Kleinians is a compelling account of the extraordinary
revolution in psychology pioneered by the psychoanalyst Melanie
Klein and nine of her colleagues and followers, including Susan
Isaacs, Joan Riviere, Wilfred Bion, Frances Tustin and Hanna Segal.

Drawing on her experience as a professor, writer and therapist,
Janet Sayers tells the story of this revolution through an account
of the personal and public lives of its main architects, their
families and patients. The result is a lively mixture of biography,
psychoanalytic theory and individual case studies. The author
begins with Klein's pioneering extension of Freud's theories to the
analysis of very young children. This led to her claim that from
birth onwards children internalize figures from their outer world,
resulting in an interaction of inner and outer factors which then
govern our psychology. Sayers shows how, sometimes with bitter
controversy, this radical insight was variously developed, and is
still being developed by Klein's followers, thereby enormously
enhancing our understanding of the creative and destructive factors
shaping our everyday lives.

Kleinians continues the engaging biographical approach of
Sayers's previous successful collections, Mothering
Psychoanalysis and Freudian Tales, and will be appealing
and informative to all those interested in psychology -- to
students and specialists (in psychiatry, psychotherapy, counselling
and social work), and to general readers alike.