An Interview with Hanna Segal

This interview with Dr. Hanna Segal was conducted on December 28 and 30, 1989 and February 17, 1990 in her London apartment, where she and her husband live and where she sees patients. Her office is spacious and is furnished with beautiful, carefully selected antiques. A crystal vase of fresh, casually arranged tulips graced the antique table in front of a tall window opposite her chair and the analytic couch. She treasures a small well-crafted desk she has had since her childhood in Poland.

Dr. Segal is known for her work in the Kleinian tradition. She has written two books concerning Klein: An Introduction to the Work of Melanie Klein (Heinemann, London, ; reprinted Karnac Books, Institute of Psychoanalysis of London, ) and Melanie Klein (Modern Master Series, Fontana, London, ). Her own original papers are collected in her third book, The Work of Hanna Segal (Jason Aronson, New York, London, ; reprinted Karnac Books, Free Associations Books, London, ). Her most recent book is Dream, Phantasy and Art (Routledge, London, ).

To start our conversation, I asked to see the Hunter watch which she had inherited from Melanie Klein. Alas, it had been stolen in a burglary. Her husband explained that a “Hunter watch” was not a brand of watch, but a mechanical system before balancing wheels became standard on timepieces.