Person
Martha Harris
Scottish-born British child psychotherapist and psychoanalyst of the Kleinian school. After teaching and training as a psychologist, she qualified at the British Psycho-Analytical Society, with an analysis with Herbert Rosenfeld and supervision from Melanie Klein, Wilfred Bion and Esther Bick. As head of the Tavistock Clinic's child psychotherapy training from 1960 to 1980, succeeding Bick, she shaped the 'Tavistock model' of training built on infant observation and work discussion, and with her husband Donald Meltzer carried it to Italy, France, Argentina and elsewhere. She wrote for parents and teachers on the development of children and adolescents.
Influence
Affinity
- 1971 collaborated with Donald Meltzer
Married in 1971, Meltzer and Harris taught together widely abroad, founded the Roland Harris Educational Trust and the Clunie Press, and co-wrote a psychoanalytic model of the child in the family and community (1976).
Lineage
- analysed by Herbert Rosenfeld
Rosenfeld was Martha Harris's personal analyst during her psychoanalytic training.
- supervised by Wilfred Bion
Bion supervised Martha Harris. His account of learning from experience later underpinned the model of the child in the family that she wrote with Meltzer.