‘This book contains the seeds of all Meltzer’s further thinking. The Kleinian concepts of projective identification and the internal world are expanded by the Meltzerian view of the ‘natural history’ of an analysis, progressing in a sequence of phases that follows the development of primitive object relations. Once the analytic situation has been established, it is possible to sort out geographical and zonal confusions of the infant self in relation to internal objects, to work through depressive anxieties on the threshold of the depressive position and to integrate split off aspects of the self in the weaning process. This book will continue to be a reference text in clinical, technical and psychopathology seminars, as well as a travel companion for those who practice psychoanalysis as a “human activity”.
-Clara Nemas, psychoanalyst, Buenos Aires
‘This is an amazing book: clear in its structure, very deep and complex in what it transmits. The formula on one level appears simple: gathering the transference, putting geographical and zonal confusions in order, negotiating the threshold of the depressive position and weaning, applicable to both children and adults and seen in the context of both the individual session and the psychoanalytical process as a whole. However, once immersed in the detail of this book, one discovers in it a truly never-ending source of rich, stimulating suggestions.’
-Miriam Botbol, clinical psychologist, Grupo Psicoanalitico de Barcelona
‘A seminal masterpiece. The evolution of the transference-countertransference becomes the crux of the analytic method, and the whole of Meltzer’s ensuing work is a further enrichment of this fundamental concept.’
- Hugo Marquez, Maria Elena Petrilli, Mauro Rossetti, Gruppo di Studio Racker di Venezia
