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This scholarly volume is by an Australian child analyst working within a Lacanian paradigm. The early history of child analysis is presented sympathetically in chapters on Freud and Little Hans, Hermine Hug-Hellmuth, Anna Freud, Melanie Klein and Winnicott. The second half of the book offers an account of Lacan's thinking about analysis with children and the clinical researches of some of his pupils.
Rodriguez's emphasis is on the child's capacity to engage as an active analysand -a ‘subject’ in Lacanian terminology - and his profound respect for the child's capacity for observation, questioning and thought is clearly signalled in his delightful exploration of ‘Little Hans’. Freud's relationship to the Graf family is well described, but the central focus is on Hans’ development as a speaker and questioner. This is one of the points of convergence with Kleinian conceptions, since Klein's ‘epistemophilic instinct’ has an obvious affinity to Lacan's concept of the ‘ethics of speaking well’, as the aim of psychoanalysis. ‘Speaking well’ is defined as the capacity for creative self-reflection and exploration through conversation within the analytic setting.
The chapters on the early practitioners of child analysis are appreciative in tone, while attempting to offer a critical perspective. Hug-Hellmuth's battered reputation is set in the context of her originality. Her observations of the impact of the transference on a child were an important starting point. The accounts of Anna Freud and Melanie Klein cover ground