Melanie Klein: Early Analysis, Play, and the Question of Freedom (SpringerBriefs on Key Thinkers in Education)

"This volume introduces the psychoanalyst Melanie Klein to the general field of education and traces her theories of mental life as an emotional situation, through to problems of self/other relations in our own time. The case is made for Klein's relevance and the difficulties her theories pose to the activities of learning and pedagogical relation. Klein's vocabulary--the paranoid/schizoid and depressive positions, phantasy, object relations, projective identification, anxiety, envy, and the urge for reparation and gratitude-- are discussed in terms of their evolution and the designs of her main questions, all stemming from the problem of inhibition. Her contribution to an understanding of symbolization and the shift from concrete thinking to greater freedom of mind is analyzed. The essay develops the following questions: why is learning an emotional situation? How did Klein's life and larger history influence her views? What are her central theories of mental life? Why did Klein focus on anxiety and phantasies as making up the life of the mind? What is object relations theory? And, what does Klein's model of the self proffer to contemporary education in schools and in universities?"--Publisher's web site Contents 6 1 Preludes 8 Abstract 8 1.1 Disquieting Imagination 9 1.2 The Rough Drafts of Tiny Humanity 11 1.3 Objects Are Closer Than They Appear 14 1.4 Dilemmas of Introductions 15 2 Affecting Psychoanalysis 19 Abstract 19 2.1 Preconditions as Another Term for Origins 20 2.2 An Education in Psychoanalysis 22 2.3 Entrances and Exists 23 2.4 Education as We Do Not Know It 25 2.5 Prolepsis: 1927 Symposium on Child Analysis and the Fallout of Education 29 3 The Early Education of Psychoanalysis 31 Abstract 31 3.1 Attractions in the Making 32 3.2 The Work of Libido 35 3.3 Transference 37 3.4 Little Hans: The First Case of Child Analysis 37 3.5 Klein's ``Development of a Child, Part One'' 39 4 Away from Education: Step-by-Step 42 Abstract 42 4.1 A Change of Heart 43 4.2 ``The Child's Resistance to Enlightenment'': Part Two 44 4.3 Libido Goes to School 45 4.4 What Is the Teacher To Do? 48 4.5 ``Just Like Dreams'' 48 5 The Psychoanalytic Situation: Early Analysis and Its Theory of Play Technique 51 Abstract 51 5.1 ``Forgets All Dreams'': The Early Clinic of Klein's Berlin Practice 52 5.2 Anxiety as Deep-Seated 56 5.3 ``I Don't Mind'': From Monotonous Games to Worries of Being Watched 57 5.4 ``There's Something About Life I Don't like'': Erna's Depression and the Mother's Body 58 5.5 A World of Small Toys and Gigantic Feelings 60 6 ``Everything Good and Bad'': Developing Depressive Position and Imagination 61 Abstract 61 6.1 From Weaning and Loss to Symbolization of Mind 63 6.2 Little ``Dick'' 65 6.3 ``Most of All, I'd Like to Put Mama in the Corner'': Opera Boy 67 6.4 Psychotic States, Internal Persecutors, and the Depressive Position 69 6.5 The Dispersal of Love and the Designated Mourner 71 7 ``Six Degrees of Separation'': The Freud-Klein Controversies 1941--1945 74 Abstract 74 7.1 Education and Infancy 75 7.2 Psychoanalytic Diaspora 77 7.3 A Family Affair 78 7.4 Drives Versus Object Relations 80 7.5 Compromises 81 8 ``If I Were You'': A Phantasy in Two Parts 82 Abstract 82 8.1 Splitting of the Object and the Ego 83 8.2 Boundless Transference 87 8.3 Projective Identifications and the Changes of Identity 89 8.4 ``To Bite the Hand that Feeds One'': Emotional Attitudes and the Urge for Reparation 90 8.5 ``The Pain of Integration'' 92 9 Narratives of the Psychoanalytic Situation: On the Friendship of Mrs. K. and Richard 95 Abstract 95 9.1 ``Go Right to the Depths'' 97 9.2 ``Do You Really Know What I Think? How Can You Really Know?'': Twenty-Fourth Session, Saturday 100 9.3 ``Do Psycho-Analysts Go to Church?'': Fifty-Second Session, Sunday 101 9.4 ``Must We Say Goodbye?'': The Sadness of Parting 103 9.5 A Fortuitous Meeting: Richard's Recollections of the Analysis 106 References 108 Works by Melanie Klein 108 Other Works 108 Sources of Interest 108 Internet Resources 109 General References 109 "This volume introduces the psychoanalyst Melanie Klein to the general field of education and traces her theories of mental life as an emotional situation, through to problems of self/other relations in our own time. The case is made for Klein's relevance and the difficulties her theories pose to the activities of learning and pedagogical relation. Klein's vocabulary--the paranoid/schizoid and depressive positions, phantasy, object relations, projective identification, anxiety, envy, and the urge for reparation and gratitude--are discussed in terms of their evolution and the designs of her main questions, all stemming from the problem of inhibition. Her contribution to an understanding of symbolization and the shift from concrete thinking to greater freedom of mind is analyzed. The essay develops the following questions: why is learning an emotional situation? How did Klein's life and larger history influence her views? What are her central theories of mental life? Why did Klein focus on anxiety and phantasies as making up the life of the mind? What is object relations theory? And, what does Klein's model of the self proffer to contemporary education in schools and in universities?"--Publisher's description Front Matter....Pages i-vi Preludes....Pages 1-11 Affecting Psychoanalysis....Pages 13-24 The Early Education of Psychoanalysis....Pages 25-35 Away from Education: Step-by-Step....Pages 37-45 The Psychoanalytic Situation: Early Analysis and Its Theory of Play Technique....Pages 47-56 “Everything Good and Bad”: Developing Depressive Position and Imagination....Pages 57-69 “Six Degrees of Separation”: The Freud-Klein Controversies 1941–1945....Pages 71-78 “If I Were You”: A Phantasy in Two Parts....Pages 79-91 Narratives of the Psychoanalytic Situation: On the Friendship of Mrs. K. and Richard....Pages 93-105 Back Matter....Pages 107-112 Annotation Introducing the psychoanalyst Melanie Klein to the general field of education, this book traces her theories of mental life as an emotional situation, through to problems of self/other relations in our own time. The case is made for Klein's relevance and the difficulties her theories pose to the activities of learning and pedagogical relation