Melanie Klein

Short bio

• Austrian (like Freud)

• Born in 1882 (26 years after Freud)

• First discovered Freud in 1910, when she read his book On Dreams. Became a fan.

• Became increasingly interested in psychology and the psychoanalytical theory. Joined the Budapest Society.

How did Klein’s own experiences affect her work?

• Two of Klein’s siblings died at relatively young ages.

• Klein’s mother died when she was 18.

Melanie Klein’s Ideas

-Strong focus on childhood

-Contributed to the object relations theory

-Environment

-Theories based on a lot of observation

Klein’s theory concerning the psyche revolves around two main states, or positions of

the mind.

Paranoid Schizoid Position

• The child categorizes everything around it into two categories: the good and the bad.

• The child cannot deal with things that concern it, as its ego is not yet fully developed.

• These things that concern it may be perceived threats from the exterior, or troubling feelings in its own mind.

• The child categorizes everything around it into two categories: the good and the bad. What satisfies it is good, and what doesn’t is bad. The baby acts accordingly.

Depressive position

• “One would realize that the mother that one hated was also the mother that one loved” (Woolf)

• The child gains the ability to see that the one that it hates is also the one that provides care. This is a major milestone in the development of the child’s psyche, and indicated a developing ego.

• The child no longer separates everything into the “good” and “bad” categories. This enables the formation of a more realistic view of the world.

Other interesting ideas

Toys

• Klein developed the concept of play therapy during World War I.

• She believed that children would express their innermost feelings through their actions with toys.

Envy• Part of the infant’s

primal thought process.

• The infant feels that the mother’s breast is the ultimate source of nutrition, pleasure and is full of power.

• When the infant cannot immediately obtain the breast, it feels that the breast is keeping it’s resources for itself. This is envy.

Bibliography

• Grosskurth, P. (1986). Melanie Klein: Her world and her work. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

• Segal, H. (1980). Melanie Klein. New York: The Viking Press.

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