ABRAM, J.; HINSELWOOD, R. D.: The Clinical Paradigms of Melanie Klein and Donald Winnicott: Comparisons and Dialogues

The main aims of this book are to introduce the distinctive clinical paradigms of Melanie Klein and Donald Winnicott, to compare and contrast the way in which their theories evolved, and to present a dialogue between Hinshelwood and Abram on the concepts of their respective chapters.

The book is presented in five parts, each with two chapters by Hinshelwood and Abram on five chosen topics: Basic Principles, Early psychic development, The role of the external object, The psychoanalytical concept of psychic pain, and Practice and Theory. After the pair of chapters in each part, a summary of the main points is presented followed by a dialogue between Abram and Hinshelwood about each other’s chapter.

The readership intended is both those coming new to psychoanalytic ideas, who will gain an introduction to both these schools of British Object Relations psychoanalysis, and also those experienced psychoanalysts who wish to develop an understanding of how the conceptualisations of these two schools might be compared and contrasted.

Jan Abram is a training and supervising analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society in private practice in London. She is the author of The Language of Winnicott (awarded Outstanding Academic Book of the Year; 2nd edition 2007) and editor of Donald Winnicott Today (nominee for a Gradiva Award, 2013). She is currently visiting professor University College London. Her forthcoming book is a collection of her clinical papers, The Surviving Object.

R.D. Hinshelwood is a member of the British Psychoanalytical Society, and currently holds the post of Professor of Psychoanalysis at the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and previously was Clinical Director of the Cassel Hospital in Richmond. He is a past Chair of the Association of Therapeutic Communities. Professor Hinshelwood has written extensively on psychoanalysis and founded the International Journal of Therapeutic Communities (now Therapeutic Communities) in 1980 and the British Journal of Psychotherapy in 1984.