- Play Therapy
- Object Relations
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 and he 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.
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. She also emphasized the role of the mother-child and interpersonal relationships on development.
- The Psychoanalysis of Children (1932)
- Contributions to Psychoanalysis, 1921-1945 (1948)
- Narrative of a Child Analysis (1961)
- Our Adult World and Other Essays (1963)
Grosskurth, Phyllis. (1986). Melanie Klein Her World and Her Work. New York: Random House.
Segal, Hanna. (1979). Melanie Klein. New York: The Viking Press.
