Psychologist Melanie Klein

Psychologist Melanie Klein, best known for developing play therapy and object relations theory, believed that adult relationships are shaped by those experienced in infancy. Learn more about her life and the enormous contributions she made to her field.

Personal Life

Born Melanie Reizes in Vienna, Austria, on March 30, 1882, Klein's initial ambition was to attend medical school. Life intervened, however, when she married Arthur Klein at age 21 and had two children, Melitta (1904) and Hans (1907). The family traveled frequently for her husband's job before settling in Budapest in 1910. She had her third child, Erich, in 1914. Her unhappy marriage to Arthur Klein dissolved in 1925.

Klein struggled with depression throughout her life and was significantly affected by the early deaths of two siblings and the 1934 death of her eldest son. She wrote several psychoanalytic papers on the topic, attributing depression to unresolved childhood issues.

She died on September 22, 1960.

Career

Klein studied with and received treatment in Budapest from 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 Psychoanalytic Congress in Budapest, which inspired her to write her first psychoanalytic paper, "The Development of a Child." The experience reinforced her interest in psychoanalysis. In 1921, she moved to Berlin and began working with noted psychoanalyst Karl Abraham.

Klein's play technique ran counter to Anna Freud's belief that young 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.

Contributions to Psychology

Melanie Klein had a significant impact on developmental psychology, which focuses on human growth throughout life. Childhood is a time of tremendous change, of course, but people also continue to grow and develop during the early, middle, and senior years.

Klein's play therapy technique is still widely used today. Her emphasis on the role of the mother-child relationship and other interpersonal connections still echoes in contemporary psychology.

Publications

Klein penned many works, among them:

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