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This book give us Anna Freud's verbatim comment upon an account of the work of the Hampstead Clinic. The three main authors give a systematic description of the techniques, aims and general philosophy in which they convey beautifully both the atmosphere at the clinic and the level of awareness of the scientific issues at which the work is engaged. This is of great general interest to analysts who have never had the opportunity to share it.
The tone of utterance and the cast of thought is common-sensical; resolutely not high faluting; rooted in clinical material and human experience. Anna Freud defines the aim
the limits within which analysis is the method of choice … is the question we have pursued over the years at the Hampstead Clinic. Full internalization of conflict does not occur for many years, and the child may need help with the environment. Therefore, in child analysis, assistance from both sides is needed … These questions are especially relevant for the youngest age group, for whom the conflicts with the environment are so important (p. 268).
So, we are invited to examine the boundary marks offered to anyone wishing to learn Anna Freud's views on child analysis or to test Anna Freud's influence on analytic theory at large.
Some of the issues marked out are battles of long ago and some are fresh as today; each of us can choose which issues we would put into which category depending upon our standpoint. To give an example of how this works out and how we may view Anna Freud's verbatim commentary on the text, we could consider a passage in some detail. In this passage, as always, she is having the courage to hold and state opinions—a brave feat in what has become the conformist world of analytic theory. Anna Freud makes this comment: 'for the therapist to dress identically each day simply for the sake of diminishing changes in the analytic situation would be a caricature of psychoanalytic technique' (p. 42).
The remark alludes to the whole area of co