Melanie Klein

From Library Journal
Klein (1882-1960) was internationally known as the mother of child analysis and a reformer in the field of Freudian psychoanalysis. Her contribution came via analysis of her own children and emphasized the darker side of object relations: envy, sadism, and Thanatos. She was born in Hungary, trained in Berlin, and had great influence in England after emigrating there, dividing the psychoanalytic profession between Anna Freud and herself. This intellectual biography is the second volume of "Female Genius: Life, Madness, Words," a trilogy by psychoanalyst and critic Kristeva (linguistics, Univ. of Paris). (Hannah Arendt, published last summer, was Volume 1; the forthcoming Colette will be Volume 3.) While the language is clear, it is riddled with psychoanalytic jargon and is appropriate for cognoscenti who admire Freud and want to delve into the work of an audacious and difficult follower. Kristeva, a formidable cultural historian and critic, brings a rich mix of data and ideas for psychoanalytic theorists, but Phyllis Grosskurth's Melanie Klein: Her World and Her Work (Jason Aronson, 1995) is much more suited to the general reader. E. James Lieberman, George Washington Univ. Sch. of Medicine, Washington, DC Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Book News, Inc.
In this second biography in her trilogy, Female Genius: Life, Madness, Words--Hannah Arendt, Melanie Klein, Colette, psychoanalyst Kristeva (linguistics, U. of Paris VII) analyzes the innovations of Klein (1882-1960) in child psychoanalytic practice. The author traces Klein's Jewish roots, and proposes that she furthered Freud's theory of the unconscious with insights on the positive role of motherhood in psychic development and creativity.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


Review
"Kristeva, a formidable cultural historian and critic, brings a rich mix of data and ideas." -- Library Journal


Book Description
In her first biography of a fellow psychoanalyst, the prolific Kristeva considers Klein's life and intellectual development, weaving a narrative that covers the history of psychoanalysis and illuminates Kristeva's own life and work.


About the Author
Julia Kristeva is an internationally known psychoanalyst and critic and is professor of linguistics at the University of Paris VII. She is the author of many highly regarded books published by Columbia in translation, including Hannah Arendt, Strangers to Ourselves, New Maladies of the Soul, Time and Sense, and The Sense and Non-Sense of Revolt.


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"To the renowned psychoanalyst, philosopher, and linguist Julia Kristeva, Melanie Klein (1882-1960) was the most original innovator, male or female, in the psychoanalytic arena. Klein pioneered psychoanalytic practice with children and made major contributions to our understanding of both psychosis and autism. Along the way, she successfully introduced a new approach to the theory of the unconscious without abandoning the principles set forth by Freud. In her first biography of a fellow psychoanalyst - the second installment of her Female Genius trilogy - the prolific Kristeva considers Klein's life and intellectual development, weaving a narrative that covers the history of psychoanalysis and illuminates Kristeva's own life and work." Klein is celebrated here as the first person to see the mother as the source of not only creativity but of thought itself, and the first to consider the place of matricide in psychic development. As such, she is a key figure in the evolution of the provocative ideas about motherhood and the psyche for which Kristeva is most famous. Klein is thus, in a sense, a mother to Kristeva, making this book an account of the development of Kristeva's own thought as well as Klein's.


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