ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that psychoanalysis in Britain, particularly in the Klein-Bion tradition, has remained firmly ‘modernist’ in its approach. It begins with a contrast between two versions of modernism and modernity. The term modernism gains its meaning from two different antitheses. The first of these is the contrast between the modern and the traditional. The second is between the modern and the post-modern. The chapter identifies two sociological versions of ‘modernity’, and situates the British psychoanalytic tradition in relation to each of them. According to one of these positions, modernism was a movement which sought to understand, and develop new languages and cultural forms to represent the intractable obstacles which remained to human freedom and the powers of reason. According to the other position, ‘modernity’ signifies the impending victory of reason. Psychoanalysis was created as a discipline at a point when the conflicts and problems attendant on modernisation were already in evidence.
