Masood Khan's Research On Psychoanalysis

Masud Khan was an English psychoanalyst of Indian origin. He was a protege of Sigmund Freud's daughter Anna and a long-time collaborator with the most famous child analyst, Winnicott. In the late half of the 20th century, few psychoanalysts could be intellectually prolific, charismatic and ultimately scandalous as Masud Khan. He was engaged in clinical practice and training candidates. Throughout his life, Masud Khan published more than 60 papers, as well as numerous reviews, and edited significant portions of Winnicott's literary output and other masters' works in the psychoanalysis. As a "Winnicott Expert", it seemed that Khan understood Winnicott better than anyone else did. However, he was not only Winnicott's mouthpiece, but also made important contributions to psychoanalytical theory. Following Winnicott, Masud Khan attached great importance to the research of the infant-mother relationship. He suggested that the mother's vital role as a protective shield provided ego coverage for her infant till the end of adolescence. His theory of schizoid personality was an integration of aspects of classical theory, Fairbairn, and Winnicott. He detailed the schizoid personality of patients with four kinds of typical syndrome, namely, symbiotic omnipotence, the phobic stance, the hysteric and perversion. In the clinical, due to the analysis of a large number of patients who suffered severe mental disorders, he put forward new views on phenomenon such as resistance, acting out, regression, and so on, and he also proposed his own opinions on the usage of clinical techniques such as interpretation, dream interpretation, analysis of transference, analysis of counter-transference and so on. Besides, he was very famous for his "natural" clinical style.