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A sudden influx of portrayals of 'extraordinary children' emerged in British science fiction after the Second World War. Such children both violated and confirmed the new set of expectations about ordinary childhood that emerged from the findings of developmental psychologists around the same time. Previous work on extraordinary children in both science fiction and horror has tended to confine the phenomenon to an 'evil child boom' within the American filmmaking industry in the 1970s. This article suggests that a much earlier trend is visible in British postwar science fiction texts, analysing a cluster of novels that emerged in the 1950s: Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End (1953), William Golding's Lord of the Flies (1954) and John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos (1957). It will be argued that the groups of extraordinary children in these novels both tap into newer child-centred assertions about the threats posed by abnormal childhood, underwritten by psychology and psychoanalysis, and represent a reaction to an older progressive tradition in which children were envisaged as the single hope for a utopian future. This article will ultimately assert that the sudden appearance of extraordinary children in science fiction reflects a profound shift in assessment criteria for healthy childhood in Britain from the 1950s onwards, an issue that had become vitally important in a fledgling social democracy., (Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.)

The following (quite personal and idiosyncratic) review of The PSOC's first volume, published in 1945, highlights some aspects of then-current psychoanalytic thinking that have passed--or failed--the test of time. Two abstractions rise from the particulars of the volume's twenty-five chapters. First, those authors who respected the position of the founding editors--that is, that child psychoanalysis was both independent from related fields and, at the same time, dependent upon them--tend to have fared better than those who allowed their psychoanalytic theories(and sometimes personal rancor) to cloud their views of the facts on the ground. Second, many of the contributions in this first volume integrated an intrapsychic perspective with an environmental or social one. This gave the work of these authors a kind of vitality that is lost when psychoanalytic theory is used to promote adaptation and social conformity. Perhaps it is worth recalling Freud's (1900) opening to The Interpretation of Dreams: "Flectere si nequeo Superos, Acheronta movebo" (If I cannot move the heavens, I shall shake the nether regions). Freud and The PSOC's founding editors knew very well how disturbing psychoanalysis could be to the Superos, the established order. The revolutionary potential of Freud's analysis of the human condition attracted some remarkable people to the field, most of whom believed that intrapsychic and social changes are intimately related to each other. We would do well to emulate their example; only such an integration will keep psychoanalysis alive in the twenty-first century.

The "Jackson Nursery", existing from February 1937 until March 1938, was directed by Anna Freud and financed by Edith Jackson and Dorothy Burlingham. It took care of infants from the poorest strata of Vienna and also gave material support to their families. On the other hand, it was a training institution for psychoanalysts, offering the opportunity of observing children during their first two years, e. g. their feeding habits and social sense. In addition, the Jackson Nursery was a place for research where psychoanalytic theories of infantile development were checked against the findings of direct observation. The work started here was then continued by A. Freud and D. Burlingham on a larger scale in their War Nurseries.--This paper examines the many-sided activities in the nursery mainly on the basis of unpu blished archival documents.

Background: Nowadays Sabine Spielrein is remembered primarily because of her very early work (directly influenced by Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung) or because of her 'amour fou' with Jung. As a result, we tend to forget her role as a pioneer of child psychiatry and psychology and as a contributor to child analysis and play therapy., Aim: To cast new light on Spielrein as a forgotten pioneer of child psychiatry., Method: A review of the primary and secondary literature., Results: The one-sided depiction of Spielrein and her work in the secondary literature has been corrected. Starting from her initial interest in psychoanalysis, the multifaceted Spielrein evolved towards developmental and experimental research. Spielrein's importance lies with her pioneers role and her contribution to the developing (integrative) child psychiatry., Conclusion: Spielrein's largely forgotten work can be seen as a prefiguration of integrative child psychiatry.

Objective: Despite being the first psychoanalyst of children, Hermine Hug-Hellmuth's history and writings remain relatively unknown. This paper endeavours to examine the way in which the history of the psychoanalysis of children is marked by the history of its protagonists. In particular, Hug-Hellmuth's treatment of children is divided between an educational approach and a more properly psychoanalytical aspect. Her theory and practice heavily influenced the directions taken after her, in particular by Anna Freud and Melanie Klein, even if this influence is essentially unacknowledged by these authors., Conclusions: Hug-Hellmuth's contribution to the psychoanalysis of children and consequently to child psychiatry are considerable and include technical innovation with the introduction of play into the treatment of children, the elaboration of the place of the analyst in regard to the child and notably the establishment of the place of the parents in regard to the treatment of the child. It is proposed that the very duality of her approach is what allowed her to be able to distinguish the place of the parent from that of the analyst. Nonetheless, her insistence on the place of education within the treatment and its effects on later theorists continue to raise dilemmas today.

This article analyzes Winnicott's technique of the so-called "squiggle game". Its basic principle can be traced back to early attempts in psychiatry at using patients' drawings and paintings as diagnostic tools around 1900. Winnicott's technique, however, by being rooted in his theory of "transition phemomena", is conducive to a new relationship between patient and therapist.

This review developed from a discussion with the late Professor Richard Harrington about interventions in Child and Adolescent Mental Health services (CAMHS) that lacked an evidence base. Our aim is to investigate the literature for signs that child psychoanalysis is a declining paradigm within the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in the United Kingdom (UK). We present the literature chronologically since the inception of the UK National Health Service. This study shows that there have been a number of threats to child psychoanalytic psychotherapy, but no significant consistent decline. The profession is beginning to develop the social profile of a scientific discipline. We conclude that child psychoanalytic psychotherapy does not consistently demonstrate features of a declining scientific paradigm.

Emmy Gut was a psychotherapist who developed, in her later years, a unique theory distinguishing between "productive" and "unproductive" depression. Dr. John Bowlby was a leading psychoanalyst famous for his work on attachment theory. After the death of her second husband, Emmy contacted John because his work on mourning and grief spoke to her own depressed state. Although her views of the world and of her relationship with John were clearly coloured by bouts of depression, she was profoundly influenced by her personal, therapeutic, and intellectual involvement with him. Evidence of his influence is seen in the volumes of correspondence flowing between them beginning in 1971 and continuing until John's death in 1990. During that time, Emmy wrote more than 100-some very lengthy-letters to John. Much of her correspondence was devoted to discussions about their often ambiguous and conflicted therapeutic relationship. Through an analysis of attachment theory and the nature of the client-therapist alliance, this paper offers insights into the effects that imbalances in power, expectations, and shifting needs can play in the recovery process.

Kraepelin and Freud have indirectly, via Max Isserlin and Carl Gustav Jung, disputed about their completely different blueprints of psychiatric or psychological disturbances. Mainly in the Isserlin-affaire the dispute reached personal and bitter forms. In this affair Bleuler sided with Kraepelin. In the end of the dispute Bleuler just as Jung had separated from Freud, if in different ways and with different motivations. The discussion between Kraepelin-Isserlin on the one side and Freud on the other faded away. The course of the dispute, which mainly the psychoanalytic literature alludes to frequently, is being delineated here for the first time.

In his last works, Ferenczi emphasizes the suffering of the child, who is a victim of the seductive parent, and environment. In the Clinical Diary he writes about the consequences of the trauma more dramatically. A part of the personality dies but can be alive again in psychoanalysis. The author tries to examine whether the appearance of these topics in Ferenczi's late papers is connected with sensing the illness, and imminent death. If this theory is correct, we must see a high elaboration level in Ferenczi's reaction. The heavy symptoms of the illness did not lead to narcissistic regression, but to a deepening of empathy, and of the experience of human solidarity.

John Bowlby's first scientific papers express a viewpoint of the etiology of childhood disorders that gradually developed during his university years and the first years of his professional life. As becomes clear from, among other things, Bowlby's private correspondence, it was the period spent as a student at Cambridge, his work as a teacher at two progressive schools, and his work at a child guidance clinic that allowed him to articulate a view on childhood deviancy that was at variance with the Kleinian variant of psychoanalysis. Bowlby's position as an 'independent' thinker in the British Psycho-Analytical Society can be understood against the background of these intellectual influences.

The author traces a debate about the concept of 'internal objects' that took place between 1937 and 1943 at a time when a group of British analysts was forming around Melanie Klein. The debate is set within a complex of personal, group and organisational dynamics, which the paper makes a start on unravelling. The history of the British Psycho-Analytical Society at this time exemplifies Bion's notion of group schism. The events in the Society's history demonstrate defensive aspects of the interaction between the opposed groups, which support members against various anxieties. These include the stress of the work of analysis, but also in this instance the particular anxieties deriving from the collapse of psychoanalysis in Europe, the state of war of the country as a whole, and the death of Freud shortly after he came to London. This psychoanalytic anxiety/defence model clarifies some aspects of the debate about internal objects, and demonstrates the way in which these various anxieties and defences become organised around a scientific debate in a scientific society.

An examination of the early history of child analysis in the writings of Melanie Klein and Anna Freud reveals how two different and opposing approaches to child analysis arose at the same time. The two methods of child analysis are rooted in a differential emphasis on psychoanalytic theory and practice. The Kleinian method derives from the application of technique while the Anna Freudian method is driven by theory. Furthermore, by holding to the Freudian theory of child development Anna Freud was forced to limit the scope of child analysis, while Klein's application of Freudian practice has led to new discoveries about the development of the infant psyche.

When reviewed in its entirety, Anna Freud's legacy represents her efforts to address the deepest of metapsychological dilemmas: What moves development along, and is it inherently progressive and linear? She created a developmental psychoanalytic psychology that is remarkably current and draws upon principles of neurobiology, genetics, pediatrics, and social psychology. Her general developmental psychology builds upon three fundamental notions: (1) development proceeds not predominantly stage-based but more continuous and cumulative, with progressions and regressions; (2) progression along developmental lines involves the maturational push of innate or biologic givens as well as the interaction between biology and environmental conditions; and (3) understanding the complexities of normal development is a means of understanding the presence or absence of psychopathology in any given symptomatic presentation. These contributions and the notion of a developmental psychoanalytic psychology are reviewed through the contemporary lens of the field of developmental psychopathology. The enduring contributions of Anna Freud's developmental psychoanalytic psychology to child psychiatry and child development are in asking how mind and body are brought together, and in asserting that the interaction between the biologic and the mental remains the common ground of all disciplines concerned with children.

This paper traces historically the development of Anna Freud's thinking about the theory and technique of child psychoanalysis. Representing more than fifty years of work, her ideas were refined and many were altered, influenced by naturalistic and clinical observations and her developmental viewpoint. The paper begins with her 1926 Introductory Lectures, which contain both her early views about the technique used with children as compared to adults and the origins of many of her later ideas. It follows her theories up through her final papers, published in the late 1970s.

This article explores a series of papers Anna Freud wrote in the 1970s, which constitute her history of child psychoanalysis. It notes her purposes-theoretical, clinical, and institutional-for reviewing this history and then focuses on three themes that she stressed. First, she emphasized that the "widening scope of psychoanalysis" had been both tremendously fruitful and perplexing as it revealed areas-such as the developmental pathologies-for which theory and technique lag. Second, she underscored the way child analysis had been extended from pathology to the theory of normal development, particularly by adding child observation to its research methods. Third, she noted how child analysis has often been hampered by reductionist thinking, and she made a plea for complexity: for considering all metapsychological frameworks and all developmental lines, and for articulating a complexly grounded diagnostic.

This paper presents some aspects of Anna Freud's work in a way that is rather different from the conventional accounts of her contributions. It focuses on some of the factors that I believe have led to her particular contribution to psychoanalytic theory and practice-inevitably, with special emphasis on her work with children. In looking back at Anna Freud's work from today's vantage point, it is clear that she was, as Robert Wallerstein put it (1984), a radical innovator as well as a staunch conservative.

The notions hitherto existing of the beginnings of child analysis have to be rectified. The meaning of childhood neuroses within the scope of scientific theory, i.e. the sexual genesis of the neuroses can no longer be maintained. The approach of distinguishing between the latent period and the Oedipus complex as the two phases of sexual development can nowadays be considered to be refuted. The personality of the first children's analyst--Hermine Hug-Hellmuth--needs to be redescribed. She fell victim to her father-transference and deceased murdered by her nephew with the help of whom she had satisfied her own scientific ambitions.

Edith Jackson, recipient of one of Sigmund Freud's coveted rings, served him well as an ambassador for psychoanalysis. As a child psychiatrist for 25 years at the Yale School of Medicine, she developed the rooming-in plan which allowed parents and newborns to be together from birth. With Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham, she opened the Jackson Nursery, a precursor of American daycare centers. Among the most important people in developing the field of child psychology, Edith was one of the early psychologists who recognized the importance of satisfying the emotional as well as the physical needs of the newborn.

Both children's use of drawings and their interpretation in psychopathology have a history and even a pre-history. The author comments on the few drawn documents he could gather concerning the latter. He examines the birth of children drawings in psychology, psychiatry and education at the end of the XIXth century and the turn of the XXth. He finally recalls the first traces of its use by psychoanalysis, mainly in France. Some excursi are joined relative to the conditions of discovery of pre-historic art, to the relationship between modern art and child "primitivism", and to the themes of child drawings within cartoons.