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Clearly the great difficulty in thinking logically … is due to the fact that we are trying to talk about a process which stops being that process as soon as we talk about …
started writing these two exceptional and inspiring books during the early 1940s although they were published 19 years apart. They are complementary, but distinctly different accounts of overlapping inner journeys. To my mind, like the whole of Milner's work, they go to the very heart of psychoanalysis and what it means to be a psychoanalyst. Through the simplicity of her prose Milner's genius is to convey an imaginative process of Self reflection that leads to Self revelation. This takes the reader imperceptibly into the depths of her process and invokes a parallel personal process of realization. There is a quality of generosity in her writing - her discoveries feel like gifts to be treasured and carefully stored. They are exquisite by-products of the process rather than the goal of each book. Milner's implicit aim, throughout all her writings, is to explore the meaning of surrender in psychoanalysis - a process of surrender to the unconscious. Milner's authenticity in her work exemplifies the thought of a natural analyst.
Marion Milner qualified as a psychoanalyst with the Institute of Psychoanalysis in 1943 and became a Training Analyst in the 1950s. Like many analysts she worked well into her 80s and was a committed Member of the Institute of Psychoanalysis - ‘warts and all’ - as she wrote in her dedication to the New Library collection of her psychoanalytic papers, The suppressed madness of sane men (1987). She was a contemporary and close colleague of Donald Winnicott and her work is as original and as radical. Their ideas profoundly influenced each other. Sadly, until now at least, Milner has not received the full credit her work deserves. Hopefully, with these newly produced publications, the value of her important contribution to psychoanalysis will begin to be real