Melanie Klein was an Austrian-British psychoanalyst and author recognized as one of the founders of object relations theory, and also one of the first psychoanalysts to write about and study psychoanalysis as it relates to infants and children. Her work developed theories related to child play and the Oedipus complex, as well as completely new ideas such as the depressive position and paranoid-schizoid position, and her work as a whole is now referred to as the Kleinian technique.
As a student she had wanted to study medicine, but her family lost their wealth and she was forced to change her plans, eventually marrying and having four children. It was her marriage and subsequent children that were both the cause of her depression and motivation behind her seminal work.
With her pregnancies contributing to the state of her mental health, she started treatment and therapy with a psychoanalyst in Budapest, which led to her own interest in the field. While previous psychoanalysts, namely Freud (aka sexist asshole, sorry not sorry, I can’t help myself), dealt principally with adults, Klein observed and worked with children.
Her work was often not accepted as she was by this time divorced, and lacking a university degree. In addition to this, she was often pitted against Anna Freud (who would make an interesting blog post for the future), with society naming them rivals, because as we all know, women can only exist as rivals to one another instead of co-conspirators or, God forbid, professionals who work for, not against, each other.
In addition to her unparalleled work on infant and child psychology, she co-founded object relations theory, which, in a nutshell, deals with the internalized and unconscious relationships all individuals have with the people and emotions around them. As previously mentioned, her work oftentimes went in direct contradiction with the work of previous psychoanalysts and contributed to her lack of acceptance in the field.
As can be expected, Klein is the author of numerous works, all of which have been collected today into four volumes, titled as such: Love, Guilt, and Reparation, The Psychoanalysis of Children, Envy and Gratitude, and Narrative of a Child Analysis. Her influence can still be felt in pop culture today through plays, TV series, abundant books written about her, and even indie rock music.
Klein led an impressive life with even more impressive accomplishments, but I wonder what more she could have achieved if she had not been constricted by societal ideals and gender constraints to marry and have children, choices it’s not clear she would have made if these limitations had not forced her hand.