Psychology

One of the many interesting and surprising experience of the beginner in child analysis is to find in even very young children a capacity for insight which is often far greater than that of adults, Melanie Klein (Cherry. n.d.)  This quote summarizes Dr. Kleins passion for child development.  She was a pioneer in child psychoanalysis and had two primary theories Play Therapy and Object Relations.  Klein compared Play Therapy to the free association technique used in adult analysis. She believed that observing a child playing with blocks, puzzles, and dolls and drawing their subconscious issues would surface.  Child psychologists than Freuds theories use this technique more today.

Dr. Kleins Object Relations theory takes a whole object, which includes a person, and divides it into smaller objects or parts.  For example, a mothers breast that feeds her child is a part of a whole.  This paper will introduce you to a phenomenal woman who still affects the psychological world fifty years after her death.  In addition, to a detail overview of Kleins theories, including an analysis of one of todays young celebrities.

Melanie was born in Vienna, Austria on March 30, 1882.  Her first ambition was
to be a doctor following her fathers path, Dr. Moriz Reisez. Dr. Reisez married Libusa Deutsch and they had four children, Melanie being the youngest. When Reisez practice was slow, Libusa opened a shop of exotic plants and animals, but the family had inherited a sufficient amount of money, and Dr. Reisez opened a dental practice (Grosskurth. 1986).

Klein was close to two of her siblings Emmanuel, her only brother who taught her to speak Greek and Latin, and introduced her to the elite society of Vienna and Sidonie who taught her to read and write, to help her pass entrance exams into several schools with a fervent desire to attend a university and study medicine.  Both Emmanuel and Sidonie died at young ages leaving Melanie in a depressed state that would last a lifetime. Her father died when she was eighteen and Melanie stayed close to her mother, who died in l914.

Klein respected her mother for holding the family together and making sure her children had a happy childhood.  Although she though of herself as an atheist, when Melanie was older, she never denied her Jewish roots and had little respect for those who did (Grosskurth. 1986). Melanie actually encouraged all parents to open their children up to an organized religion with their own beliefs.

At nineteen years old, Melanie became engaged to Emmanuels friend, Arthur Stephen Klein. She was studying art and history at Vienna University, but forfeited going to medical school to accompany her husband, an engineer to different countries.  Because of this, she never received an academic degree.  For many, her lack of proof of medical knowledge (Grosskurth. 1986) compromised her validity.  Melanie traveled to Slovakia and Silesia with her husband, had two children Melitta in l904, and Hans, in l907.  Her life changed dramatically in l910 when they moved to Budapest and she discovered the works of Sigmund Freud for the first time.

Melanie had her third child in l914, and this made her become even more interested in analyzing children.  She then started an admirable career in psychoanalysis.

In l917, she met Dr. Freud, and by l919, she read her first paper, The Development of a Child, to the Hungarian Society (Grosskurth.1986).  At this time, she also became a member of the Budapest Psychoanalytic Society.  Klein and her children moved to Slovakia, and by l922, she divorced her husband.

Melanie met psychoanalyst, Karl Abraham, who  encouraged her practice of child analysis (Grosskurth. 1986). In 1921, she moved to Berlin and opened a psychoanalytical practice for adults and children she also went into therapy herself with Abraham, who died fourteen months later. Melanie then decided to analyze herself with Freudian techniques.  At this same time Ann Freud, Sigmunds daughter, started analyzing children their techniques were polar opposites, the Berlin Society acknowledge Kleins as unorthodox.,  because over her academic standings.

Dr. Klein went on a lecture tour with Ernest Jones and she comprised the speeches in her first book, The Psycho-Analysis of Children (Segal. 1980). Melanie then moved to England, and in l927, the British Psychoanalytic Society warmly accepted her
this was a tremendous acknowledgement.

Ann Freud and Melanie never agreed on a similar psychological theory in child development. Kleins theory that fear and aggression are important concerns in childrens psychological development brought her into continuous conflict with the Ann and Sigmund Freud.  Many controversies came from this disparity between ll942 and l944 eventually splitting Freudian and Kleinian groups of analysts in the British Psychoanalytical Society.

Dr. Klein still struggled with depression, which intensified with the death of her oldest son, in l933.  She wrote numerous papers on her theory called death instinct, attributing depression to unresolved childhood issues (Cherry. n.d.). Melanie remained in England until her death on September 22, l969 from complications from surgery.

Dr. Kleins theoretical work examined extremely aggressive fantasies of hate, envy, and greed in very young and very ill children (Anderson.2009). She believed that the human psyche flips position in which Eros, the libido, or Thanatos, the death instinct is in the forefront.  The psychological state that has a strong tendency of Thanatos, Klein called paranoid-schizoid, and the state of psyche dominated by Eros, the depressive.  

Paranoid -schizoid and depressive positions occur in the pre-oedipal, oral phase of an infants development. They are underlined by unconscious fantasy, and are stages in the normal development of the ego and object relationships. Klein believed that the infant interjects both good and bad objects.  Internationalization of good objects is essential to the development of a healthy ego (Klein.1946).   Klein concluded the depressive position as the most mature form of psychological organization (Klein. 1946) which continuously develops throughout their lifetime.  This happens during the second quarter of the babys first year before that their in the paranoid-schizoid position.  Depressive and paranoid-schizoid facets entwine for the first few years of childhood.
(Klein. 1946).

Sigmund Freud, W.R.D. Fairbairn, and Melanie Klein developed object Relations Theory.  The idea is that the self, exists only in relation to other objects, which may be external or internal (Anderson. 2009).  Internal objects are formed through parents interaction a childs first object of desire is his caregiver (Anderson.2009), who satisfied their needs.  There are three components to this theory attachment, frustration, and rejection. These representations are universal emotional states, and are the major building blocks of personality (Anderson. 2009).

Play therapy was developed by Dr. Klein to assist in analyzing children which
as you can surmise was the basis for her analysis.  She believed that, since children cannot express themselves easily through verbal associations, they could do so through play and art (Anderson 2009).  The childs unconscious fantasies and hidden emotions would be revealed through play.

Play therapy could also help release negative or aggressive feelings opening the door to treating the emotional disorder.  Klein used it to uncover unconscious conflicts underlying childrens dysfunctional behavior (Anderson.2009). Ann Freud saw play therapy as educational and helpful for children to adapt to reality she did not think it revealed any unconscious conflicts.

Klein did concentrate on child development and psychoanalysis, but her practice did include adults. She coined a term called projective identification in l946, and used this psychological process frequently with her adult patients.  Projective identification is considered a primal defense mechanism. The premise is when a patient is severely traumatized they may describe the incident, but remain unemotional.  When questioned by Klein they deny having any feelings about the incident.  The analyst when listening, they begin to experience emotions, in response.  This journey initiates the analyst to project the patients feelings resulting from the trauma.  Projective identification allows the patient to recognize the painful feelings or thoughts they were previously blocked out of their memory (Grosskurth. 1986).

Klein made immense contributions in the field of psychology, especially in
child development.  She emphasized the importance of interpersonal relationships in the psychoanalytic field. She particularly stressed the importance of the mother-child relationship in child development (Grosskurth. 1986). Her development of play therapy
was a milestone in child analysis  Kleins object relations theory continued to be
Enhanced in the 1940s and 1950s by British psychologists, and this British Object Relations School became quite influential (Grosskurth. 1986).

Utilizing Melanie Kleins theories I am going to apply some of the concepts to
a famous celebrity pop singer and actor Lindsay Lohan. Lindsay was born on July 2, l986 in New York to Michael Lohan and Donata Sullivan.  She has three younger siblings all in the entertainment field.  Lohan is of Irish and Italian heritage and was raised a Catholic this was a positive step in Kleins theories to be part of an organized religion.

Lindsay started in the entertainment industry as a young child model at three years old, and at age ten, she began her acting career.   She had scandalous family issues that became known in 2004 about her father. He was in prison for securities fraud for most of Lindsays adolescence Michael was sent back in 2005 for aggravated unlicensed driving, and attempted assault. Later that year her parents divorced (Lindsay-Lohan-updates. 2007).

With this brief biography, we can see Lindsay had a confusing, colorful childhood. It has been reported through many sources that she had drug problems,
an obvious eating disorder, and drinks alcohol excessively.  A party girl, like most of the celebrities her age, in and out of rehab, and a history of bad relationships. Did her childhood influence her choices as an adult  Would Dr. Kleins theories have had a positive affect on Lindsays tumultuous life

The mother-child relationship was a critical concept of Dr. Kleins child development theories.  Lindsays mother worked when she was a child, as did Lindsay.
How could that relationship have been as strong as it should have been  This aspect of
Lindsays life could be the reason she cannot find a stable, healthy relationship.  As a young child, she did not have that with either parent even before their divorce.

Kleins Object Relation Theory, states, internal objects are formed through parent interaction (Anderson.2009). The theorys leading three components are attachment, frustration, and rejection (Anderson.2009). Ms. Lohan did not have sufficient parent interaction which through her adolescence and into adulthood is extremely noticeable. She struggles with substance abuse an escape from her unrealistic lifestyle. She has an eating disorder, which is possibly a cry for attention from her parents, attention she never experienced as a child.  Lohan is a good example of someone Klein was creating her theories to help.