Melanie Klein: A Contemporary Introduction

This important book provides a concise introduction to Melanie Klein and the key concepts and theories she founded, outlining their application to psychoanalytic technique, and explaining how her ideas have been further developed. As Klein’s ideas have opened the exploration of deeper and more primitive areas of the mind, they have led to extensive theoretical and technical developments across the world, in various schools of psychoanalytic thought. This book addresses Klein’s early papers on her work with children and her extensions of Freud’s ideas, as well as her divergence from them, highlighting Klein’s emphasis on loving relationships in the mitigation of hatred, in children’s overall development and in the drive for reparation. Examples from Klein’s clinical work with children and adults are included to illustrate and illuminate her points. Offering clear expositions of complex concepts and linking to more detailed sources of information, this book is important reading for all clinicians, trainees and students interested in emotional development and in the analysis of children and adults.