MRS KLEIN - Almeida Theatre

8
Chronology
1882 – Melanie Klein born Melanie Reizes
in Vienna, March 30
1901 – Melanie engaged to Arthur Klein in
June
1903 – marries Arthur Klein
1904 – birth of Melitta Klein in Rosenberg,
January 19
1905 – Melanie and Arthur travel to Trieste,
Venice, Abbazia
1906 – visit Rome, Naples, Florence, Genoa
1907 – birth of Hans Klein March 2
1908 – Kleins move from Rsoenberg to
Krappitz
1909 – Kleins move to Hermanetz
1910 – Kleins move to Budapest
1913 – London Psycho-Analytical Society
founded October 30 by Ernest Jones
1914 – birth of Erich Klein, July 1. Melanie
possibly goes into analysis with
Ferenczi. She also reads Freud’s
Über den Traum. Arthur conscripted
into Austro-Hungarian army
1916 – Arthur invalided back to Budapest
1918 – Fifth International Psycho-Analytical
Congress held in Budapest. Klein
hears Freud read Lines of Advance
in Psycho-Analytical Therapy
1919 – Klein reads first paper and is made
member of Budapest Society in
June. Arthur moves to Sweden,
Melanie takes children to
Ružomberok during “White Terror”
in autumn
1920 – International Journal of Psycho-
Analysis founded by Ernest Jones.
Berlin Poliklinic opens 14 February.
Klein’s first paper published in
International Zeitschrift für
Psychoanalyse 6. She attends Sixth
International Psycho-Analytic
Congress at The Hague in
September
1921 – Klein moves with Erich to Berlin,
January
1922 – Klein made associate member of
Berlin Psychoanalytic Society.
1923 – Klein elected to full membership of
Berlin Psychoanalytic Society in
February. Reconciliation with Arthur
1924 – British Institute of Psycho-Analysis
established. Klein enters analysis
with Abraham. Melitta marries
Walter Schmideberg in April.Klein
gives first congress paper, The
Technique of the Analysis of Young
Children, at Salzburg. Final
separation of Melanie and Arthur
Klein
1925 – Klein lectures in London for three
weeks in July
1926 – probable year of Kleins’ divorce;
Klein arrives in England in
September, followed by Erich in
December. Klein recorded as
“visitor” at the British Society
1927 – Symposium on child analysis in
May. Klein elected to full
membership in British Psycho-
Analytical Society October 2
1928 – Melitta joins Klein in London
1931 – Klein takes on first training
analysand, W.Clifford M.Scott
1932 – Publication of Klein’s The Psycho-
Analysis of Children. Walter
Schmideberg joins Melitta in
London
1933 – Paula Heimann arrives in England.
Melitta elected to full membership
in British Psycho-Analytical Society
1934 – Death of Hans Klein in April
Melanie Klein (left) holding Melitta as a baby. Courtesy of Wellcome Library, London, and
the Melanie Klein Trust
war it was a transformed country and was a
developing country. The effects of the war in
some ways were profoundly beneficial, not
just to the development of analysis but in
terms of the democratisation of England.
DP: Is that her view or yours?
HS: That’s my view.
DP: And hers?
HS: I don’t think she talked about it much.
What she would talk about was analysis
quite a lot, but also current cultural events,
which were largely English. She used to go a
lot to the theatre and the cinema.
DP: I don’t imagine you interviewed her in
the way that we’re interviewing you. But did
you get a sense of what brought her to
psychoanalysis? And did she ever refer to
the origins of her interest in early childhood?
HS: I think that she certainly went into
analysis for depression. She was a very
depressed woman and I suspect that she
must have been rather hysterical because of
all the symptoms but she attached so much
importance to what she called the
epistemophilic instinct… She was just
passionate about discovering human
nature. An insatiable interest in that, hence
her interest in literature. She originally
wanted to study medicine and she didn’t
because of falling in love rather
unfortunately and marrying an extremely
unsatisfactory man. But when she had a
year to wait – I don’t know exactly how long
– between her marriage or between the time
they had to leave – there was no point in
starting medicine – then I think she started
a degree in literature. I think she was just
fantastically interested.
DP: What kind of things did she like to read?
Was she more interested in central
European literature? French? English fiction?
HS: You could ask me that about Klein or
about me and I couldn’t answer. We were
interested in good books. Some were
Russian, some were English and some were
French. She was also very fond of theatre
and of music too. She played the piano and
she went to concerts.
Jane Milton: What sort of music did she like?
HS: Mostly classical. That was her
favourite. But she was also very jolly. She
liked a good laugh, she liked
wine. Somewhere once – I think it was in
the Dordogne – she won a wine tasting
competition. A very rare achievement for a
woman! And once, at a Hungarian
exposition, we got a big box of real genuine
Tokai and she liked it so much we kept it for
her special usage. She was extremely
sociable, she liked a good party, a good