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 origin of this book is outlined in the prologue: a tribute to Donald Meltzer based on a long series of supervisions which have been faithfully portrayed by three founder-members of the Psychoanalytic Group of Barcelona on visits to Dr. Meltzer's home in Oxford between 1993 and 1998. The book is, thus, not written by Meltzer, but his is the main voice which comes through clearly from the 22 clinical presentations which are described in separate chapters. The publication is presented as a debt of gratitude to Meltzer at a point at which the group disbands, and the sense of sadness at ending a mutually rewarding and affectionate encounter is powerfully conveyed.
Chapter headings give date and name of patient together with subheadings such as ‘Incontinence and omnipotence in the world of the infant coming out of the claustrum’, which encompass ideas recognizable from published works. This makes it possible to use the book as reference for dipping into, to gain some view of theory at work in practice, but it also reads well as a whole story and can be read like a novel which is increasingly difficult to put down.
The stories of the patients described, one of whom we follow through on seven different occasions, provide fascinating insights into the particular individuals, but these run parallel with the unfolding of Meltzer's ideas so that by the end of the book it is possible to see that his major concepts have found a place and been elaborated in the process of making sense of complex or obscure material.
Some ideas have not fundamentally changed since The Psycho-analytical Process (Meltzer 1967) which spelt out the concepts of geographical and zonal confusions, emphasizing the crucial role of part objects, which continues to form the basis of Meltzer's approach to interpreting patient's material, well illustrated in this text. Problems of identification and sexual perversions, (Sexual States of Mind, Meltzer 1973) are elaborated, together with aesthetic issues (The Ap