Melanie Klein—1882-1960

To American psychoanalysts, the name of Melanie Klein is mainly associated with the theory and technique supported by the group which bears her name. In addition, psychoanalysts all over the world who have attended meetings of the International Psychoanalytic Association will vividly recall her personality and appearance. A senior member, she regularly read a paper at the opening session of each Congress. Just as the Copenhagen Congress in 1959 sharply confronted us with the loss of Ernest Jones, the meeting in Edinburgh this summer will underline the passing of still another key figure. Whatever the future of her ideas, her stature as a leader and as a courageous investigator will remain unquestioned.

It is some thirty-five years since Melanie Klein, a pioneer in the new field of child analysis, gave her first course of lectures in London. Ernest Jones, who had proffered the invitation, also supported her subsequent move to London and permanent affiliation with the British Psychoanalytic Society-Institute. Although her contributions to child analysis first drew attention to her work, implications of a more far-reaching order soon became manifest. Perceptions, which originally were derived from work with children, had wider implications for psychic development, structure, and function. As a result, she introduced new ideas to both the technique of adult analysis and the theoretical reconstruction of early psychic development. From the outset, Melanie Klein was a controversial figure. Her technique of child analysis differed significantly from that developing under the leadership of Anna Freud. The desirability of 'deep interpretation' in the early phases of adult analysis soon became another area of discussion. Her theories, finally, as to the nature and ubiquity of 'internal objects', her descriptions of the depressive and paranoid positions, and, perhaps above all, her concept of the death instinct provided topics for considerable theoretical dissension