Kleinians: Psychoanalysis Inside Out

Kleinians is a compelling account of the extraordinary revolutionin psychology pioneered by the psychoanalyst Melanie Klein and nineof her colleagues and followers, including Susan Isaacs, JoanRiviere, Wilfred Bion, Frances Tustin and Hanna Segal.


Drawing on her experience as a professor, writer and therapist, Janet Sayers tells the story of this revolution through an accountof the personal and public lives of its main architects, theirfamilies and patients. The result is a lively mixture of biography, psychoanalytic theory and individual case studies. The authorbegins with Klein's pioneering extension of Freud's theories to theanalysis of very young children. This led to her claim that frombirth onwards children internalize figures from their outer world, resulting in an interaction of inner and outer factors which thengovern our psychology. Sayers shows how, sometimes with bittercontroversy, this radical insight was variously developed, and isstill being developed by Klein's followers, thereby enormouslyenhancing our understanding of the creative and destructive factorsshaping our everyday lives.


Kleinians continues the engaging biographical approach of Sayers'sprevious successful collections, Mothering Psychoanalysis andFreudian Tales, and will be appealing and informative to all thoseinterested in psychology -- to students and specialists (inpsychiatry, psychotherapy, counselling and social work), and togeneral readers alike.