Psychobiography Reading Group
of the Psychohistory Forum
10th Meeting
October 19, 2024 (11:00am – 1pm EDT; room opens at 10:30 am)
Melanie Klein, earlier underestimated in America, 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. Her theories are still growing in influence around the world. Melanie Klein was not only a highly original theorist, a major contributor to psychoanalysis, and effective practitioner, but a thoroughly fascinating woman.
For this meeting, we will be reading:
1. Grosskurth, Phyllis. (1986). Melanie Klein: Her world and her work. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Chapters “Early memories” and “Emmanuel” (49 pages), available for download by clicking on the link above.
The whole manuscript is also available for (non-mandatory) reading and download here: Grosskurth, Phyllis. (1986). Melanie Klein: Her world and her work. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
The epigraph Grosskurth used for this book is the following:
We have never prided ourselves on the completeness and finality of our knowledge and capacity. We are just as ready now as we were earlier to admit the imperfections of our understanding, to learn new things and to alter our methods in any way that can improve them. (Sigmund Freud, Lines of Advance in Psycho-Analytic Therapy, 1919).
These were the first words Melanie Klein ever heard Freud utter.
2. Melanie Klein’s Trust posthumously published Melanie Klein’s Autobiography (transcribed by Robert Hinshelwood, 27 pages), which we will also read for this group’s meeting.
Klein worked on this version of her autobiography at the end of 1959, the year before she died. It appears to be a final compilation of many notes she had made throughout the year and complements the existing annotated autobiographical ‘fragments’ published by Janet Sayers and John Forrester in 2013.
You can also check Melanie Klein’s timeline here: https://melanie-klein-trust.org.uk/timeline/
3. Klein, Melanie (1920). The psychic life of the child: The emergence of the family romance. Paper presented to the Budapest Psychoanalytical Society in 1919, published in 1920 in the Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, 6(2), 151-155. (6 pages)
4. Klein, Melanie (1975). On the sense of loneliness. International Psycho-Analytic Library, 104, 300-313. (15 pages)
5. Klein’s work on “Envy and Gratitude” is made available for you here, although it is not a mandatory reading for this meeting.
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The Psychobiography Research and Publication Group of the Psychohistory Forum created the virtual Psychobiography Reading Group in 2023. We meet in alternate months, with a summer break, and we work hard to keep it as a serious psychoanalytic approach to psychobiography. Subsequently, our focus will be on classic works of psychodynamic psychobiography, with the bottom-up approach rather coming from explicit underlying theories.
Please note that we choose short readings to ensure that they will be read ahead of time. Individuals who have not done the readings for this group will need to stay muted to establish this as a true discussion group.
Membership in the Psychohistory Forum is not required, although it is recommended, but your RSVP is required – see the form below.
You will get the response to your RSVP that includes the Zoom information. Zoom link reminder will also be sent out the day before the meeting.
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