treatment four or five times a week, is in the doldrums. This
is particularly disappointing when, as reported in this book, the development of concepts and ideas in psychoanalysis was hugely enriched by the child work of both Anna Freud and Melanie Klein in the 1920s. At the end of the book, Holder concludes that there are glimmers of optimism for the future in an otherwise gloomy worldwide picture. One is the research work being done by Peter Fonagy and colleagues at the Anna Freud Centre, London, and the other is the establishment of a Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis Committee by the IPA. The Child Analysis Training Committee (CATC) at the British Psychoanalytical Society is also trying to breathe some life into an area of work that is in danger of becoming moribund. One step that has been taken by CATC is to allow associate members to take a child or adolescent into treatment as part of the membership course. The response to this has so far been disappointing. Another is to create a forum, comprising colleagues from institutions like the Tavistock Clinic, the Anna Freud Centre, the Cassel Hospital, etc., where issues particularly relating to childhood disturbances, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and problems specifically relating to adolescence, can be discussed. This has stimulated considerable interest but, nevertheless, it is still the case that there is not much enthusiasm for child analysis at the present time.
Holder's book begins with a clear and comprehensive foreword by Donald Campbell, himself an experienced child and adult analyst. The title suggests that the book is something of a history of child psychoanalysis and, in his preface, Holder speaks of his long-held dream of writing such a history. However, he goes on to say that the focus of the volume is not primarily a history but that he has several main aims, which are set out c