Melanie Klein1

President of the British Psycho-Analytical Society

We have come here tonight to think and to speak of our late Member, Mrs Melanie Klein.

Her death was sudden and for most of us unexpected; we feel grateful, therefore, to those Members and close friends of Mrs Klein who, during her short illness, could give her the affection and care in which every one of us would have liked to claim a share.

The individual expressions of sadness and grief have been moving and leave not the slightest doubt about the genuineness of the loss which Members of the Society have suffered. I should like to take this opportunity of expressing our thanks to Dr Hanna Segal, and particularly to Dr Gillespie, who spoke on behalf of all of us at the cremation ceremony.

I am sorry to say that Mrs Joan Riviere, whose friendship with Mrs Klein proved so fruitful and lasting, is unable to be with us today, and I should like to tell her how greatly we miss her at this meeting.

Dr Winnicott, too, is unable to attend; a series of lectures in Montreal compelled him to leave before this meeting could be arranged. We miss him tonight, and I should tell you that it was his idea, which I have adopted, to call this meeting and to give it an informal and, I hope, a satisfactory setting.

Mrs Klein was a Member of this Society for thirty-four years, and it was here in London, within our Society and Institute, that she made here important contribution to psycho-analysis. It was here in London that she developed her theory of early mental life and of the origin of psychosis. It was here in London that she taught and worked with an ever-growing generation of psycho-analysts. The British Psycho-Analytical Society provided for her the soil and the climate in which she could grow and thrive. It was in Clifton Hill, St John's Wood, and for the great part Gloucester Place, that her creative and imaginative spirit found a home.

Dr Ernest Jones, the founder and builder of our Society, its architect and custodian, surround