Isca Salzberger-Wittenberg, Gianna Henry and Elsie Osborne: The Emotional Experience of Learning and Teaching.  Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983. Paperback £5.95.

This book is based on the work done by the authors with teachers attending a Tavistock course called “Aspects of Counselling in Education”. The conceptual framework of Klein, Bion et al. is applied not only to counselling work as such but to the relationships that inevitably arise in, and sometimes interfere with, the work of schools and colleges. There is no discussion of the theory. Instead we are given a colourful and varied tapestry: case material from the teachers is interwoven with the authors’ own clinical material, their general observations on human development and, at salient points, with reference to the experiential aspects of the course. The whole is structured in commonsense categories and is the most accessible of books. Psychoanalytic ideas are tested here in the most direct and pragmatic way.

At the centre of the five part structure is the section by Gianna Henry, “Understanding the individual child in the classroom”. Some of the most difficult and painful human encounters are examined and worked on with admirable skill and care. We are advised in the introduction to read the book in the order in which it is presented. Part 1 is devoted to the beginnings of new relationships and Part 2 to understanding the nature of relationships (these are by Isca Salzberger-Wittenberg). It is thus clear that the individual's internal world is to be understood in the very specific context of that person's real relationships. Particularly useful for teachers is the discussion of learning in connection with the human relationships of an individual. Part 4 (by Elsie Osborne) is a very practical guide to liaison with families, and other professional colleagues, two of the most important and problematic interfaces for teachers. The final part (by Isca Salzberger-Wittenberg) illustrates, with aesthetic satisfaction, the possibility of integrating painful emotions and struggles over endings of relationships into new and creative solutions.

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