Book, Melanie Klein 2[LS]

Melanie Klein only developed her most original conceptions from 1932 onwards. The richness and fecundity of the ideas she formulated then can only be compared to what Freud's own work proposes. But it is because she never stopped re-elaborating her theories as she confronted them with clinical realities that she disconcerted us and was often judged as obscure. Establishing what he truly said, when, how and why he said it, is the objective of this work. Jean-Michel Petot first studies the formation of the theory of the depressive position, focusing, in particular, on the notions of internal object, inner world, manic resistance and identification-introjection of the good object, in the terms in which Melanie Klein describes them. conceived between 1934 and 1946. Secondly, the author shows how the deepening of the clinical aspects of schizoid mechanisms - cleavage and projective identification - progressively guides Melanie Klein's attention towards the archaic relationship with the good breast that is established over the course of the first trimester of existence of the child. To put an end to the prejudice that Kleinian ideas would provide a completely unrealistic image of the infant's psyche, the author dedicates two entire chapters to demonstrating their convergence with Jean Piaget's conceptions and the results of recent experimental work.