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In this hefty volume, Grosskurth tells all—about Melanie Klein and the British Psychoanalytical Society, and the controversies that erupted within that society when it had to contain both Melanie Klein and Anna Freud. Grosskurth, although from another field, seems to have read and understood all of the significant papers. She presents an account of the life and work of Melanie Klein that will delight lovers of ideas, history, power politics, personal dynamics and just plain gossip.
Melanie Klein was invited to give lectures in England when Alix Strachey (James Strachey's wife) became entranced by her theories while studying in Berlin. Klein, who was only marginally acceptable to her colleagues in Berlin, jumped at the opportunity.
In England her lectures were enthusiastically received, and Jones asked her to analyze his children. Since her own marriage had ended, her daughter was in medical school, her elder son was in his father's custody and her younger son (who joined her later) was away at school, she was free to move to England, and did. Melanie Klein was the first European psychoanalyst to become a member of the British Psychoanalytical Society, and she soon became its dominant influence. Together, Klein and the analysts she inspired, produced a remarkable body of work. Among those influenced by her were Ernest Jones, Susan Isaacs, Joan Riviere, Ella Freeman Sharpe, Donald Winnicott, W.D. Fairbairn and Wilfred Bion. These names are only a partial list of those who studied