Article
A Contribution to the Theory of Anxiety and Guilt
Melanie Klein's 1948 paper in the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis on the sources of anxiety and guilt. She roots anxiety in the death instinct operating within the organism, which the ego experiences as a fear of annihilation. She distinguishes two kinds: persecutory anxiety, a fear for the self, and depressive anxiety together with guilt, which are fears for the loved object. Both are traced to the first months of life, and her account is set against Freud's late theory of anxiety. The paper was reprinted as "On the Theory of Anxiety and Guilt" in Developments in Psycho-Analysis (1952).
Main ideas
- Anxiety arises from the death instinct working within the organism, felt by the ego as a fear of annihilation.
- Persecutory anxiety is a fear for the self.
- Depressive anxiety and guilt are fears for the loved object.
- Both kinds of anxiety go back to the first months of life.
- Klein sets her account against Freud's late theory of anxiety.
What it shows
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.
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.