You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
THIS IS AN ATTEMPT to give a personal account of Melanie Klein's concept of the Depressive Position. To be fair to her I ought to state that I was not in analysis with her, nor with anyone analysed by her. I was drawn to study her contribution by its value for me in my own work with children, and I received instruction from her between 1935 and 1940 in case supervision. Klein's own account is to be found in her writings (1935, 1940).
The word ‘normal’ in the title is important. The Oedipus complex characterizes normal or healthy development of children, and the Depressive Position is a normal stage in the development of healthy infants (and so also is absolute dependence, or primary narcissism, a normal stage of the healthy infant at or near the start).
What I shall stress is the depressive position in emotional development as an achievement.
A feature of the depressive position is that it applies to an area of clinical psychiatry that is half-way between the places of origin of psychoneurosis and of psychosis respectively.
The child (or adult) who has reached that capacity for interpersonal relationships which characterizes the toddler stage in health, and for whom ordinary analysis of the infinite variations of triangular human relationships is feasible, has passed through and beyond the depressive position. On the other hand, the child (or adult) who is chiefly concerned with the innate problems of personality integration and with the initiation of a relationship with environment is not yet at the depressive position in personal development.
In terms of environment: the toddler is in a family situation, working out an instinctual life in interpersonal relationships, and the baby is being held by