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Donald Meltzer (1922-2004) was a Kleinian psychoanalyst whose widespread teaching made him influential in many countries. He became known for making clinical headway with difficult childhood conditions such as autism, and also for his theoretical innovations and developments.^[1] His focus on the role of emotionality and aesthetics in promoting mental health has led to his being considered a key figure in the "post-Kleinian" movement associated with the psychoanalytic theory of thinking created by Wilfred Bion.^[2]

Life and Work

Meltzer was born in New York and studied medicine at Yale. He practised in St Louis as a psychiatrist, before coming to England in 1954 to have analysis with Melanie Klein. He joined the Kleinian group, became a teaching analyst of the British Society and took on British citizenship. In the early 1980’s disagreements about the mode of training, which he said had become too authoritarian, led him to withdraw from the Society.^[3] Meltzer worked with both adults and children. Initially his work with children was supervised by Esther Bick, who was creating a new and influential mode of psychoanalytical training at the Tavistock Institute based on mother-child observation and following the theories of Melanie Klein. ^[4] As a result of the regular travels and teaching of Meltzer and Martha Harris (his third wife), who was head of the Child Psychotherapy Training Course at the Tavistock, this model of psychoanalytic psychotherapy training became established in all the principal Italian cities and also in France and Argentina. ^[5]

Meltzer taught for many years at the Tavistock, and practised privately in Oxford until his death. His teaching inspired groups of psychoanalytically oriented professionals throughout Europe, Scandinavia and South America, and his visits also included New York and California. Five international congresses have focussed on his work: in London (1998), Florence (2000), Buenos Aires (2005), Savona (2005) and Barcelona (2005).^[6]

Other significant personal influences were Roger Money-Kyrle, and the Kleinian aesthete Adrian Stokes, with whom he wrote a dialogue “Concerning the social basis of art”.^[7] Stokes formed the ‘Imago Group’ for discussing applied psychoanalysis, whose members included among others Richard Wollheim, Wilfred Bion, Roger Money-Kyrle, Marion Milner and Ernst Gombrich.[2] His interest in art - and later in literature, as a result of collaboration with literary critic Meg Harris Williams - together with the mother-baby model of early learning processes,^[8]eventually led to Meltzer seeing psychoanalysis itself as an art form. His later works describe the transference-countertransference relationship between analyst and analysand as an aesthetic process of symbol-making. This has had an influence on the philosophical view of the relation between art and psychoanalysis.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). He favoured an atelier-style system for the teaching and selection of candidates for psychoanalytical training, adumbrated in his paper “Towards an atelier system”.^[9] His method was to ask supervisees to present sessions of unedited clinical material, rather than finished papers. Several of his groups and individual supervisees have documented their experiences. See the following:

Castella, R., Farre, L., Tabbia, C. (2003) Supervisions with Donald Meltzer. London: Karnac.
Emanuel, R. (2004) “A personal tribute to Donald Meltzer”, Bulletin of the Association of Child Psychotherapists 149, 11-14
Fisher, J. (2000) “Reading Donald Meltzer: identification and intercourse as modes of reading and relating”, Exploring the Work of Donald Meltzer ed. Cohen and Hahn. London: Karnac, 188-202
Hoxter, S. (2000) “Experiences of learning with Donald Meltzer”, Exploring the Work of Donald Meltzered. Cohen and Hahn. London: Karnac,12-26
Psychoanalytic Group of Barcelona (2000), “A Learning Experience”, Exploring the Work of Donald Meltzer ed. Cohen and Hahn. London: Karnac, 203-14
Psychoanalytic Group of Barcelona (2002) Psychoanalytic Work with Children and Adults. London: Karnac
Psychoanalytic Group of Barcelona (2007) De un Teller psicoanalitico, a partir de Donald Meltzer. Barcelona: Grafein (in Spanish)
Oelsner, M. and Oelsner, R. (2005) “About supervision: an interview with Donald Meltzer”, British Journal of Psychotherapy, 21 (3).
Racker Group of Venice (2004) Transfert, Adolescenza, Disturbi del Pensiero. Armando (in Italian)

References

^ See "Donald Meltzer" in French Wikipedia
^ S. Fano Cassese (2002) Introduction to the work of Donald Meltzer" (London: Karnac), xviii
^ Meltzer, “A review of my writings”, in Cohen and Hahn (ed.) Exploring the work of Donald Meltzer (Karnac, 2000) 8; A. Hahn, obituary in International Journal of Psycho-analysis" Vol. 86 (1) 175-78
^ M. Rustin, “Dr Meltzer’s contribution to child psychotherapy”, The Bulletin of the Association of Child Psychotherapists 149, Nov 2004, 9-11; A. Sowa, “Observing the unobservable: the Tavistock Infant Observation Course and its relevance to clinical training”, Fort Da, spring 1999 Vol. 1(1). See also [http://www.answers.com/topic/bick-esther "Esther Bick"
^ R. Li Causi and M. Waddell, "An appreciation of the work of Donald Meltzer" Journal of Child Psychotherapy" Vol. 31(1) 3-5; I. Freeden, obituary, Journal of the British Association of Psychotherapists Vol. 43 (19) 88
^ See also A. Hahn, "Dr Meltzer's Biography".[1]
^ In Stokes, A. Painting and the Inner World (1963), reprinted in Meltzer and Harris Williams, The Apprehension of Beauty (Clunie Press, 1988)
^ *J. Begoin, “Love and destructiveness: from the aesthetic conflict to a revision of the concept of destructiveness in the psyche”, Exploring the Work of Donald Meltzer, ed. Cohen and Hahn (Karnac, 2000) 119-35; G. Williams, "Reflections on aesthetic reciprocity", ibid., 136-51
^ Meltzer, “Towards an atelier system”, in Sincerity: Collected Papers of Donald Meltzer ed. Hahn (Karnac, 1994), 285-89

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 ==Life and Work==
-Meltzer was born in New York and studied medicine at Yale.  He practised in St Louis as a psychiatrist, before coming to England in 1954 to have analysis with [[Melanie Klein]].  He joined the Kleinian group, became a teaching analyst of the British Society and took on British citizenship. In the early 1980’s disagreements about the mode of training, which he said had become too authoritarian, led him to withdraw from the Society.<ref> Meltzer, “A review of my writings”, in Cohen and Hahn (ed.) ''Exploring the work of Donald Meltzer'' (Karnac, 2000) 8; A. Hahn, obituary in ''International Journal of Psycho-analysis" Vol. 86 (1) 175-78</ref>   Meltzer worked with both adults and children.  Initially his work with children was supervised by Esther Bick, who was creating a new and influential mode of psychoanalytical training at the [[Tavistock Institute]] based on mother-child observation and following the theories of Melanie Klein. <ref>M. Rustin, “Dr Meltzer’s contribution to child psychotherapy”, ''The Bulletin of the Association of Child Psychotherapists'' 149, Nov 2004, 9-11; A. Sowa, “Observing the unobservable: the Tavistock Infant Observation Course and its relevance to clinical training”, ''Fort Da'', spring 1999 Vol. 1(1)</ref> As a result of the regular travels and teaching of Meltzer and Martha Harris (his third wife), who was head of the Child Psychotherapy Training Course at the Tavistock, this model of psychoanalytic psychotherapy training became established in all the principal Italian cities and also in France and Argentina. <ref>R. Li Causi and M. Waddell, "An appreciation of the work of Donald Meltzer" ''Journal of Child Psychotherapy" Vol. 31(1) 3-5; I. Freeden, obituary, ''Journal of the British Association of Psychotherapists'' Vol. 43 (19) 88</ref>
+Meltzer was born in New York and studied medicine at Yale.  He practised in St Louis as a psychiatrist, before coming to England in 1954 to have analysis with [[Melanie Klein]].  He joined the Kleinian group, became a teaching analyst of the British Society and took on British citizenship. In the early 1980’s disagreements about the mode of training, which he said had become too authoritarian, led him to withdraw from the Society.<ref> Meltzer, “A review of my writings”, in Cohen and Hahn (ed.) ''Exploring the work of Donald Meltzer'' (Karnac, 2000) 8; A. Hahn, obituary in ''International Journal of Psycho-analysis" Vol. 86 (1) 175-78</ref>   Meltzer worked with both adults and children.  Initially his work with children was supervised by Esther Bick, who was creating a new and influential mode of psychoanalytical training at the [[Tavistock Institute]] based on mother-child observation and following the theories of Melanie Klein. <ref>M. Rustin, “Dr Meltzer’s contribution to child psychotherapy”, ''The Bulletin of the Association of Child Psychotherapists'' 149, Nov 2004, 9-11; A. Sowa, “Observing the unobservable: the Tavistock Infant Observation Course and its relevance to clinical training”, ''Fort Da'', spring 1999 Vol. 1(1).  See also [http://www.answers.com/topic/bick-esther "Esther Bick"</ref> As a result of the regular travels and teaching of Meltzer and Martha Harris (his third wife), who was head of the Child Psychotherapy Training Course at the Tavistock, this model of psychoanalytic psychotherapy training became established in all the principal Italian cities and also in France and Argentina. <ref>R. Li Causi and M. Waddell, "An appreciation of the work of Donald Meltzer" ''Journal of Child Psychotherapy" Vol. 31(1) 3-5; I. Freeden, obituary, ''Journal of the British Association of Psychotherapists'' Vol. 43 (19) 88</ref>
 Meltzer taught for many years at the Tavistock, and practised privately in Oxford until his death.  His teaching inspired groups of psychoanalytically oriented professionals throughout Europe, Scandinavia and South America, and his visits also included New York and California. Five international congresses have focussed on his work: in London (1998), Florence (2000), Buenos Aires (2005), Savona (2005) and Barcelona (2005).<ref>See also A. Hahn, "Dr Meltzer's Biography".[http://www.psa-atelier.org]</ref>

Donald Meltzer: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:17, 3 June 2007

Life and Work

References

Further reading

External links

See also