Article
Mourning and its Relation to Manic-Depressive States
Melanie Klein's 1940 paper in the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis connects normal mourning with the depressive position of infancy. The mourner, she argues, passes through a modified and transitory manic-depressive state and comes out of it. An actual loss revives the early fear of having lost the loved internal objects, and the work of mourning rebuilds the inner world by reinstating them. The infantile depressive position finds expression in the infantile neurosis, through which it is worked through and gradually overcome. The paper also elaborates the manic defences, among them triumph, control and contempt.
Main ideas
- Normal mourning is a modified, transitory manic-depressive state that the mourner overcomes.
- A real loss reactivates the early fear of having lost the loved internal objects.
- The work of mourning rebuilds the inner world by reinstating the internal objects.
- The infantile neurosis is the means by which the early depressive position is worked through and overcome.
- Manic defences such as triumph, control and contempt are set out in detail.
What it shows
- 1940
Melanie Klein reworked Working through
Klein carries Freud's clinical term into development. For her, working through is not only how a patient overcomes a resistance in treatment: the infant works through the depressive position itself, in the infantile neurosis, and this is part of how the early ego is organized and integrated. Each later loss revives the position, so mourning becomes a renewed working through of it.
- 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.