While much writing has been devoted, predominantly by contemporary
Kleinian adult psychoanalysts, to the Kleinian and post Kleinian
development of Klein's work, comparatively little has recently been
written about the ongoing importance and character of Klein's clinical
work for contemporary psychoanalytic psychotherapy or analysis with very
small children (2 - 6 year olds). Little attention now seems to be paid
to the revolutionary character of her work from the start (in the early
1920s) with this age group and its challenges, still relevant today, or
to her recognition of the importance of mother-infant relations in the
period long before World War II brought investigation into and
understanding of problems of attachment, separation and loss. This book
addresses these issues and re-explores Klein's work in these (and other)
areas. This book is concerned primarily with Klein's work with
pre-latency children and aims to give these small children more of the
voice today that Melanie Klein herself discovered.