Melanie Klein was a Viennese psychoanalyst who extended the work of Sigmund Freud in significant and innovative ways. She lived and worked in the UK from 1926 until her death in 1959. During her life she was a controversial and divisive figure and has remained so since her death; conflict between the Freudian and Kleinian strands of psychoanalysis dominated the history of psychoanalysis in the latter half of the twentieth century. The reasons why she polarised opinion are multiple and complex; partly they were related to her psychoanalytic ideas and how she expressed them but they were also intrinsic to her personality. In 2016, a pair of delicate low relief sculptures of Melanie Klein in profile were re-discovered, having been hidden away for some eighty years, and have been subsequently identified as the work of the sculptor Oscar Nemon. Roger Amos was asked to write a brief article about these sculptures for publication on the Melanie Klein Trust website. During his research, he discovered that Klein had destroyed two significant works of art depicting herself: one a bust by the same sculptor as the low relief profiles, Oscar Nemon, and the other a portrait by William Coldstream. This beautifully illustrated book is the first comprehensive review of all attempts to portray Klein during her lifetime, from her earliest childhood until her old age, including the work of painters, sculptors, and portrait photographers. It reviews the history of each artistic project and the relationship between Klein and the artist involved, locating them in a narrative of Klein's life. The complex and interrelated reasons why she chose to destroy some of the representations of herself but kept others are identified and discussed. Through an understanding of the subject/artist relationship, Amos illuminates Klein’s professional life in the world of psychoanalysis. A must-read for all scholars and professionals working in the field of psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and psychodynamic counselling, plus those with an interest in Melanie Klein or aesthetics, this enjoyable read shines a never-before seen light on to the world of Melanie Klein.

Melanie Klein is one of the founding figures of psychoanalysis. In her lifetime, she was a controversial and powerful figure and her legacy has spread worldwide. Here is a comprehensive review of the many attempts to portray this elusive and complex woman, including the work of painters, sculptors, and portrait photographers. Its genesis was an article commissioned by the Melanie Klein Trust after a pair of delicate low relief sculptures of Klein by Oscar Nemon were re-discovered after eighty years in hiding. During his research, Roger Amos uncovered much material on depictions of Klein, including the fact that she had destroyed two significant works of art: a bust, also by Nemon, and a portrait by William Coldstream. What had driven her to destroy these representations of herself? Why did others survive? The complex and interrelated reasons are identified and discussed alongside the history of each artistic project, locating them in a narrative of Klein’s life. Through an understanding of the subject/artist relationship, Amos illuminates Klein’s professional life in a new, intriguing, and enjoyable approach. A must-read for all scholars and professionals in the fields of psychoanalysis and portraiture, plus those with an interest in Melanie Klein or aesthetics.

This important book provides a concise introduction to Melanie Klein and the key concepts and theories she founded, outlining their application to psychoanalytic technique, and explaining how her ideas have been further developed. As Klein’s ideas have opened the exploration of deeper and more primitive areas of the mind, they have led to extensive theoretical and technical developments across the world, in various schools of psychoanalytic thought. This book addresses Klein’s early papers on her work with children and her extensions of Freud’s ideas, as well as her divergence from them, highlighting Klein’s emphasis on loving relationships in the mitigation of hatred, in children’s overall development and in the drive for reparation. Examples from Klein’s clinical work with children and adults are included to illustrate and illuminate her points. Offering clear expositions of complex concepts and linking to more detailed sources of information, this book is important reading for all clinicians, trainees and students interested in emotional development and in the analysis of children and adults.

Until recently underestimated in America, Melanie Klein was a leading figure in psychoanalytic circles from the 1920s until her death in 1960. Parent of object-relations theory, she saw the development of children, and of the female in particular, in a way that was both an extension of and a challenge to orthodox Freudian thinking. Now, drawing on a wealth of hitherto unexplored documents as well as extensive interviews with people who knew and worked with Klein, Phyllis Grosskurth has written a superb account of this important, complicated woman and her theories—theories that are still growing in influence both here and abroad. Melanie Klein was not only a highly original theorist and effective practitioner, but a thoroughly fascinating woman. This brilliant, definitive book on her life is a major contribution to psychoanalytic history.

One of the twentieth century’s most influential texts on philosophical aesthetics Painting as an Art is acclaimed philosopher Richard Wollheim’s encompassing vision of how to view art. Transcending the traditional boundaries of art history, Wollheim draws on his three great passions—philosophy, psychology, and art—to present an illuminating theory of the very experience of art. He shows how to unlock the meaning of a painting by retrieving—almost reenacting—the creative activity that produced it. In order to fully appreciate a work of art, Wollheim argues, critics must bring a much richer conception of human psychology than they have in the past. This classic book points the way to discovering what is most profound and subtle about paintings by major artists such as Titian, Bellini, and de Kooning.

This book briliantly explains Klein's work, describing the startling discoveries that raised such opposition at the time. Now Klein's ideas are being recognized for their explanatory power, and her concepts of the depressive and paranoid-schizoid positions are in common usage.

Melanie Klein remains one of the most important and influential figures in psychoanalysis. Klein pioneered the analysis of children and applied her insights on the infantile origins of unconscious drives to adult analysis.Meira Likierman's study is the best available introduction to Melanie Klein's thought and work.