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 concise, very readable book offers an excellent overview of the work of Melanie Klein. Hanna Segal synthesizes Klein's theoretical constructs, describes the chronological development of her work, discusses the various influences on her thinking, and treats her work in relation to that of Freud and Abraham. Biographical information provides a picture of Melanie Klein the woman and adds to the interest of the book.
Hanna Segal does an excellent job of simplifying Klein's ideas. Although some of the complexity and richness of Klein's thought is lost, the reader can readily make up for its loss by reading either the original works of Klein or Segal's other small book, The Writings of Melanie Klein. The present book is useful both as an introductory work and as a review.
Segal outlines the major contributions Klein has made to psychoanalysis. Klein's focus on the first two years of life placed her in opposition to Freud's work although she saw herself as his principal successor. Over the years her work has been attacked for its highly speculative nature, for her attributing mental structure, complex fantasies and defenses to the infant, and for her use of Freud's death instinct. However, she saw the death instinct “not as a biological speculation but as the actual instinctual basis of love and hate.”
Hanna Segal weaves Klein's theoretical development with her personal life and shows how various factors affected her thinking. Although her work arouses strong emotion today as it did at its inception, certain aspects of it such as her concept of envy and the negative therapeutic reaction, the importance of fantasy in superego development, her emphasis on orality and her use of splitting, projection, and introjection are widely utilized concepts in psychoanalytic thinking today. While some modern writers fail to acknowledge the influence of her work on their thinking, others such as Bion, Grotstein, and Rosenfeld have continued her work but have added complex features. Thi