New Directions in Psycho-analysis: The Significance of Infant Conflict in the Pattern of Adult Behaviour

Melanie Klein was born in Vienna, the fourth and youngest child of Jewish parents. Her childhood setting was a highly intellectual one, and, at the age of 14, she knew she wanted to study medicine. Her prospects came to an end when she married at an early age and became the mother of three children. Klein was a wife and mother when she entered psychoanalysis in 1912. Using insights that she gained from her psychoanalysis and applying them to disturbed children, she became the first major child psychologist. In 1919 she presented her first paper, "The Development of a Child," at a meeting of the Budapest Psychoanalytic Society. In 1921 she moved to Berlin and began developing her theory of mental functioning in young children and her analytic play technique. She moved permanently to London in 1926, where her theoretical framework created bitter controversy in the British Psychoanalytic Society. Klein's work with children remains influential, and her theoretical framework still enjoys considerable respect.