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'''Martha Harris''' ([[1919]]-[[1987]]) was a British Kleinian psychoanalyst of children and adults. [[Melanie Klein]] is reported as describing her as ‘one of the best people for the psychoanalysis of children’.<ref>M. H. Williams (ed.), ''Enabling and Inspiring: A Tribute to Martha Harris'' (London: Harris Meltzer Trust, 2012), p. 39.</ref> From 1960-1980 she was head of the Child Psychotherapy service at the [[Tavistock Clinic]], taking over from Esther Bick,<ref>See M. Harris, ‘Esther Bick’ (1983).</ref> who had established a foundational method of disciplined '''infant observation'''.<ref>[http://www.answers.com/topic/bick-esther "Esther Bick"]; in French Wikipedia [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Bick "Esther Bick"].</ref> Harris was responsible for the rapid expansion in the number of English and international trainees, and for laterally developing the training into what became known as the '''Tavi model'''.<ref>Described in M. Harris, ‘The Tavistock training and philosophy’ (1977).</ref> This has been described as a ‘revolution’ in psychoanalytic education.<ref>D. Meltzer, in ''The Apprehension of Beauty'' (Perthshire: Clunie Press, 1988), p. 204; D. Meltzer, ‘Martha Harris and the Tavistock course’, in ''The Tavistock Model: Papers on Child Development and Psychoanalytic Training by Martha Harris and Esther Bick'', ed. M. H. Williams, 345-46 (London: Karnac, 2011); G. P. Williams, in M. H. Williams (ed., 2012), p. 12.</ref> This model, in which infant observation continues to play a pre-eminent role,<ref>See M. Harris, ‘The contribution of observation of mother-infant interaction and development to the equipment of a psychoanalyst’ (1976; J. Sternberg, ''Infant Observation at the Heart of Training'' (London: Karnac, 2005) </ref> has been adopted, with modifications, in other European countries and in South America: such as the GERPEN in France, <ref>[http://www.gerpen.org] "Psychoanalytic research group for the study of children’s development "</ref> the six '''Martha Harris Study Centres''' in Italy, <ref>[http://www.centrostudimarthaharris.org "Centro Studi Martha Harris"]</ref> and the Sao Paulo Mother-Baby Study Centre in Brazil. <ref>See M. P. Melega et al, ''Looking and Listening'' (London: Harris Meltzer Trust, 2012).</ref>
'''Martha Harris''' ([[1919]]-[[1987]]) was a British Kleinian psychoanalyst of children and adults. [[Melanie Klein]] is reported as describing her as ‘one of the best people for the psychoanalysis of children’.<ref>M. H. Williams (ed.), ''Enabling and Inspiring: A Tribute to Martha Harris'' (London: Harris Meltzer Trust, 2012), p. 39.</ref> From 1960-1980 she was head of the Child Psychotherapy service at the [[Tavistock Clinic]], taking over from Esther Bick,<ref>See M. Harris, ‘Esther Bick’ (1983).</ref> who had established a foundational method of disciplined '''infant observation'''.<ref>[http://www.answers.com/topic/bick-esther "Esther Bick"]; in French Wikipedia [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Bick "Esther Bick"].</ref> Harris was responsible for the rapid expansion in the number of English and international trainees, and for laterally developing the training into what became known as the '''Tavi model'''.<ref>Described in M. Harris, ‘The Tavistock training and philosophy’ (1977).</ref> This has been described as a ‘revolution’ in psychoanalytic education.<ref>D. Meltzer, in ''The Apprehension of Beauty'' (Perthshire: Clunie Press, 1988), p. 204; D. Meltzer, ‘Martha Harris and the Tavistock course’, in ''The Tavistock Model: Papers on Child Development and Psychoanalytic Training by Martha Harris and Esther Bick'', ed. M. H. Williams, 345-46 (London: Karnac, 2011); G. P. Williams, in M. H. Williams (ed., 2012), p. 12.</ref> This model, in which infant observation continues to play a pre-eminent role,<ref>See M. Harris, ‘The contribution of observation of mother-infant interaction and development to the equipment of a psychoanalyst’ (1976; J. Sternberg, ''Infant Observation at the Heart of Training'' (London: Karnac, 2005) </ref> has been adopted, with modifications, in other European countries and in South America: such as the GERPEN in France, <ref>[http://www.gerpen.org] "Psychoanalytic research group for the study of children’s development "</ref> the six '''Martha Harris Study Centres''' in Italy, <ref>[http://www.centrostudimarthaharris.org "Centro Studi Martha Harris"]</ref> and the Sao Paulo Mother-Baby Study Centre in Brazil. <ref>See M. P. Melega et al, ''Looking and Listening'' (London: Harris Meltzer Trust, 2012).</ref>

Revision as of 13:29, 27 October 2012

Martha Harris (1919-1987) was a British Kleinian psychoanalyst of children and adults. Melanie Klein is reported as describing her as ‘one of the best people for the psychoanalysis of children’.[1] From 1960-1980 she was head of the Child Psychotherapy service at the Tavistock Clinic, taking over from Esther Bick,[2] who had established a foundational method of disciplined infant observation.[3] Harris was responsible for the rapid expansion in the number of English and international trainees, and for laterally developing the training into what became known as the Tavi model.[4] This has been described as a ‘revolution’ in psychoanalytic education.[5] This model, in which infant observation continues to play a pre-eminent role,[6] has been adopted, with modifications, in other European countries and in South America: such as the GERPEN in France, [7] the six Martha Harris Study Centres in Italy, [8] and the Sao Paulo Mother-Baby Study Centre in Brazil. [9]

Life and work

Martha Harris was born in Beith, Ayrshire, and read English at University College London, then Psychology at the University of Oxford. She taught in schools and in a Froebel Teacher Training College before training as a psychologist at Guy’s Hospital, then as a psychoanalyst at the British Psychoanalytical Society, where she was a training analyst. She had supervision with Melanie Klein, Wilfred Bion and Esther Bick, and personal analysis with Herbert Rosenfeld.[10] Among the innovations she introduced to the psychotherapy training were the Work Discussion Seminar, [11] and the Personality Development Course.[12] By contrast with the procedures of other trainings, she put in practice a principle of assisted self-selection for analytic candidates.[13]

With her husband, Roland Harris,[14] she pioneered a schools’ counselling service in London, which became the Tavistock Schools Counsellors’ Course,[15] and led to the innovation of special or protected time within the school setting for individual children or small groups.[16] After Roland Harris died in 1969, Martha Harris married the psychoanalyst Donald Meltzer; together they taught widely throughout Europe, Scandinavia, South America, parts of North America, and India.[17] In 1976 at the request of the Organization for Economic and Cultural Development of the United Nations, they collaborated on A Psychoanalytical Model of the Child-in-the-Family-in-the-Community, written for multidisciplinary use in schools and therapeutic units.[18] In the late 1970s Martha Harris invited Wilfred Bion back to London from California to give a series of lectures at the Tavistock. [19]

Martha Harris and Donald Meltzer established the Roland Harris Educational Trust, which for 30 years published psychoanalytic works under the imprint Clunie Press. [20] After Meltzer’s death in 2004 this activity continued as the Harris Meltzer Trust. [21]

Martha Harris wrote newspaper articles and books for parents on child development, in addition to many papers on psychoanalytic training and clinical work. Colleagues and students emphasize her enduring educational innovations, her penetrating observational skills and human empathy, and her deliberate restraint in the use of psychoanalytic jargon in both teaching and writing.[22] Her most popular book, Thinking about Infants and Young Children (1975) has been translated into French, Spanish and Italian.

Publications

  • (1960). ‘Depressive, paranoid and narcissistic features in the analysis of a young woman following the birth of her first child and the death of her own mother’, in Harris & Bick (1987), 64-88. Qualifying paper for the British Psychoanalytic Society.
  • (1964). ‘Personality: latency’, New Society. Reprinted in The Seven Ages of Man: A Survey of Human Development, ed. R. R. Sears and S. S. Feldman, 29-33. Los Altos, California: Kaufmann, 1973.
  • (1966) with Helen Carr. ‘Therapeutic consultations’, Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 1 (4), 13-19. Reprinted in The Tavistock Model: Papers on Child Development and Psychoanalytic Training by Martha Harris and Esther Bick, ed. M. H. Williams, 289-304. London: Harris Meltzer Trust, 2011.
  • (1967). ‘The family circle: brothers and sisters’, New Society, 15 June, 871-72.
  • (1967). ‘The family circle: grandparents, New Society, 22 June, 916-17.
  • (1967). ‘The family circle: in-laws’, New Society, 29 June, 949-50.
  • (1967). ‘The family circle: aunts, uncles, cousins’, New Society, 6 July, 9-10.
  • (1968). ‘The therapeutic process in the psychoanalytic treatment of the child’, reprinted in The Tavistock Model (2011), 219-34.
  • (1968). ‘The child psychotherapist and the patient’s family’, Journal of Child Psychotherapy 2 (2), 50-63. Reprinted in The Tavistock Model (2011), 251-72.
  • (1968). ‘Consultation project in a comprehensive school’, reprinted in The Tavistock Model, 317-44.
  • (1969). Understanding Infants and Young Children. London: Dickens Press. Expanded edition: Thinking about Infants and Young Children (Perthshire: Clunie Press, 1975). New edition London: Harris Meltzer Trust, 2011.
  • (1969). Your Eleven Year Old. London: Corgi. Reprinted in Your Teenager (2007), 1-72.
  • (1969). Your Twelve to Fourteen Year Old. London: Corgi. Reprinted in Your Teenager (2007), 73-142.
  • (1969). Your Teenager. London: Corgi. Reprinted in Your Teenager (2007), 143-34.
  • (1971). ‘The place of once-weekly treatment in the work of an analytically trained child psychotherapist’, Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 3 (1), 31-39. Reprinted in The Tavistock Model (2011), 51-64.
  • (1972). ‘Teacher, counsellor, therapist: towards a definition of the roles’, reprinted in The Tavistock Model (2011), 305-16.
  • (1973). ‘The complexity of mental pain seen in a six-year-old child following sudden bereavement’, Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 3 (3), 35-45. Reprinted in The Tavistock Model (2011), 235-50.
  • (1973). ‘Emotional problems in adolescence: an adolescent girl’, in Adolescence: Talks and Papers by Donald Meltzer and Martha Harris, ed. M. H. Williams, 39-60. London: Harris Meltzer Trust, 2011.
  • (1974). ‘Depression and the depressive position in an adolescent boy’, in Adolescence" (2011), 117-30. Includes material from a 1965 paper.
  • (1975). ‘The early basis of adult female sexuality and motherliness’, reprinted in The Tavistock Model (2011), 189-206.
  • (1975). Thinking about Infants and Young Children. Perthshire: Clunie Press. New edition London: Harris Meltzer Trust, 2011.
  • (1975). ‘Some notes on maternal containment in “good enough” mothering’, Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 4 (1), 35-51. Reprinted in The Tavistock Model (2011), 139-62.
  • (1976). ‘The contribution of observation of mother-infant interaction and development to the equipment of a psychoanalyst or psychoanalytic psychotherapist’, reprinted in The Tavistock Model (2011), 117-32.
  • (1976). ‘Infantile elements and adult strivings in adolescent sexuality’, Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 4 (2), 29-44. Reprinted in Adolescence" (2011), 81-102.
  • (1976) with Donald Meltzer. "A Psychoanalytical Model of the Child-in-the-Family-in-the-Community". In French. Later published in English in Sincerity and Other Works: Collected Papers of Donald Meltzer, ed. A. Hahn, 387-454. London: Karnac, 1994. Also published in Spanish and Italian.
  • (1977). ‘The Tavistock training and philosophy’, in The Child Psychotherapist, ed. D. Daws and M. Boston. London: Wildwood House. Reprinted in The Tavistock Model (2011), 1-24.
  • (1978). ‘Towards learning from experience in infancy and childhood’, reprinted in The Tavistock Model (2011), 171-88.
  • (1979). ‘Training in observation and application of psychoanalytical concepts to personality development and interaction’, The Tavistock Gazette, 1:10-16.
  • (1980). ‘A baby observation: the absent object’, reprinted in The Tavistock Model (2011), 163-70.
  • (1981). ‘The individual in the group: on learning to work with the psychoanalytical method, in Do I Dare Disturb the Universe? A Memorial to W. R. Bion, ed. J Grotstein, 417-60. New York: Aronson. Reprinted in The Tavistock Model (2011), 25-44.
  • (1980). ‘Bion’s conception of a psychoanalytical attitude’, reprinted in The Tavistock Model (2011), 45-50. An obituary.
  • (1982). ‘Growing points in psychoanalysis inspired by the work of Melanie Klein”, in Journal of Child Psychotherapy'’, 8 (2), 165-184. Reprinted in The Tavistock Model (2011), 65-92.
  • (1983). ‘Esther Bick: 1901-1983’, Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 9 (2), 101-102. An obituary. Reprinted in The Tavistock Model (2011), 93-96.
  • (1983). ‘Dina Rosenbluth’, The Tavistock Gazette, 11:14-15. An obituary.
  • (2007). Your Teenager: Thinking About Your Child During the Secondary School Years, ed. M. H. Williams. Single-volume edition of Your Eleven Year Old, Your Twelve to Fourteen Year Old, and Your Teenager (1969). London: Harris Meltzer Trust.


References

  1. ^ M. H. Williams (ed.), Enabling and Inspiring: A Tribute to Martha Harris (London: Harris Meltzer Trust, 2012), p. 39.
  2. ^ See M. Harris, ‘Esther Bick’ (1983).
  3. ^ "Esther Bick"; in French Wikipedia "Esther Bick".
  4. ^ Described in M. Harris, ‘The Tavistock training and philosophy’ (1977).
  5. ^ D. Meltzer, in The Apprehension of Beauty (Perthshire: Clunie Press, 1988), p. 204; D. Meltzer, ‘Martha Harris and the Tavistock course’, in The Tavistock Model: Papers on Child Development and Psychoanalytic Training by Martha Harris and Esther Bick, ed. M. H. Williams, 345-46 (London: Karnac, 2011); G. P. Williams, in M. H. Williams (ed., 2012), p. 12.
  6. ^ See M. Harris, ‘The contribution of observation of mother-infant interaction and development to the equipment of a psychoanalyst’ (1976; J. Sternberg, Infant Observation at the Heart of Training (London: Karnac, 2005)
  7. ^ [1] "Psychoanalytic research group for the study of children’s development "
  8. ^ "Centro Studi Martha Harris"
  9. ^ See M. P. Melega et al, Looking and Listening (London: Harris Meltzer Trust, 2012).
  10. ^ ’About Martha Harris’, in The Tavistock Model, p. ix
  11. ^ See M. Harris, ‘The individual in the group’ (1978); M. Rustin and J. Bradley (eds.), Work Discussion: Learning from Reflective Practice (London: Karnac, 2008)
  12. ^ See G. P. Williams, in M. H. Williams (ed., 2012), p. 12; M. Waddell, in M. H. Williams (ed., 2012), p. 267
  13. ^ G. P. Williams, in M. H. Williams (ed., 2012), p. 14; V. Sinason, in M. H. Williams (ed., 2012), p. 237
  14. ^ "Roland Harris"
  15. ^ See J. Whitehead, "A History of Woodberry Down School"; M. Harris, ‘Consultation project in a comprehensive school’ (1968); M. Harris, ‘Teacher, counsellor, therapist: towards a definition of the roles’ (1972).
  16. ^ E. Blandy, in M. H. Williams (ed., 2012), p. 101
  17. ^ See R. Li Causi and M. Waddell, ‘An appreciation of the work of Donald Meltzer’, Journal of Child Psychotherapy" 31(1), 3-5; I. Freeden, obituary, Journal of the British Association of Psychotherapists Vol. 43 (19) 88; ‘About Martha Harris’, in M. H. Williams (ed., 2012), p. ix.
  18. ^ First published in French; published in English in Sincerity and Other Works: Collected Papers of Donald Meltzer, ed. A. Hahn, 387-454 (London: Karnac, 1994).
  19. ^ Later published as The Tavistock Seminars, ed. F. Bion (Karnac, 2005). On Martha Harris’ use of Bion’s ideas in psychoanalytic training see her papers ‘The individual in the group’ (1978); ‘Towards learning from experience in infancy and childhood’ (1978); ‘Bion’s conception of a psychoanalytical attitude’ (1980); and ‘Growing points in psychoanalysis inspired by the work of Melanie Klein’ (1982).
  20. ^ "Clunie Press"
  21. ^ "The Harris Meltzer Trust"
  22. ^ See Enabling and Inspiring: a Tribute to Martha Harris, ed. M. H. Williams (London, 2012).

Further reading

  • Donald Meltzer (1988). ‘Martha Harris and the Tavistock Course’. First published in Italian. Published in English in The Tavistock Model: Papers on Child Development and Psychoanalytic Training by Martha Harris and Esther Bick, ed. M. H. Williams. London: Harris Meltzer Trust, 2011 (new edition of Collected Papers of Martha Harris and Esther Bick, 1987).
  • Francesca Bion (ed.) (2005). W. R. Bion: The Tavistock Seminars. London: Karnac.
  • Romana Negri (2007). The Story of Infant Development – supervisions with Martha Harris following the development of a young child from birth onwards. London: Harris Meltzer Trust. Published in Italian by Borla.
  • Meg Harris Williams (2007). ‘Martha Harris’ philosophy of education’, in Martha Harris, Your Teenager, 235-52. London: Harris Meltzer Trust.
  • Meg Harris Williams (ed.) (2012). Enabling and Inspiring: A Tribute to Martha Harris – includes contributions from 40 analysts and therapists who trained with Martha Harris. London: Harris Meltzer Trust.


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