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.
This symposium restates the salient features of Mrs. Klein's contribution to psychoanalytic theory. In general it is based on four papers which were originally read in a series of discussions that were held by the British Psychoanalytic Society in 1943 on the subject of Mrs. Klein's theories. In addition to contributions from those who have been most intimately associated with her work, there are also papers written by Mrs. Klein since the publication of her book, Contributions to Psychoanalysis, which was published in 1948. Ernest Jones again provides a preface and, in speaking of her work during the last thirty years, reminds the reader that her views have 'been attacked and defended with almost equal vehemence' and adds that 'many of the criticisms have been close echoes of those with which I had been made familiar in the earliest days of psychoanalysis. A good many of her findings and conclusions had been adumbrated in quite early days by Freud, Rank and others.' He goes on to say that 'she has quite unsparingly worked out the implications and consequences of those earlier hints, thereby making important fresh discoveries in her course'.
Speaking of the general reaction to Klein's theories, Riviere, in a general introduction to this symposium, considers that some of the early controversial issues no longer evoke the hostility they once did, and commits herself to this prophecy: 'In time to come it will be difficult for trained analysts to appreciate the reality of such a controversy and more especially to imagine how it could have evoked so much time-wasting energy and effort as it did'. This prophecy is, presumably, meant for British readers, for the truth is that as far as American readers are concerned it is doubtful whether Mrs. Klein has made much impact on them, and, to judge from personal impressions, it is equally doubtful whether the generality of analysts in this country have a very clear knowledge of what the civil war in the British Psychoanaly