Introducing Melanie Klein: A Graphic Guide

By R.D. Hinshelwood, Susan Robinson, Oscar Zárate

Book Overview

INTRODUCING guide to the pioneering child psychoanalyst. Born in Vienna in 1882, Melanie Klein became a pioneer in child psychoanalysis and developed several ground-breaking concepts about the nature and crucial importance of the early stages of infantile development. Although she was a devoted Freudian, many of her ideas were seen within the psychoanalytic movement as highly controversial, and this led to heated conflicts, particularly with Freud's daughter, Anna. Introducing Melanie Klein brilliantly explains Klein's ideas, and shows the importance of her startling discoveries which raised such opposition at the time and are only now being recognized for their explanatory power. Her concepts of the depressive position and the paranoid-schizoid position are now in common usage and her work has to be taken seriously by psychoanalysts the world over. She is also now important in many academic fields within the human sciences.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 184831213X
• ISBN13: 9781848312135
• Release Date: March 2011
• Publisher: Icon Books
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.6" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

a "Peter Rabbit" version of Melanie Klein

The other reviews didn't say this, but this book employs almost a comic book approach to Melanie Klein's life and ideas. Every page has incredible graphics with captions by the people in the book describing their views. I read it in two sittings, and feel I now know something about object relations and child psychiatry that I hadn't known. There is a whole series of "introducing" books that I plan to investigate.

Excellent Visual Summary Of Melanie Klein's Psychology

Dr. Hinshelwood, one of the world's leading proponents of Kleinian psychoanalysis, has produced an interesting and readable synopsis of the work of the noted psychoanalyst, Melanie Klein. Often difficult to understand, Mrs. Klein's work is centred on the intrapsychic aspects of human development. This slim volume allows the reader an opportunity to appreciate some of the more complex aspects of Kleinian thought. Having digested Dr. Hinshelwood's excellent text entitled "Clinical Klein", I found the visual depictions in "Introducing Melanie Klein" of some of the same cases described in his other work to be helpful and clarifying. I would recommend any interested reader pick up both volumes and use the "Introducing..." book as a quick reference guide to the "Clinical..." text.