Article
Early Analysis
Zur Frühanalyse
Zur Frühanalyse (1923; in English, Early Analysis) is an early paper by Melanie Klein, published in Imago, on the part anxiety plays in children's inhibitions and sublimations. Klein argues that ordinary activities such as speaking, playing, moving and learning acquire a symbolic, libidinal meaning for the child. When anxiety becomes attached to that meaning, the activity is inhibited; when the anxiety is worked through in analysis, the activity is freed and can become a sublimation.
Main ideas
- Activities such as speech, play, movement and learning take on a symbolic, libidinal meaning for the child.
- When anxiety attaches to that symbolic meaning, the activity becomes inhibited.
- When the anxiety is worked through, the activity is freed and becomes a sublimation.
- Inhibition and sublimation are thus two outcomes of the same link between anxiety and libidinal meaning.