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The publication by the International Journal of Psychoanalysis of Influential Papers from the Decades is an important contribution. Only history gives us a perspective of the dynamic evolvement of psychoanalysis allowing patterns to emerge in spite of incredible diversity. Due to the turmoil, displacements and war of the Hitler period, change in the 1940s was inevitable and affected every aspect of life, inviting new ways of coping and perception. This period profoundly metamorphosed the psychoanalytic landscape both in England and in the United States. World War II (1939-1945) restricted the international reach of the International Journal. In this volume all but one of the papers are by English authors or by psychoanalysts residing in Britain. But even the happenings in Britain were not well covered. You will find no reference to the confrontational battles between Melanie Klein and Anna Freud and their respective adherents. This volume does highlight the creative dominance of Melanie Klein's school of thought; creative because many of her original students and admirers went on to evolve their own ideas and form an “independent group” which was free of coercive allegiances to either Freud or Klein. There existed a strong commitment to a psychoanalytic understanding of the earliest stages of ego development. This independent group is here represented by Michael Balint (who arrived from Budapest influenced by Frenczi), and by Ronald Fairbairn, Donald Winnicott, and John Bowlby.
Though the contributions of these analysts have become well known, reading their original papers is a very different experience. We are aware of their struggles with formulations of the past, of making new