Melanie Klein Biography

"One of the many interesting and surprising experiences of the beginner in child analysis is to find in even very young children a capacity for insight which is often far greater than that of adults. " --Melanie Klein

• Play Therapy
• Object Relations

March 30, 1882 in Vienna, Austria

September 22, 1960 in London, England

Born Melanie Reizes in Vienna, Austria, her initial ambition was to attend medical school. She later married Arthur Klein at age 19, briefly attended Vienna University, and had had two children, Melitta (1904) and Hans (1907). The family traveled frequently due to her husband?s job, but eventually settled in Budapest in 1910. She had her third child, Eric, in 1914.

While in Budapest, she began studying with psychoanalyst Sandor Ferenczi who encouraged her to psychoanalyze her own children. Out of Klein's work, the technique known as 'play therapy' emerged and is still used extensively today in psychotherapy.

She met Sigmund Freud for the first time at the 1918 International Psycho-Analytic Congress in Budapest, which inspired her to write her first psychoanalytic paper, "The Development of a Child." The experience reinforced her interest in psychoanalysis and, after the end of her marriage in 1922, she eventually moved to Berlin to work with noted psychoanalyst Karl Abraham.

Klein's play technique ran counter to Anna Freud's belief that children could not be psychoanalyzed. The dispute led to considerable controversy within psychoanalysis, leading many within the psychoanalytic community to take sides in the debate. Freud openly criticized Klein's theories and lack of a formal academic degree.

Klein struggled with depression throughout her life and was significantly affected by the early deaths of two siblings and the 1933 death of her eldest son. She wrote several psychoanalytic papers on the topic, attributing depression to unresolved childhood issues.

Melanie Klein had a significant impact on developmental psychology and her play therapy technique is still widely used today. Her emphasis on the role of the mother-child and interpersonal relationships on development also had a major influence on psychology.

• The Psychoanalysis of Children (1932)
• Contributions to Psychoanalysis, 1921-1945 (1948)
• Narrative of a Child Analysis (1961)
• Our Adult World and Other Essays (1963)

_References:

_{Grosskurth, P. (1986). Melanie Klein Her World and Her Work. New York: Random House.}

_{Segal, H. (1979). Melanie Klein. New York: The Viking Press.}