ABSTRACT
Klein wrote three papers explicitly on this topic, relating to work with young children, latency children and adolescents. These gather together the practice implied in many others of the clinical examples included in almost all her writings and spell out the rationale for her approach. Much later she also wrote a series of as-yet unpublished lectures on technique in adult analysis which are likely soon to be available in book form. The three papers on child analysis were all included as chapters in her first book, The Psycho-Analysis of Children, published in 1932 and dedicated to Karl Abraham. The completion of this book was a significant achievement and represents the clinical and theoretical conclusions she drew from her extensive work as a child analyst. It is also full of down-to-earth descriptions of the setting required for child analysis and this suggests that Klein viewed the book as one which could guide future generations of child analysts in practical ways, as well as inspire them with the desire to practise her craft. In 1932 this was still a very new field, though one which had attracted the support and keen interest of very senior psychoanalytic figures, including Freud. The book was surely intended to be read as an authoritative statement of the approach to child analysis which Klein had developed in Berlin (Frank, 2009) – and was continuing to develop in London – and which she intended to serve as a foundational text in this new field. Her enthusiastic reception in London, where child patients were referred on her arrival, must have seemed like good evidence of a space waiting to be filled. Klein’s foreword to the first English edition was full of hope. At this point she was surrounded by generous intellectual and professional support at the highest level.
