This book discusses the most influential psychoanalytic papers produced from the 1940 since the International Journal of Psychoanalysis began. It provides an overview of the development of psychoanalysis, as articulated through its principal scholarly journal.

R.D. Hinshelwood is a member of the British Psychoanalytical Society, and currently holds the post of Professor of Psychoanalysis at the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and previously was Clinical Director of the Cassel Hospital in Richmond. He is a past Chair of the Association of Therapeutic Communities. Professor Hinshelwood has written extensively on psychoanalysis and founded the 'International Journal of Therapeutic Communities' (now 'Therapeutic Communities') in 1980 and the 'British Journal of Psychotherapy' in 1984.

The 1940s was a time of great change in the psychoanalytic world. The war sounded a deathblow to continental European psychoanalysis and the death of Freud at first brought uncertainty over the future of psychoanalysis but ultimately led to greater creative freedom in exploring new ideas and theories.

Series Preface -- Introduction to the Journal in the 1940s -- Claiming an Intellectual Heritage -- Introduction -- Science and belief -- Metapsychology -- Introduction -- The development and problems of the theory of the instincts -- The nature and function of phantasy* -- The Independent Group -- Introduction -- Early developmental states of the ego: primary object love -- Endopsychic structure considered in terms of object-relationships -- Primitive emotional development -- Infant Observation -- Introduction -- The influence of early environment in the development of neurosis and neurotic character -- The observation of infants in a set situation -- Klein's Revision -- Introduction -- A contribution to the problem of sublimation and its relation to processes of internalization -- Notes on some schizoid mechanisms*