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A Contribution to the Psychogenesis of Manic-Depressive States
What it shows
- 1935
Melanie Klein introduced Depressive position
Klein first used the term in this 1935 paper and elaborated it in 'Mourning and its Relation to Manic-Depressive States' (1940).
Melanie Klein introduced Reparation
Klein spoke of the wish to make good the injury done to the mother in her 1929 paper on a work of art and the creative impulse, and in 1935 set reparation within the depressive position, distinguishing it from manic reparation.
- 1935
Melanie Klein introduced Internal object
In her 1935 paper on manic-depressive states Klein describes the good and bad objects the infant takes into itself, and makes the fate of the loved internal object central to the depressive position. In 1940 she shows mourning to be the work of re-establishing it within.
- 1935
Melanie Klein introduced Manic defence
Klein describes the manic defences of omnipotence, denial and triumphant control in her 1935 paper as a way of escaping depressive anxiety. In 1940 she shows how they obstruct mourning.
Melanie Klein introduced Persecutory anxiety
Klein contrasts paranoid fears for the self with depressive anxiety for the loved object as early as 1935. In 1948 she sets out persecutory anxiety systematically, rooting it in the death instinct felt as a fear of annihilation.
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Melanie Klein introduced Depressive anxiety
Introduced with the depressive position in 1935 as anxiety and guilt for the loved object. In 1948 Klein set it out systematically against persecutory anxiety.
- 1935
Melanie Klein introduced Part-object
Taking Abraham's notion of partial love as her starting point, Klein contrasts the infant's relation to part-objects, above all the breast, with the move to the whole object that marks the depressive position (1935). She restates the contrast in her 1952 account of infant emotional life.