ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author describes important developments within psychoanalysis from the perspective of a Kleinian approach which has originated and evolved in London and thrives there. At the heart of this approach is the idea that psychoanalysis is a process of coming to know or integrating unconscious phantasy as encountered in the analytic relationship. After clarifying the meaning of this idea, the author goes on to examine its implications for how analytic treatment is conducted, referring both to the analytic setting and to matters of technique. She then turns to address the question of the major developments in contemporary psychoanalysis, distinguishing between developments from within this Kleinian approach and those that have emerged from the broader analytic field. The latter include neuropsychoanalysis and the adoption of one or more of the following clinical stances: evidence-based, focused on trauma or other environmental causes, postmodern and eclectic. The author argues that while developments from within the Kleinian approach advance the analytic process of coming to know unconscious phantasy, those of broader fields adopt attitudes to the nature of psychic reality and the possibility of its discovery that, in effect, inhibit it.
