Melanie Klein

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Melanie Klein, 1952
Melanie Klein, 1902
Melanie Klein, 1912
Memorial plaque for Melanie Klein in Augsburger Strasse 23, Berlin, from the series Mit Freud in Berlin

Melanie Klein , née Reizes (born March 30, 1882 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary , † September 22, 1960 in London ) was an Austro-British psychoanalyst . She was one of the pioneers of child psychoanalysis and object relationship theory .

Life

Melanie was born as the youngest of four children to Moritz and Libussa Reizes. Her father was a doctor and came from an Orthodox Jewish family from Lemberg , her mother came from what is now Slovakia. Melanie's siblings were Emilie, Emmanuel and Sidonie. In 1886, Sidonia, then eight years old, died of tuberculosis. Emmanuel also died young, at the age of 25.

Melanie originally wanted to study medicine, but did not pursue this goal further after she became engaged to Arthur Klein in 1899. They married in 1903 and their daughter Melitta was born shortly afterwards. In 1907 her son Hans followed. Even during pregnancy and afterwards, Melanie Klein was depressed . In 1914 their son Erich was born. During this time she began her training analysis with Sandor Ferenczi in Budapest . She dealt intensively with the developing psychoanalysis and, at Ferenczi's encouragement, began to analyze her youngest son, although she had no formal training. Melanie Klein lived in Berlin in the 1920s and underwent further training analysis with Karl Abraham . Most of the time she lived apart from her husband. In 1926 she accepted Ernest Jones ' invitation to come to London. She worked there until her death. She died of complications from colon cancer in University College Hospital, London.

theory

Melanie Klein contributed with her writings to the development of modern psychoanalysis and in particular to the development of object relationship theory . Her works on the psychoanalysis of children received a lot of attention . While Freud's psychoanalysis placed a strong emphasis on the concept of instincts and thus understood humans primarily as individual beings, Melanie Klein directed more attention to early childhood developments and mother-child interaction . She advocated the idea that the way in which a person perceives the world and what expectations they have of it is shaped by their relationships with important, early reference persons ("objects"). These objects can be loved or hated. Here Klein believed he had remained true to Freud's drive concept of libido and death drive . Freud, on the other hand, saw her as a deviator.

Klein's controversy with Anna Freud split the psychoanalytic landscape in Great Britain into two hostile camps in the 1940s and 1950s, after which the Middle Group established itself as the third camp . Their representatives also referred to themselves as neutrals or independents .

therapy

Melanie Klein developed a psychoanalysis for children in which the free association of adult analysis was replaced by games and other child-friendly forms of expression (e.g. drawing). She assumed that children express their inner conflicts in play and that it is possible for the analyst to develop and interpret these conflicts by observing the game.

Works

  • Collected writings , Frommann-Holzboog, Stuttgart
    1. Writings 1920–1945, Part 1 , 1995, ISBN 3-7728-1674-6
    2. Writings 1920–1945, Part 2 , 1996, ISBN 3-7728-1675-4
    3. The Psychoanalysis of the Child , 1997, ISBN 3-7728-1676-2
    4. Writings 1946–1963 , 2000, ISBN 3-7728-1677-0
    5. Presentation of a child analysis, Part 1 , 2002, ISBN 3-7728-1678-9
    6. Presentation of a child analysis, part 2 , 2002, ISBN 3-7728-1691-6
  • A child develops. Methods and techniques of child psychoanalysis . Kindler, Munich 1981.
  • The child's psychoanalysis . Kindler, Munich 1973.
  • The Richard case. The complete protocol of a child analysis carried out by Melanie Klein . Kindler, Munich 1975.
  • The Infant's Soul and Other Contributions to Psychoanalysis . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-608-95107-5
  • Primal mental conflicts. Love, hate and guilt . (With Joan Riviere.) Fischer Wissenschaft, Frankfurt / M., 1992.
  • Love, Guilt and Reparation and other works 1921-1945 . Vintage, 1998.

literature

  • Elizabeth Bott Spillius (Ed.): Melanie Klein today. Developments in theory and practice. 2 volumes. 3. Edition. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2002.
    1. Contributions to theory. ISBN 3-608-95985-8 .
    2. Applications. ISBN 3-608-95986-6 .
  • Ronald Britton, Michael Feldman, Edna O'Shaugnessy: The Oedipus Complex in Melanie Klein's School. Clinical contributions. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1998.
  • Robert Caper: Mental Reality. From Freud to Melanie Klein. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2000.
  • Claudia Frank: Melanie Klein in Berlin. Her First Psychoanalyses of Children. Routledge, London 2009.
  • Claudia Frank, Heinz Weiß (ed.): Kleinian theory in clinical practice. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2002.
  • Robert D. Hinshelwood: The Practice of Kleinian Psychoanalysis. Verlag Internationale Psychoanalyse, Stuttgart 1997.
  • Robert D. Hinshelwood: Dictionary of Kleinian Psychoanalysis. 2nd Edition. Klett-Cotta , Stuttgart 2004.
  • Phyllis Grosskurth: Melanie Klein, her world and her work. Verlag Internationale Psychoanalyse, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-608-95902-5 (detailed biography with catalog raisonné).
  • Pearl King, Ricardo Steiner (Ed.): The Freud / Klein Controversies 1941–1945. 2 volumes. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1991.
  • Adam Limentani: Between Anna Freud and Melanie Klein. For an integration of two controversial approaches. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1993.
  • Julia Kristeva : The female genius Melanie Klein: Life, madness, words. Psychosocial, Giessen 2008.
  • Karl and Ruth Mätzler (eds.): Sexuality in the Kleinian psychoanalysis (= publications of the Klein-Seminar Salzburg. Volume 1). Kimmerle-Diskord, Tübingen 2005, ISBN 3-89295-753-3 .
  • Isca Salzberger-Wittenberg: Psychoanalytic understanding of relationships. A Kleinian approach . Facultas, Vienna 2002.
  • Hanna Segal : Melanie Klein. An introduction to their work. Kimmerle-Diskord, Tübingen 2004 ISBN 3-89295-742-8 (introduction to the work by a close student of Klein).
  • Elisabeth Vorspohl: Melanie Klein In: Hans Erler u. a. (Ed.): “The world was created for me.” The intellectual legacy of German-speaking Jewry. 58 portraits. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-593-35842-5 , pp. 179-185.
  • Nicholas Wright: Mrs. Klein. Nick Hern Books, London 2009 (a play that takes place in the spring of 1934 and focuses on the three protagonists Melanie Klein, her private secretary Paula Heimann and her daughter Melitta).

See also

Web links

Commons : Melanie Klein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Klein, Melanie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reizes, Melanie (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austro-British psychoanalyst
DATE OF BIRTH March 30, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH September 22, 1960
Place of death London