Melanie Klein

  • November 2019
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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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