Discussion on Dr P. Heimann's and Mrs S. Isaacs’ Paper on ‘Regression’

Dr Edward Glover: In a controversial series of discussions like the present it is important to keep clearly and constantly in mind not only the central issues in dispute and the main thread of argument advanced by successive lecturers, but the main lines of criticism of that argument. Otherwise there is some danger of not seeing the wood for the trees. As far as the central issues are concerned, viz., the validity of Mrs Klein's theories and practice, and of the clinical evidence on which these are based, I need only remind you that so far we have not touched on these issues at all. So far the lecturers, Mrs Isaacs and Dr Heimann, have been concerned to develop a ‘Kleinian metapsychology’ on which presumably Mrs Klein's theories and clinical procedures can subsequently be based. This is of course a perfectly legitimate procedure but it is subject to certain disadvantages. For example: since we have not yet examined in this series either Mrs Klein's clinical theories or the clinical evidence on which they are based, we can assess the validity of her metapsychology only by comparing it with the metapsychology of Freud, and this has already given rise to a somewhat absurd situation, namely, that the discussion has sometimes turned not on the validity of Mrs Klein's basic concepts but on the validity of Freud's basic concepts. And I daresay some Members who have not realized the implications of Mrs Klein's theories are inclined to wonder what all the bother is about.