Name It, Claim It, Tame It: Modern Kleinian Therapy and the Challenge of Change

Am J Psychoanal. 2025 Sep 19. doi: 10.1057/s11231-025-09522-9. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

This paper describes and demonstrates the Modern Kleinian approach to psychotherapy treatment. An easy way to conceptualize a three-step process of projective identification integration through containment, interpretation, and integration is to describe them as name it, claim it, and tame it. This process can lead to change in unconscious object relational conflict states and to shifts in interpersonal patterns.The concept of projective identification is at the foundation of Modern Kleinian psychotherapy (Waska, 2021). Therefore, theoretically and clinically, Modern Kleinian therapy focuses on how projective identification is often part of the core conflict in patient’s psychic struggles. Within the treatment process, integration, acceptance, loss, and containment are often some of the main elements that emerge. Numerous case reports are used to illustrate this journey from the paranoid/schizoid position (Fairbairn, 1940; Klein, 1946) towards the depressive position (Klein, 1935). The challenge towards the depressive position. The challenge of change and the clinical method needed to engage that challenge are demonstrated with case material.The clinical reports are disguised for confidentiality but show the reader how projective identification manifests in individuals and how it colors the transference. The clinical material illustrates how the therapist can make interpretations towards a gradual taming of conflict, cultivating more integrated and balanced ways of experiencing self and other.

PMID:40973709 | DOI:10.1057/s11231-025-09522-9