Introduction to Clinical Lectures on Klein and Bion

The first six chapters of this book are devoted to the work of Melanie Klein. They, like the three chapters on the work of Wilfred Bion, are based on a series of ‘Public Lecture Days’ or conferences held at the Institute of Psycho-Analysis in London. The first ‘Klein Day’ consisted of lectures by Patricia Daniel, Ronald Britton, and Michael Feldman, the second of lectures by Irma Brenman Pick, John Steiner, and Elizabeth Bott Spillius. The ‘Bion Day’ included lectures by Edna O'Shaughnessy, Ruth Riesenberg Malcolm, and Ronald Britton. These open lectures are intended to bring psychoanalysis to the attention of a wider public. The particular lectures published here were not meant to give a comprehensive view of Klein's or Bion's works, but instead were intended to present some of their more interesting and important ideas in a clinically alive way to those relatively unfamiliar with them. The emphasis therefore has been to show how the ideas and theories are used in practice by analysts working now. The lectures show how some of Klein's original ideas are used today in much the same way as she used them, while others have been developed and modified - evidence that psychoanalysis is, as it should be, a living science and method of treatment. Because the lectures were intended to concern specifically the ideas of Klein and Bion, most of the authors make little attempt to discuss the ideas of other current psychoanalysts on the topics addressed.

Accounts of Melanie Klein's life may be found in Segal (1979) and Grosskurth (1986). A general introduction to her ideas will be found in Segal (1973). Hinshelwood (1989) presents a comprehensive dictionary of Kleinian concepts which is especially helpful on Klein's early ideas. Spillius (1988) has collected and commented on a series of papers written between 1950 and 1988 by British followers of Klein, showing some of the changes and continuities in their usage of her