Melanie Klein
(1882-1960)
Background: Melanie Klein
was born Melanie Reisez on March 30, 1882 in Vienna to father Moriz Reisez and
mother Libussa Reisez (Deutsch). She was the youngest of four children. There
was a considerable age difference between her parents, with her mother being
younger, and their marriage was her father’s second. The family was mostly
nonreligious, but Melanie still acknowledged her Jewish roots. The family
endured some financial struggle until Melanie’s grandfather passed away and
Moriz received the inheritance. Two of her siblings, Emmanuel and Sidonie,
helped to educate Melanie when she was a child, but both died at a young age.
Melanie’s father died when she was 18.
Melanie
was educated at the gymnasium and aspired to study psychiatric medicine. She
began studying Art History at Vienna University, but was married at age 21
before she could receive an academic degree. Melanie then travelled with her
husband, Arthur Klein, and had three children. She experienced bouts of
depressions throughout her pregnancies and early married life. The family moved
to Budapest in 1910. Melanie was exposed to Freud’s work; initially his book On Dreams. She began to form a deep
interest in psychoanalysis. Her initial analysis was done under Sandor Ferenczi
who encouraged her to use the principles of psychoanalysis to analyze her own
children. Her early work closely reflected Freud’s work, but while working with
Karl Abraham Melanie began investigating psychoanalysis specifically pertaining
to children. In 1922 as Melanie was still working with Abraham, she divorced
Arthur Klein.
Melanie’s
work in psychology only grew after her divorce. She began working in Berlin at
a practice where she treated emotionally disturbed children. Melanie’s work was
criticized in Berlin, but she found in England. She was able to give speeches
in England that she later used to develop her major literary work The Psychoanalysis of Children (1932).
In 1927 Melanie moved to England and also became a member of the British
Psychoanalytic Society. Melanie’s
daughter Melitta and Melitta’s husband became psychoanalysts who opposed
Melanie’s work. In 1935 Melanie advances
other psychological concepts when she reads her paper, “A Contribution to the
Psychogenesis of Manic-Depressive States.” This paper introduced the idea of
the depressive position. In 1946 the British Society receives Melanie’s paper
“Notes on some Schizoid Mechanisms.” This paper contributes her ideas of
ego-splitting and projective identification. Her work continued to receive
praise and criticism. Much of the criticism can be attributed to Ana Freud’s
supporters because Ana held a position that children were unanalyzable. Melanie
Klein died on September 22, 1960 from complications of a surgery meant to treat
her cancer.
Major
Contributions:
Melanie
approached the challenges of psychoanalyzing children and developed the play
technique to solve them. Melanie was interested in treating children like
adults in psychoanalytic treatment, uncovering their unconsciousness, but
instead of analyzing their dreams she analyzed their play. This was very important
because before her technique was developed young children were considered
untreatable. Melanie’s treatment approach is still used worldwide today; as relatively
the same technique that she created. Another theoretical contribution is her
concept of the depressive position. The depressive position states that because
of a child’s development, they form a sense of self while forming a fragmented
idea of their mothers. One can love, but also hate their mother. The way to
overcome this and form a relationship with their mother is to view their mother
as a whole. Some of Melanie’s beliefs were later used by others to form the
object relations theory. Her influence can be seen on theories after her time.
Melanie faced many challenges along her
journey of research, theory, and treatment, but her contributions are large.
She was often criticized for having no formal education in medicine. Without
her male mentors she had to work harder to pass on her knowledge; even moving
from Berlin to England. Melanie even challenged Freud’s ideas which was brave
as he was the dominate psychologist of the time. Her opposition and reforming
of Freud’s ideas on development was essential to the growth of psychoanalysis,
psychology as a whole, and treatment methods for children. She inspired many
psychologists including John Bowlby, Donald Winnicott, and Joan Riviere and a
grouped even formed to support Klein’s work opposed to Freud’s: the Kleinians. Melanie’s
works have now been complied into four volumes of books. The Melanie Klein
Trust is an organization founded in 1955 that celebrates her work by furthering
her theory and techniques.
References:
http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/klein.html
Written
by Angela Contento
9/12/12
No comments:
Post a Comment