The Klein-Lacan Dialogues

Book excerpt: Throughout the year of 1995, a series of debates took place under the auspices of the Higher Education Network for Research and Information in Psychoanalysis. Leading Kleinian and Lacanian psychoanalysts were brought together to debate key topics of psychanalytic theory. Subsequently, they were asked to submit their papers in written form and this book was compiled. The following areas were discussed: "phantasy", by Darien Leader and Robert M. Young; "child analysis" by Bice Benvenuto and Margaret Rustin; "transference and countertransference" by Robert Hinshelwood and Vincetn Palomera; "technique and interpretation" by Catalina Bronstein and Bernard Burgoyne; "sexuality" by Jane Temperley and Dany Nobus; "the unconscious" by Robin Anderson and Filip Geerardyn; The book ends with interviews with Donald Meltzer and Eric Laurent, each significant figures in the fields of Kleinian and Lacanian psychoanalysis respectively. Mary Sullivan provides an introduction setting out the similarities and divergences of the two psychoanalytic pradigms.