Melanie Klein: Her World and Her Work (Master Work Series) [Hardcover]

Phyllis Grosskurth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 7, 1977 | Series: Master Work Series

Melanie Klein was a leading figure in psychoanalytic circles from the 1920s until her death in 1960. Klein saw the development of children, females in particular, in a way that extended and challenged orthodox Freudian thinking. This biography examines her life and her theories.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Remarkable...[Grosskurth] skillfully handles a wide range of source materials...Much of the book's power comes from Mrs. Grosskurth's access to Melanie Klein's own, unpublished autobiography, which evokes a haunting and recurrent question about the status of psychoanalytic knowledge: the question of the unanalyzed analyst...The analytic movement perpetuates myths about the successful analyses of its founder and major theorists. Phyllis Grosskurth's new biography explodes such simple myths, forcing us to ask once again if the status of psychoanalytic theory is challenged by the vulnerability of psychoanalysts. But is also provides rich new materials for thinking through this problem. It testifies to the courage if not the calm of a woman who drew on her own unresolved suffering to bring other analysts face to face with the 'witches of the night.' (Sherry Turkle New York Times Book Review )

[A] fascinating biography...Its great strength lies in the author's ability to bring characters and controversies to life...The great 'Controversial Discussions' of the 1940s form the heart of Grosskurth's narrative. She brilliantly recreates the motives of the participants, while deftly untangling the complex issues at stake...We are very much in Phyllis Grosskurth's debt. (Paul Robinson Washington Post )

A rich historical source that can perhaps help psychoanalysis to remember rather than to relive its past. (Helen Block Lewis Los Angeles Times Book Review )

A biography that is fascinating, profound, and in every respect worthy of its subject. (David Ingleby Times Literary Supplement )

Grosskurth's detailed, comprehensive, and panoramic study of Klein, her work, and her times...is a very valuable and important contribution...[Grosskurth] presents Klein's life and the development of her theories with an impressive command over the details and the complex (often highly technical) issues. Most valuable is the treasure trove of reflections and memories from many of the key figures in recent psychoanalytic history, making this an invaluable document in the recording of oral history...It is a riveting, inspirational story, told with a strong narrative voice, with many cameo portraits and subplots, creating a rich panorama of crucial decades in psychoanalytic history. (Stephen A. Mitchell Contemporary Psychology ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc.; 2nd edition (July 7, 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568214456
• ISBN-13: 978-1568214450
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,103,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A biased, though compelling, account of an intriguing woman, July 22, 2001

By 

Jennifer (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Melanie Klein: Her World and Her Work (Master Work Series) (Hardcover)

Grosskurth is to be commended on her ability to present a complex view of a woman whose work she clearly idealizes. Melanie Klein emerges as a woman as difficult to grasp as her ideas: At once both a bullish narcissist who required complete fidelity by her students and analysands, and a remarkable pioneer who overcame gender obstacles, anti-semitism, and lay status to become one of the century's most influential psychoanalytic visionaries. This is a must-read account of the life of a woman who was/is personally and professionally both reviled and cultified, and whose insights into the mental life of infants and children remain profoundly controversial. I walked away from my encounter with this book deeply intrigued about the person, the cult, and the ideas of Melanie Klein. My clinical work, I suspect, will be creatively enriched as I further delve into the contents of her vision. As setting a biographical context that goes beyond the linear narration of a life, I recommend this book as a launching point for anyone undertaking the teaching or learning of Kleinian psychoanalysis, or psychoanalytic theory of any persuasion. My only gripe about the book is Grosskurth's seeming need to defend Klein against her critics, rather than trusting the reader to simply appreciate the complexity of this strange, narcissistically fragile, brilliant, and flawed woman.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Well-researched, but lacking perspective and thus unsatisfying, January 20, 2010

By 

Daniel Mackler (on the road) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Melanie Klein: Her World and Her Work (Master Work Series) (Hardcover)

Although I enjoyed this biography at first, it quickly proved slow-going because the author, Phyllis Grosskurth, lacked a deep emotional perspective on Melanie Klein. I got tired of wading through endless unprocessed details presented by a generally admiring biographer who should have done the emotional number-crunching for me. That said, if I really felt Klein to be that important I would have persevered, but instead I just read the first half carefully and skimmed the rest.

Overall, I found Melanie Klein to be a disturbed and incorrect theorist who was destroyed by her own childhood---a childhood which she spent the rest of her life replicating on those over whom she wielded power. She radically abused and crushed her own children, in various ways, including by psychoanalyzing them. She went so far as to analyze her adolescent son Hans's masturbation fantasies! (Not only does Phyllis Grosskurth fail to criticize this, but she even rather admires it, noting Klein's belief "in complete frankness.") This totally turned me off. Thankfully Klein's daughter Melitta garnered enough strength to break away from her sick mother---and to engage in bitter public debate with her later on. Hans was not so lucky. He ended up living a tortured life and died at age 27 under shadowy circumstances that many considered to be suicide.

Melanie Klein invaded his private world and destroyed his self---all the while claiming to be his greatest proponent. Only a mental health field that is incredibly dissociated could fail to find this shocking, much less still hold her up as a role model, which many still do. (I know many proud "Kleinians.") And Phyllis Grosskurth is not much better than the rest of the field. For instance, Grosskurth tends to side with Klein herself in conveniently blaming Hans's father for the bulk of Hans's problems. Yes, his father was traumatizing, but why wasn't Melanie Klein putting a stop to it, instead of doing nothing and then later profiting from it career-wise by analyzing him?

Needless to say, I am not a Kleinian, and this unsatisfying book made me even less of one.