ABSTRACT
The contribution of Melanie Klein to the consolidation of experience into theory that we call a breakthrough contains two principal themes. But the theoretical resources were not available in inter-war Europe to explore the origin of childhood anxieties. Fairbairn, geographically isolated in Scotland, engaged in mature dialogue with Melanie Klein's ideas but was distanced from the dispute between Klein and Anna Freud that was to divide psychoanalysis in London. Formal discussions to resolve the Anna Freud-Melanie Klein tensions in the British Psycho-Analytical Society began in 1941. The British Psycho-Analytical Society effectively divided into three groups: Kleinians, Anna Freudians and Independents. In contrast to the developments in US psychoanalysis, a formal split had been avoided. At Cambridge, Bowlby won prizes and emerged with a first-class degree in pre-clinical sciences and psychology. The paradigm shift, as consolidated in the work of Fairbairn, Bowlby and Winnicott, took hold on the outside of the psychoanalytic establishments in the US and in Britain.
