Growing Points in Psycho-Analysis Inspired by the Work of Melanie Klein

Mrs. Klein's great discoveries were made possible by her capacity to observe and take an interest in what little children were showing her in their play and conversation. She states categorically that children's play is always meaningful and she certainly approached it with that supposition. Her insights and theoretical formulations were initially inspired and then perhaps somewhat constricted by her devotion to the theories of Freud for whom she had a profound admiration and whose work she saw herself as applying and extending into the field of child analysis. His failure to appreciate her work was indeed a source of continued grief to her. But looking back upon the development of her observations and theories one can see how revolutionary they were, and still are. History tells us how rare it is for one revolutionary to appreciate another who does not stick closely to the party line. To borrow the quotation from Thomas Browne with which Bion prefaces “Learning from Experience” in “Seven Servants” (1977):

“But the mortallest enemy unto knowledge, and that which hath done the greatest execution upon truth, hath been a peremptory adhesion unto Authority, and more especially the establishing of our belief upon the dictates of Antiquity”. (Thomas Browne, “Enquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors: or Adherence unto Antiquity”.)

The writings of Mrs. Klein like those of Freud do indeed court that danger of becoming embalmed in Antiquity: a Talmud or a Koran of Authority if they are used to provide ready answers rather than to stimulate further questions in a field of study, that of the human personality, to whose depth and complexity she has contributed such illumination. It is possible that the extension of the field of child analysis and the continued interest in mother-infant observation which she helped to stimulate in Mrs. Bick, who in turn introduced it into the training of child psychotherapists and analysts, may throw up so many surprises and questions that a tendenc