ABSTRACT
The split in 1944 within the British Psychoanalytic Society, highlighted by the
‘controversial discussions’ (King and Steiner 1991), did not simply result in the
formation of the ‘A’ Group (Kleinians) and the ‘B’ Group (identified with Vienna and
Anna Freud) within the society; the majority of members adopted a very British position
and became the ‘Middle Group’, later (from 1973) the Independents. I call it a very
British position as it is a feature of many British institutions that, in the face of dispute, a
compromise is reached-we do not seem to be creatures of extremes. It must be the
climate. British social policy, for example, has frequently been described as ‘muddling
through’—not dogmatic or extreme in political stance, but reaching, on a good day, the
best available compromise. The Independents are thus part (and the majority part) of ‘the
British School’ in psychoanalysis-importantly to be differentiated from the term
‘English School’ which was applied early on by colleagues in Europe and the USA to the
followers of Mrs Klein after her arrival in the United Kingdom in 1926.
