Robert M. Young Online Writings
'Being a Kleinian Is Not Straightforward' 95K
There are a number of reasons why being a Kleinian is hard and, in my opinion, harder than adhering to most other psychoanalytic orientations. They have to do with the absence of the sorts of structural concepts and signposts available to other approaches, as well as to the emphasis on very primitive processes and on countertransference as the essence of the analytic process. I review several of these, especially projective identification, unorthodox ideas about the Oedipus complex and counteretransference. I also consider some social dynamics and reprehensible activities involved in the Kleinian community's internal and external relations. These reflections were given as the Seventh Annual Lecture to the Severnside Institute of Psychotherapy, Bristol, 10 October 1998.