Introduction to the Work of Melanie Klein (Karnac Classics)

153 Pages·1988·8.31 MB·English

by  Hanna Segal

INTRODUCTION
TO THE WORK OF
MELANIE KLEIN
by
HANNA SEGAL
New, enlarged edition
O Routledge
jn^^ Taylor & Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 1973 by The Hogarth Press Ltd.
Published 1988 by Karnac Books Ltd.
Published 2018 by Routledge
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Copyright © 1964 and 1973 Hanna Segal
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
SEGAL, Hanna, 1918-
Introduction to the Work of Melanie Klein
-New, enl. ed
1. Psychoanalysis. Theories of Klein, Melanie, 1882-1960
I.Title. II. Institute of Psycho-Analysis
150.19'5
ISBN: 9780946439508 (pbk)
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments page vi
Introduction vii
i. Melanie Klein's Early Work i
2* Phantasy 11
3. The Paranoid-Schizoid Position 24
4. Envy 39
5* The Psychopathology of the Paranoid-Schizoid
Position 54
6. The Depressive Position 67
7. Manic Defences 82
8. Reparation 92
9. The Early Stages of the Oedipus Complex 103
10. Postscript on Technique 117
Glossary 125
Bibliography of Melanie Klein 129
Some Significant Discussions of Melanie Klein's Work 133
Index i35
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THE BOOK ITSELF is an acknowledgment of the debt I owe to the
late Melanie Klein.
I am grateful to my patients for their co-operation in the
analytic work, particularly to those who have given me per-
mission to use their material as illustrations in the text*
I am indebted to generations of students at the Institute of
Psycho-Analysis in London for the stimulus they have provided
in their questions, criticisms and suggestions.
The first edition of this book appeared under the auspices of
the Melanie Klein Trust and I received valuable help from the
trustees, especially Miss Betty Joseph and Dr. Elliott Jaques.
Mrs. Jean McGibbon compiled the index of the first edition
and assisted me with the final version of the manuscript.
I am grateful to my husband for help and support.
H.S,
INTRODUCTION
THIS BOOK is based on a series of lectures given over a number
of years at the Institute of Psycho-Analysis in London. As
I have been asked repeatedly by students for a transcript of
the lecture notes, I concluded that it would be useful to edit
them and present them as a book.
The course was designed to introduce the students to
Melanie Klein's contributions to psycho-analytical theory
and practice. As it was given to students in their third year of
psycho-analytical training, a thorough knowledge of Freud is
taken for granted throughout. In a limited number of lectures
it is possible only to give a rather simplified and schematic
description of Melanie Klein's theoretical contributions, but
as psycho-analytical theories are derived from clinical ex-
perience and meant to throw light on clinical material
I rely on my clinical illustrations to convey them more fully.
The lectures are meant as an introduction and not as a
substitute for the study of Melanie Klein's own writings.
They can be used as a guide to reading. No references are
made in the text as they would have to be far too numerous;
instead, a list 'of relevant literature is appended to each
chapter.* One exception has been made in the chapter on
"The Psychopathology of the Paranoid-Schizoid Position"
as Bion's contribution here occupies a unique position, and
I have used his own terminology. A full chronological
bibliography of Mrs. Klein's works available in English is
appended, as well as a selected bibliography of critical
writings about her work.
* Only papers dealing with Melanie Klein's work will be listed, as classical
analytic literature has been on the curriculum of students in the earlier years
of their training.
vii
viii Introduction to the Work of Melanie Klein
The order of the chapters is the same as that adopted for
the lectures. In a way, the development of psycho-analytical
theory is the reverse of the development of the individual.
The study of adult neurotics led Freud to discoveries first
about childhood and then about infancy, each discovery
about the earlier stages of development enriching and
illuminating the knowledge of the later ones. Similarly,
Melanie Klein, in her work with children, was led to the
discovery that both the Oedipus complex and the super-ego
are well in evidence at a much earlier age than had been
assumed; exploring further, she was led to the early roots of
the Oedipus complex, then to her formulations about the
depressive position and, lastly, about the paranoid-schizoid
position. If one follows the chronological order of Melanie
Klein's contributions, the links of her work with that of
Freud are much clearer, and one can follow the develop-
ment of her theories at each stage. On the other hand there
are great advantages in beginning with earliest infancy and
trying to describe the psychological growth of the individual
as we see it now in the light of Melanie Klein's theory.
However, starting in that way, one has to begin with those
phases of development in which the psychological pheno-
mena are the most remote from adult experience, the most
difficult to study, and therefore, not surprisingly, the most
controversial. I have decided to try combining both
approaches: in the first chapter I give an outline of Melanie
Klein's early work, trying to show the development of her
work, particularly in the Psychoanalysis of Children. I go on
to describe the implication of her work for the concept of
unconscious phantasy. Then I abandon the historical
approach in order to present her definitive views on psycho-
logical growth. We have accumulated sufficient know-
ledge, and our theory is sufficiently comprehensive to
warrant an attempt to present it as a whole.
Most of the chapters are devoted to an account of the
phenomena in the paranoid-schizoid and the depressive
positions, and I think it would be useful, at the outset, to try
to elucidate the term "position." In some sense, the
paranoid-schizoid position and the depressive position are
Introduction ix
phases of development. They could be seen &$ subdivisions
of the oral stage, the former occupying the first three to four
months and being followed by the latter in the second half
of the first year. The paranoid-schizoid position is charac-
terized by the infant's unawareness of "persons," his
relationships being to part objects, and by the prevalence of
splitting processes and paranoid anxiety. The beginning of
the depressive position is marked by the recognition of the
mother as a whole person and is characterized by a relation-
ship to whole objects and by a prevalence of integration,
ambivalence, depressive anxiety and guilt. But Melanie
Klein chose the term "position" to emphasize the fact that
the phenomenon she was describing was not simply a passing
"stage" or a "phase" such as, for example, the oral phase;
her term implies a specific configuration of object relations,
anxieties and defences which persist throughout life. The
depressive position never fully supersedes the paranoid-
schizoid position; the integration achieved is never complete
and defences against the depressive conflict bring about
regression to paranoid-schizoid phenomena, so that the
individual at all times may oscillate between the two.
Problems met with in later stages, as, for instance, the
Oedipus complex, can be tackled within a paranoid-
schizoid or a depressive pattern of relationships, anxiety
and defences, and neurotic defences can be evolved by
a paranoid-schizoid or a manic-depressive personality.
The way in which object relations are integrated in the
depressive position remains the basis of the personality
structure. What happens in later development is that
depressive anxieties are modified and become gradually less
severe.
Some paranoid and depressive anxieties always remain
active within the personality, but when the ego is sufficiently
integrated and has established a relatively secure relation-
ship to reality during the working-through of the depressive
position, neurotic mechanisms gradually take over from
psychotic ones. Thus, in Melanie Klein's view, infantile
neurosis is a defence against underlying paranoid and
depressive anxieties, and a way of binding and working
x Introduction to the Work of Melanie Kldn
them through. As integrative processes initiated in the
depressive position continue, anxiety lessens and reparation,
sublimation and creativity tend to replace both psychotic
and neurotic mechanisms of defence.
CHAPTER ONE
MELANIE KLEIN'S EARLY WORK
ONE COULD DIVIDE Melanie Klein's contributions to psycho-
analytical theory and technique broadly into three distinct
phases.
The first phase starts with her paper "On the Develop-
ment of the Child" and culminates in the publication of
The Psycho-Analysis of Children in 1932. During this phase
she laid the foundations of child analysis and traced the
Oedipus complex and the super-ego to early developmental
roots.
The second phase led to the formulation of the concept of
the depressive position and the manic defence mechanisms,
described mainly in her paper "A Contribution to the
Psychogenesis of the Manic Depressive States" (1934) and
"Mourning and its Relation to Manic Depressive States"
(1940).
The third phase was concerned with the earliest stage,
which she called the paranoid-schizoid position, mainly
formulated in her paper "Notes on some Schizoid Mechan-
isms" (1946) and in her book Envy and Gratitude (1957).
There is a significant change in her theoretical outlook,
from the time of her formulation of the concept of positions
in 1934. Up till that time she followed Freud and Abraham
in describing her findings in terms of libidinal stages and the
structural theory of the ego, super-ego and id. From 1934
onwards, however, she formulated her findings primarily in
terms of her own structural concept of positions. The con-
cept of "position" does not conflict with the concept of the
ego, super-ego and id, but it purports to define the actual