You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The chapters contained in this volume were all presented as papers at the event held in November 1996 at the Tavistock Clinic, in celebration of Donald Meltzer's 75th birthday. It was an uplifting event: Meltzer himself at the centre of a group of those keen to tell him of the clinical experiences and applications and thinking that they had developed from his writings and teachings. It must have been a painful task for the editors of this volume, Margaret Cohen and Alberto Hahn, to have to omit any of the papers presented to the conference. It seems that they made their choice to be as representative as possible: by topic, and by the nationality and gender of the presenter. What is clear from this volume is the richness of the work presented, and of the many different directions in which individuals have moved while acknowledging the inspiration of Meltzer for their work. What is particularly impressive is that the acknowledgement is made to him, and to his antecedent thinkers, with respect, but not with too much. These are people who are both indebted but independent in their thinking, and who in turn make their own contribution. That is probably the greatest accolade to Donald Meltzer.
The position described by Shirley Hoxter is perhaps central when she speaks of ‘my personal struggle of slowly learning how to learn from him’. His writing can be difficult. His meaning can be clear and then suddenly become obfuscated. He can be didactic without sufficient elucidation, very different from the Meltzer of the clinical master class in which the presenter is in the co-operative and sometimes humorous relationship with him that leads to memorable experiences of learning. I personally cannot speak of the experience of individual supervision. But I do know that it can be when in his writing he is at his most didactic, even irritating, that the new thought can surprise, the more creative moment can develop. His method is so different from the precisions of Bion; but also wit