Contributions to Psycho-Analysis, 1921-45
- Author:
Melanie Klein. With an introduction by
Ernest Jones. London: The Hogarth Press. Pp. 416. 21s.
My personal debt to Melanie Klein is nearly as great as my debt to Freud, and I am indeed proud when I find myself listed as one of those who have applied her findings to their work. The publication of her papers (1921-45) in book form enables one to watch the growth of her ideas. All those who have been privileged to work with her will read this volume with pleasure, and there will be few who will not find from it that they have more to learn from her and that they can hope for deeper assimilation of the things which she has to teach us.
From these collected papers, one can see that there is no new principle introduced into psychoanalysis. The technique employed is as Freud gave it to us in all essentials. Moreover, there is no real difference in regard to the fundamental principles between the analysis of children and that of * To be reviewed in our next issue.
adults, except that most children communicate through play whereas most adults prefer to communicate through speech. With both child and adult, an analytic situation is established by the analysis of the transference, and changes in the patient come about by interpretation of the material presented by the patient.
Naturally there are additions and corrections to Freud’s own findings through the use of the technique. Indeed, it would be strange if with Mrs. Klein’s vast clinical experience she had no new thing to contribute. For one thing, Freud’s statement of the earlier stages of female sexuality has seemed to many to be untenable. Early vaginal erotism is assumed by Mrs. Klein, and the development of the Oedipus complex in the female child is restated according to clinical findings with which most analysts would now agree. The recognition that to the child the phenomena of psychic reality are concrete processes which take place inside the body comes into prominence through Mrs. Klein’s work, although it has always been implied by the term ” inner reality Mrs. Klein’s special contribution is that she has shown us how to trace the development of the inner world of the individual, this development being linked with instinctual experience. Also she has shown the various ways the defences against anxiety can be described in terms of the management of inner phenomena. She obviously puts the Oedipus complex in as central a position in the development of the normal child as Freud does, but she has developed the understanding of the pre-genital roots of the first triangular situation which eventually comes to be felt in terms of genital erotism. She finds that these pre-genital roots determine the quality of the child-father-mother relationship in ways not previously understood.
Lastly, the concept of the depressive position must be singled out for mention because of its fundamental importance. Without this concept the rich development in psycho-analysis of the last twenty years would not have been possible. This concept of the depressive position reaches the public more easily under a different name, such as the stage of concern, a stage at which in health a child begins to mind about the aggressive impulses and ideas and to feel concerned as to the results of loving and hating. Those who are not acquainted with Mrs. Klein’s work should start with the very clear last chapter on ” The Oedipus Complex in the Light of Early Anxieties”. They should then study the two previous chapters, first “A Contribution to the Psychogenesis of Manic-Depressive States “, and then ” Mourning and its Relation to Manic-Depressive States “. After that they can go to and fro through the other papers which they will understand better through having already become acquainted with the conclusions which have developed from the earlier observations and formulations. D.W.W.
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