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While Piaget's theory has been under revision for several decades, most attempts to integrate psychoanalysis with cognitive-developmental theory still refer to his original framework. In the present paper, a contemporary cognitive-developmental stage theory, derived from Piaget, is the vehicle for this integration, and Melanie Klein's theory of infancy is the psychoanalytic model to which it is applied. Klein's theory, though often criticized, resonates surprisingly well with a neo-Piagetian view of early cognitive growth. It also corresponds with research findings regarding infants' interpersonal transactions with their caretakers. However, Klein's ego mechanisms and defenses require some reformulation in order to be compatible with what we now know about early cognitive capacities. Age-specific cognitive constraints must be differentiated from defense mechanisms to help achieve this compatibility. These points of convergence and divergence are arrived at through a detailed neo-Piagetian analysis of Kleinian mechanisms. The paper then concludes with the review of a study supporting some of Klein's basic insights about the influence of psychodynamics on early cognitive development.