ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book concerns primarily with Klein's work with prelatency children. It provides the development of the play technique in the 1920s and early 1930s, especially with regard to Klein's approach to and management of the transference, which is frequently negative and extremely challenging. The book explores how Klein's concept of reparation has been "disappeared" from the English translation of Klein's early papers, and especially from The Psycho-Analysis of Children, with consequences for common categorizations of Klein's early work as pessimistic and too negative. It also explores other neglected aspects of Klein's analytic work with young children: her work with parents, and her attention to endings and outcomes. The book illustrates how Klein's knowledge and experience, especially of the free expression of the negative transference, are still very relevant to those training to work analytically with small children as well as with older ones.
