Melanie Klein (1882-) was a psychoanalyst who developed analytical work with children, creating psychoanalytical methods and theories about the treatment of children. Melanie Klein's phrases are widely disseminated and their work still contributes a lot to Child Psychoanalysis.

In this sense, in order for you to get to know the work of this illustrious psychoanalyst, we have brought you some of Melanie Klein's phrases and selected quotes from her books.

Best Phrases by Melanie Klein

"Whoever eats of the fruit of knowledge is always thrown out of some paradise."

Knowledge can upset the customs and ignorance of society, so unfortunately, your knowledge may be intolerated in certain social environments.

"This state of internal loneliness, I believe, results from the omnipresent longing for an unattainable perfect internal state."

"People separate parts of their personality to be able to cope with otherwise uncontrollable conflicts."

Many people spend their lives trying to be perfect, without even knowing if this, in fact, exists. People try to be accepted, live around the fear of rejection, creating, then, "an inner loneliness".

How psychoanalyst Melanie Klein explains anxiety, envy, and gratitude:

On Melanie Klein's phrases It can be seen that these feelings are divergent from when we are born, when the first object of desire is the maternal breast. Envy acts on deprivation, on the fact of not having something as precious as the breast, and may lead him to have attitudes to destroy it.

Thus, it shows that the envious person takes pleasure in the misfortune of the other, which can lead him to the destruction of his object of desire, simply because the other has it.

"I consider that anxiety arises from the operation of the death drive within the organism, is felt as fear of annihilation (death) and takes the form of fear of persecution."

"When, through analysis, we get to the deepest conflicts from which hate and anxiety arise, we also find love there."

" The root of creativity is found in the need to repair the good object destroyed during the depressive phase."

"It is an essential part of interpretive work that you must keep in step with fluctuations between love and hate, between happiness and satisfaction on the one hand and persecutory anxiety and depression on the other."

"Balance doesn't mean avoiding conflict; it implies strength to face painful emotions and deal with them."

"Fantasies are innate in the subject, since they are the representatives of the Instincts."

"Innocent fantasies are always present and always active in every individual, existing from the very beginning of life; it is a function of the self."

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"When, through analysis, we get to the deepest conflicts from which hate and anxiety arise, we also find love there."

Melanie Klein's best messages on the development of child psychoanalysis

For Melanie Klein, the feelings of envy and gratitude diverge from birth, with their first object the maternal breast.

"Envy is a very powerful factor in undermining the roots of feelings of love and gratitude, because it affects the oldest relationship of all, the relationship with the mother."

"The extremely ambitious person, despite all his successes, always remains unsatisfied, just as a voracious baby is never satisfied."

You see this a lot in public figures, where you want more and more fame, where it seems that you have never achieved what you are aiming for.

"It is characteristic of the very young baby's emotions to be of a powerful and extreme nature."

"...What we have learned about the child and the adult through psychoanalysis shows that all the sufferings of later life are for the most part repetitions of these earlier ones, and that every child in the first years of life passes through and immeasurable degree of suffering."

The relationship of the mother's breast to the baby is a frustrating object, to which it has a voracious desire to be satisfied, for immediate gratification. At this stage the baby has extreme feelings, to avoid frustration.

"The greatest act of creation is to raise a child, for that means perpetuating life."

"Feelings of love and gratitude arise directly and spontaneously in the baby in response to the love and care of its mother."

"One of the many interesting and surprising experiences of the beginner in child analysis is to find children even at a very young age a capacity for insight that is much greater than that of adults."

"The Symptom presented by the child is in the place of responding to what is "sick" about the family structure..."

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"Weaning is successful when the child accepts a new feeding while managing his internal conflicts well, then finding a compensation for frustration..."

"One of the many interesting and surprising experiences of the beginner in child analysis is to find, even in very young children, a capacity for discernment that is often much greater than that of adults."

"My psychoanalytic work has convinced me that when conflicts between love and hate arise in the baby's mind, and the fear of losing the loved one is activated, a very important step in development is taken."

Excerpts from Melanie Klein's Books

From the psychoanalyst's most important books, we have separated some extracts and phrases Melanie Klein's phrases to learn a little more about his theories:

Melanie Klein quote from The Feeling of Loneliness, Our Adult World and other Essays

"When considering from a psychoanalytic point of view the behavior of people in their social environment, it is necessary to investigate how the individual develops

from childhood to maturity.

[...]

Before I proceed in my description of the child's development, I think I should briefly define, from a psychoanalytic point of view, the terms self and ego. The ego, according to Freud, is the organized part of the self, constantly influenced by instinctive impulses, but keeping them under control by repression; moreover, it directs all activities and establishes and maintains the relationship with the worldexternal. self is used to encompass the whole personality, which includes not only the ego but also the instinctive life

which Freud called the id.

[...]

My work has led me to suppose that the ego exists and operates from birth and that, in addition to the functions mentioned above, it has the important task of defending itself against the anxiety stimulated by internal conflict and outside influences. Moreover, it initiates numerous processes of which I will first mention introjection and projection. To the no less important process of division, that is, ofshare impulses and objects, I will come back to this later.

[...]

In conclusion, I wish to restate my hypothesis that while the feeling of loneliness may be diminished or increased by external influences, it can never be completely eliminated, because the tendency toward integration, as well as the grief experienced in that same process, spring from internal sources that continue to operate throughout life."

Melanie Klein quotation: Book: Envy and Gratitude and other works (1946-1963), Volume III of the complete works of Melanie Klein

"Two conclusions - to which I shall return later - can be drawn from these and similar passages: (a) in young children, it is unsatisfied libidinal arousal that becomes anxiety; (b) the most archaic content of anxiety is the sense of danger experienced by the baby that its needs will not be met because the mother is 'absent.

[...]

The newborn baby suffers from persecutory anxiety aroused by the birth process and the loss of the intrauterine situation. A prolonged or difficult birth will fatally intensify this anxiety. Another aspect of this anxious situation is the forced need on the baby to adapt to entirely new conditions."

Melanie Klein quotation: Book: Love, Guilt and Reparation and other works (1921-1945)

"It cannot be denied that it is difficult to know whether the child's tendencies will lead to a normal, neurotic, psychotic, perverted or criminal individual. But precisely because we do not know, we must try to find out. Psychoanalysis offers us the means to do this. And it does even more: it can not only calculate the child's future development, but can modify it, directing it towards moreadequate.

[...]

I have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to expand the concept of schizophrenia in particular and psychosis in general with regard to its occurrence in childhood. Furthermore, I believe that one of the main tasks of the child analyst is the discovery and cure of psychoses during childhood."

Melanie Klein's major books

So, if you want to go deeper into the psychoanalyst's theories, here is a recommendation of her main Melanie Klein books:

• The Progress of Psychoanalysis;
• Narrative of a Child's Analysis;
• Psychoanalysis of the Child;
• The Education of Children - in the light of psychoanalytic research;
• Contributions to Psychoanalysis;
• Love, Hate and Reparation;
• The Feeling of Loneliness;
• Envy and Gratitude; among others.

Finally, if you have come this far to learn about Melanie Klein's phrases If you are interested in Clinical Psychoanalysis, you may be interested in psychoanalysis:

• Enhance self-knowledge: the experience of psychoanalysis is able to provide the student and patient/client with insights into themselves that would be virtually impossible to obtain on their own;
• Improves interpersonal relationships: Understanding how the mind works, in the case of psychoanalysis, can provide better relationships with family and work members. The course is a tool that helps the student to understand other people's thoughts, feelings, emotions, pains, desires, and motivations.

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