Supervisions With Donald Meltzer

It is a tribute to the fourteen years of work carried out together in Barcelona and Simsbury, Oxford, and an invitation to other clinicians to share in the learning experience of talking freely about the vicissitudes of their daily work. The transcriptions are presented unedited, excepting grammatical corrections, in order to preserve the atmosphere of the meetings and enable the reader to experience them fully. They cover subject matter such as anorexia, hysteria and perversion that arise in the course of clinical work and the subsequent discussions envelop the whole range of the ideas of post-Kleinian psychoanalysis. This broad spectrum is indicated by the three separate indexes that end the book - on the central ideas, on the main subjects and on diagnoses. This is an absorbing representation of the valuable work carried out over the years by these meetings and will provoke much thought and further discussion from its readers, perhaps even inspiring some to begin similar dialogues.

Long-Term Psychoanalytic Supervision with Donald Meltzer is a detailed account of a particularly demanding analysis which Donald Meltzer closely supervised over twelve years. This will enable the reader to closely follow the internal life of a long-term, trying analysis. The reader can see how Meltzer’s thoughts had crucially guided the course of this analysis in many of its most challenging moments, often redirecting it. By watching things happening, the reader is enabled to get a deeper insight into Meltzer's highly complex, though outstanding thought. On many particularly important points, the author invited Meltzer to give his thoughts and interpretations in his own words as if he himself was the analyst. This provides the reader with a unique opportunity to ‘listen’ to Meltzer verbatim. Long-Term Psychoanalytic Supervision with Donald Meltzer demonstrates the often overwhelming yet fascinating complexities of mental life and will speak to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, as well as those interested in the philosophy of the mind.

'We see ourselves as elders, not only in age but in the tradition of a nostalgia for the fora where professionals, craftsmen, workers of all kinds meet to share tools, knowledge, skills, and ultimately ignorance, the wellspring of thought.' Rosa Castell..., Lluis Farr? and Carlos Tabbia from the Introduction

"'We see ourselves as elders, not only in age but in the tradition of a nostalgia for the fora where professionals, craftsmen, workers of all kinds meet to share tools, knowledge, skills, and ultimately ignorance, the wellspring of thought.'- Rosa Castella, Lluis Farre and Carlos Tabbia, from the IntroductionThis is a collection of dialogues between the founder members of the Psychoanalytic Group of Barcelona, Donald Meltzer and Catharine Mack Smith. It is a tribute to the fourteen years of work carried out together in Barcelona and Simsbury, Oxford, and an invitation to other clinicians to share in the learning experience of talking freely about the vicissitudes of their daily work. The transcriptions are presented unedited, excepting grammatical corrections, in order to preserve the atmosphere of the meetings and enable the reader to experience them fully. They cover subject matter such as anorexia, hysteria and perversion that arise in the course of clinical work and the subsequent discussions envelop the whole range of the ideas of post-Kleinian psychoanalysis. This broad spectrum is indicated by the three separate indexes that end the book - on the central ideas, on the main subjects and on diagnoses.This is an absorbing representation of the valuable work carried out over the years by these meetings and will provoke much thought and further discussion from its readers, perhaps even inspiring some to begin similar dialogues."--Provided by publisher.

This book focuses on work with children undertaken by the GERPEN (Groupe d'Etudes et de Recherches Psychoanalytiques pour le developpement de l'Enfant et du Nourisson) of Caen and Paris. It is one of a series that record Donald Meltzer's clinical seminars and supervisions, which were conducted in various countries on a regular basis over many years.Despite his interest in the theoretical advances of psychoanalysis made during what he termed The Kleinian Development, Meltzer believed that clinical supervision was the only way to teach psychoanalytic practice. In effect, he treated supervision as an art form, just as he regarded psychoanalysis as an art form. The library of his supervision work, almost all recorded outside the UK, thus forms a valuable teaching model for future practitioners, as well as demonstrating Meltzer's wealth of insight into both character development and analytic technique.

This book focuses on adolescence and adolescent states of mind. It is one of a series that record Donald Meltzer's clinical seminars and supervisions, which were conducted in various countries on a regular basis over many years. Despite his interest in the theoretical advances of psychoanalysis made during what he termed The Kleinian Development, Meltzer believed that clinical supervision was the only way to teach psychoanalytic practice. In effect he treated supervision as an art form just as he regarded psychoanalysis as an art form. The library of his supervision work, almost all recorded outside the UK, thus forms a valuable teaching model for future practitioners, as well as demonstrating Meltzer's wealth of insight into both character development and analytic technique.

The contents of the three volumes are grouped not chronologically but under the headings of 'Personality and Family Structure', 'Philosophy and History of Psychoanalysis', and 'The Psychoanalytic Process and the Analyst'. Together they present his interpretation of the 'Kleinian development' from Freud, through Abraham and Klein, to Bion and the post-Kleinian model; and within this evolution, his view of the natural history of the psychoanalytic process, the aesthetics of the method, and his insights into the operation of the transference and countertransference. Meltzer saw the psychoanalytic process as a new method that contributes alongside more traditional art-forms to our scientific knowledge of the mind. Working with both adults and children, he viewed psychoanalysis in developmental rather than narrowly therapeutic terms, with potential for both analyst and analysand. All his theories derived from clinical work, above all from dream-reading and children's phantasy play; and owing to his extensive international teaching experience, his own material was enriched by that of many supervisees. This collection of papers, read as a whole, invites new readers to follow and partake in what he called 'the most interesting conversation in the world'.