Introduction

Using the ideas of psychoanalysis to illuminate aspects of other fields of work, especially literature and the study of society, has a venerable tradition started of course by Freud. Klein herself and Joan Riviere extended this work, especially in the field of literature. Klein's later colleagues have continued to make contributions in this area, though the volume of such work is decreasing. This is balanced, however, by gradually increasing interest in Kleinian ideas in the fields of literary and art criticism, philosophy, among certain social scientists, and in the fields of psychiatry, group relations, and the helping professions.