ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the mid-twentieth-century psychoanalyst and educator Susan Isaacs. Susan was the seventh and penultimate child in the Fairhurst family. The chapter tracks the formation of Susan's theoretical position, investigating the complexity of its roots in the theory of Sigmund Freud, Susan's alliance with the Freudian apostate, Melanie Klein and the tendrils that connect Kleinian theory with early feminism. Whitbread proposes that Susan Isaacs extended the theoretical basis of nursery education beyond the point reached by Margaret McMillan. The chapter focuses on the Malting House School, the practical demonstration and the psychoanalytic connection, the underpinning theory. It also focuses on writing, academia and legacy: a message to the twenty-first century. Susan had credentials in psychology from her degree in education and her PhD studies. Classical psychoanalysis is based upon Sigmund Freud's theory that children move through a set of psychosexual stages to full emotional competence.
