Editing Melanie Klein (section)

==Contributions to psychoanalysis==
[[File:Melanie_Klein_c1927.jpg|thumb|Melanie Klein c. 1927]]
[[File:A dinner to celebrate Melanie Klein's 70th birthday. Wellcome L0016246.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|A dinner to celebrate Melanie Klein's 70th birthday]]
Klein was one of the first to use traditional [[psychoanalysis]] with young children. She was innovative in both her techniques<ref>[[Horacio Etchegoyen]]: ''The Fundamentals of Psychoanalytic Technique'', Karnac Books ed., New Ed, 2005, {{ISBN|1-85575-455-X}}</ref> (such as working with children using toys) and her theories on infant development.

By observing and analyzing the play and interactions of children, Klein built on the work of Freud's [[unconscious mind]]. Her dive into the unconscious mind of the infant yielded the findings of the early [[Oedipus complex]], as well as the developmental roots of the [[superego]].

Klein's theoretical work incorporates Freud's belief in the existence of the [[death drive]], reflecting the notion that all living organisms are inherently drawn toward an "inorganic" state, and therefore, somehow, towards death. In psychological terms, [[Eros (Freud)|Eros]] (properly, the life drive), the postulated sustaining and uniting principle of life, is thereby presumed to have a companion force, [[Thanatos (psychoanalysis)|Thanatos]] (death drive), which seeks to terminate and disintegrate life (although Freud never used the term 'Thanatos' in his own writing<ref>{{cite book |last=Jones |first=Ernest |author-link=Ernest Jones |title=The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud. Volume 3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0nwIAQAAIAAJ |year=1957 |orig-date=1953 |publisher=[[Basic Books]] |location=New York City |page=273 |quote=It is a little odd that Freud himself never, except in conversation, used for the death instinct the term ''Thanatos'', one which has become so popular since. At first he used the terms "death instinct" and "destructive instinct" indiscriminately, alternating between them, but in his discussion with Einstein about war he made the distinction that the former is directed against the self and the latter, derived from it, is directed outward. Stekel had in 1909 used the word Thanatos to signify a death-wish, but it was Federn who introduced it in the present context.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Jean |last1=Laplanche |first2=Jean-Bertrand |last2=Pontalis |author-link1=Jean Laplanche |author-link2=Jean-Bertrand Pontalis |chapter=Thanatos |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RptYDwAAQBAJ&q=Thanatos+%22Greek+term+(&pg=PT800 |title=The Language of Psychoanalysis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DRptYDwAAQBA |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=[[Abingdon-on-Thames]] |year=2018 |orig-date=1973 |isbn=978-0-429-92124-7}}</ref>). Both Freud and Klein regarded these "bio-mental" forces as the foundations of the psyche. These primary unconscious forces, whose mental matrix is the [[Id, ego and superego|id]], spark the [[Id, ego and superego|ego]]—the experiencing self—into activity. [[Id, ego and superego|Id, ego, and superego]], to be sure, were merely shorthand terms (similar to the [[instincts]]) referring to highly complex and mostly uncharted [[Psychodynamics|psychodynamic]] operations.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Fagan |first1=Abigail |title=What Is Negative Transference? - Psychology Today |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/life-after-50/202403/what-is-negative-transference |work=www.psychologytoday.com |date=March 30, 2024}}</ref>