Article
The Psychological Principles of Early Analysis
Die psychologischen Grundlagen der Frühanalyse
Melanie Klein's 1926 paper in Imago sets out the principles on which her play technique with small children rests. She treats a young child's play as a symbolic expression of phantasies, wishes and experiences, comparable to the dream, and holds that it can therefore be interpreted in the way free associations are interpreted in the analysis of adults. On the evidence of analyses of very young children, she argues that Oedipal tendencies and a severe superego appear much earlier in development than psychoanalysis had assumed. The paper appeared in English in 1927 in the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis as "The Psychological Principles of Infant Analysis".
Main ideas
- A small child's play expresses phantasies, wishes and experiences symbolically, much as a dream does.
- Play can therefore be interpreted in child analysis as free associations are interpreted in adult analysis.
- The analysis of very young children shows Oedipal tendencies and a strict superego far earlier than had been assumed.
What it shows
- 1926
Melanie Klein introduced Play technique
Klein worked out the play technique with her first child patients in Budapest and Berlin and set out its principles in 1926: the child's play, treated like free association, is interpreted directly. In 1955 she looked back on its history and on how it led to her theory.