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Introducing Graphic Guides
Introducing Melanie Klein: A Graphic Guide
INTRODUCING guide to the pioneering child psychoanalyst. Born in Vienna in 1882, Melanie Klein became a pioneer in child psychoanalysis and developed several ground-breaking concepts about the nature and crucial importance of the early stages of infantile development. Although she was a devoted Freudian, many of her ideas were seen within the psychoanalytic movement as highly controversial, and this led to heated conflicts, particularly with Freud's daughter, Anna. Introducing Melanie Klein brilliantly explains Klein's ideas, and shows the importance of her startling discoveries which raised such opposition at the time and are only now being recognized for their explanatory power. Her concepts of the depressive position and the paranoid-schizoid position are now in common usage and her work has to be taken seriously by psychoanalysts the world over. She is also now important in many academic fields within the human sciences.
290 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1997
119 people are currently reading
331 people want to read
About the author
R.D. Hinshelwood
57 books12 followersRobert D Hinshelwood is Professor of Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex in England. He has written numerous books and papers on the subject of Psychoanalysis, as well as on its history, and has a particular interest in group dynamics.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
April 8, 2025
I had never heard of Melanie Klein until I read this book...a true pioneer in psychology who has been over shadowed by Freud. Very approachable introduction. I think that the contributions that women have made in psychology are often overlooked; this has lead to some very one dimensional research that has been done and accepted without question.
September 2, 2015
knew NOTHING about Melanie Klein when I plunged into this reading, but this is due to the fact that I have been trying to get ahead of my university syllabus. I'll be honest, I've never been too fond of the Introducing series -- I don't know if it is the images, hand drawn and eye-catching as they are, or something else. I do believe this series is sharp at linking the personal lives of the world's greatest minds together with their work, providing rich insight into the own inner workings of these individuals in relation to their perspectives and achievements.
I find that her theories are a tad complicating, although fascinating. I did not really care for her theories concerning child development -- I will not lie, a partial reason is that I found them to be too difficult for me to understand thoroughly. I very much preferred her views on coping stages for depression and loss, and she seemed to reflect these stages herself in her personal life.
As for another confession (what is up with me today?), I will have to say that I have difficulty swallowing these older theories of child psychology when they naturally hold no conversations concerning gay parenting. Or single parenting for that matter! And now that mothers are lightened slightly of their breast-feeding responsibilities through feeding their infants using bottles more frequently, I do not know how much credibility Klein's work holds in the modern day. And does the breast-feeding of a wet-nurse carry the same psychological impacts on the child as the "original", birthing mother?
The book itself is approachable and can be read in two or three sittings with little effort. The drawings are bold and snarky, typical of the Introducing series, and make for a pleasant touch, though I am unsure whether or not reading this book is the best way to approach Klein's theories.
If you want to read more of my reviews, check out my book blog♡
I find that her theories are a tad complicating, although fascinating. I did not really care for her theories concerning child development -- I will not lie, a partial reason is that I found them to be too difficult for me to understand thoroughly. I very much preferred her views on coping stages for depression and loss, and she seemed to reflect these stages herself in her personal life.
As for another confession (what is up with me today?), I will have to say that I have difficulty swallowing these older theories of child psychology when they naturally hold no conversations concerning gay parenting. Or single parenting for that matter! And now that mothers are lightened slightly of their breast-feeding responsibilities through feeding their infants using bottles more frequently, I do not know how much credibility Klein's work holds in the modern day. And does the breast-feeding of a wet-nurse carry the same psychological impacts on the child as the "original", birthing mother?
The book itself is approachable and can be read in two or three sittings with little effort. The drawings are bold and snarky, typical of the Introducing series, and make for a pleasant touch, though I am unsure whether or not reading this book is the best way to approach Klein's theories.
If you want to read more of my reviews, check out my book blog♡
November 5, 2013
يفترض أن هذا كتاب "مبسط" عن حياة ونظريات المحللة النفسية النمساوية الأصل ميلاني كلاين
الكتاب جاف للغاية رغم أنه يفترض أنه كتاب خفيف لتسهيل فهم موضوع معقد للغاية. المفاهيم غير مشروحة جيدا وهناك عدد كبير من المصطلحات المهمة ليس لها اي شرح في الكتاب سواء من التأليف أو عن طريق المترجم
والأسوأ من ذلك أن الترجمة سيئة للغاية وخاصة في الأجزاء الصعبة المتعلقة بنظريات ميلاني كلاين في التحليل النفسي. واضح أن المترجم غير متخصص وليس عنده دراية كافية بالموضوع الذي يترجمه. ولا أدري مثلا لماذا لم يوضع الأصل الإنجليزي للمصطلحات المستخدمة في الكتاب إلى جوار الترجمة. وليس هناك حتى الهوامش التي تشرح بعض المصطلحات أو المفاهيم المتخصصة للقارىء العام.
عيب آخر في الصفحات المصورة : لا ندري بالضبط ترتيب قراءة الصور وهل يجب أن نقرأها من اليسار لليمين أم العكس
وأظن أن أي قارىء متوسط يقرأ لأول مرة عن ميلاني كلاين أو عن التحليل النفسي لن يفهم من هذا الكتاب شيئا على الإطلاق
الكتاب جاف للغاية رغم أنه يفترض أنه كتاب خفيف لتسهيل فهم موضوع معقد للغاية. المفاهيم غير مشروحة جيدا وهناك عدد كبير من المصطلحات المهمة ليس لها اي شرح في الكتاب سواء من التأليف أو عن طريق المترجم
والأسوأ من ذلك أن الترجمة سيئة للغاية وخاصة في الأجزاء الصعبة المتعلقة بنظريات ميلاني كلاين في التحليل النفسي. واضح أن المترجم غير متخصص وليس عنده دراية كافية بالموضوع الذي يترجمه. ولا أدري مثلا لماذا لم يوضع الأصل الإنجليزي للمصطلحات المستخدمة في الكتاب إلى جوار الترجمة. وليس هناك حتى الهوامش التي تشرح بعض المصطلحات أو المفاهيم المتخصصة للقارىء العام.
عيب آخر في الصفحات المصورة : لا ندري بالضبط ترتيب قراءة الصور وهل يجب أن نقرأها من اليسار لليمين أم العكس
وأظن أن أي قارىء متوسط يقرأ لأول مرة عن ميلاني كلاين أو عن التحليل النفسي لن يفهم من هذا الكتاب شيئا على الإطلاق
July 9, 2023
This is a layman-friendly introduction to Klein! I had always been fascinated with her contributions to play therapy. This book focuses more on her biography than her theory—which I appreciated because I was quite confused about how a theorist who emphasized warm and loving relationships with children did not have to possess one with her own children. Prior to reading this, I did not know she suffered from depression when she gave birth to her first two children. Her theory in personality is far too complex to be well-explained by one book. Still, I enjoyed the overview of it. The graphics were a bit dark, haha (*nervously laughs*) or quite literal?
January 27, 2016
Good introduction to Melanie Klein. I had read Freud, Jung and the other pioneers of psychoanalysis. Never anything by Melanie Klein. This does give a good introduction and spurs me on to read more about her work with children and drives other than libido.
October 29, 2019
It's a complicated material, but why make it also creepy?
October 23, 2021
As usual, it's more on the biography than the theory of the titular thinker here, Melanie Klein, the pioneering child psychoanalyst. Despite the fact that the theoretical parts could use more attention from the writer, by tracing the development of her theory, this book, if only moderately, helps readers see how her ideas came to the more widely known, yet seemingly bizarre*, form in our time.
Unfortunately, the selling point of this graphic series, the use of the illustration, while particularly well suited for all the case/patient histories here, is rendered in a style so unnecessarily grotesque and distasteful that virtually every single child/baby gives this serial killer/Annabelle vibe...
*with terms like "Good Breast", "Bad Breast"
Unfortunately, the selling point of this graphic series, the use of the illustration, while particularly well suited for all the case/patient histories here, is rendered in a style so unnecessarily grotesque and distasteful that virtually every single child/baby gives this serial killer/Annabelle vibe...
*with terms like "Good Breast", "Bad Breast"
March 14, 2015
A book like this can only do what it claims to do and provide a brief introduction. It does this very well and succinctly.
Melanie Klein is important for all sorts of reasons but one reason is that she developed psychoanalysis in an independent direction determined by her own, direct clinical experience and insights. This matters in turn because it is important to separate out the authentic, demonstrable clinical benefits of psychotherapy on the one hand from the inauthentic and undesirable ideological camps which have made psychotherapy such a vicious and fragmented world, to the detriment of its task which is to alleviate pain and suffering. When the dust settles down after the adherents of a rival school or camp have successfully undermined her theories, or the experimental psychologists have cheerfully demolished any claims to scientific validity in the entire corpus of Freudian theory, we find ourselves in a silent space, asking timidly what that all has to do with the needs of any client. We are driven back to the work of people like Melanie Klein, true explorers in an undiscovered terrain, to ask why these curious ideas seemed so appropriate to her and indeed, apparently, to her clients.
I have my own ideas of the positive value of her theories and what this book helpfully does is to pick out a summary of her contribution, so that that I can remind myself of their source. She was indeed a curious person in many ways but highly creative and determined to make her contribution and to be heard. I think her legacy remains relevant and valuable.
Melanie Klein is important for all sorts of reasons but one reason is that she developed psychoanalysis in an independent direction determined by her own, direct clinical experience and insights. This matters in turn because it is important to separate out the authentic, demonstrable clinical benefits of psychotherapy on the one hand from the inauthentic and undesirable ideological camps which have made psychotherapy such a vicious and fragmented world, to the detriment of its task which is to alleviate pain and suffering. When the dust settles down after the adherents of a rival school or camp have successfully undermined her theories, or the experimental psychologists have cheerfully demolished any claims to scientific validity in the entire corpus of Freudian theory, we find ourselves in a silent space, asking timidly what that all has to do with the needs of any client. We are driven back to the work of people like Melanie Klein, true explorers in an undiscovered terrain, to ask why these curious ideas seemed so appropriate to her and indeed, apparently, to her clients.
I have my own ideas of the positive value of her theories and what this book helpfully does is to pick out a summary of her contribution, so that that I can remind myself of their source. She was indeed a curious person in many ways but highly creative and determined to make her contribution and to be heard. I think her legacy remains relevant and valuable.
November 17, 2011
INTRODUCING guide to the pioneering child psychoanalyst. Born in Vienna in 1882, Melanie Klein became a pioneer in child psychoanalysis and developed several ground-breaking concepts about the nature and crucial importance of the early stages of infantile development. Although she was a devoted Freudian, many of her ideas were seen within the psychoanalytic movement as highly controversial, and this led to heated conflicts, particularly with Freud's daughter, Anna. Introducing Melanie Klein brilliantly explains Klein's ideas, and shows the importance of her startling discoveries which raised such opposition at the time and are only now being recognized for their explanatory power. Her concepts of the depressive position and the paranoid-schizoid position are now in common usage and her work has to be taken seriously by psychoanalysts the world over. She is also now important in many academic fields within the human sciences.
Robert Hinshelwood is a Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and is Professor in the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex. Susan Robinson is a psychoanalyst. Oscar Zarate is one of the UK's leading graphic artists. He has illustrated numerous Introducing titles. His graphic novel A Small Killing won the Will Eisner Prize.
Robert Hinshelwood is a Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and is Professor in the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex. Susan Robinson is a psychoanalyst. Oscar Zarate is one of the UK's leading graphic artists. He has illustrated numerous Introducing titles. His graphic novel A Small Killing won the Will Eisner Prize.
March 3, 2014
يبدو أن حظي يتعثر للمرة الثانية مع هذه السلسلة بعد سقطة سارتر فالعنوان مبهر وطريقة العرض يتضح أنها تجنح لتبسيط الفكرة وتسهيلها إلا أنّ توقعي لم يكن بمحله وتوقفت في الثلث الأخير من الكتاب
ميلاني كلاين عالمةُ نفس عاشت طفولة قاسية اتسمت ب: الرفض والحرمان النفسي والطبيعي قبل ذلك، في الوقت الذي كانت تحلم أن تصبح طبيبة كأبيها، إلا أن حلمها لم يتحقق لتجد في التحليل النفسي متنفسا لها وملجأ لإبداعاتها في وقت كان حضور المرأة لهذا التخصص نادرا، مع كل هذا فقد ثارت ولم تؤمن بكل قواعده فاتجهت لتطبيق التحليل النفسي على الأطفال عن طريق اللعب ( لأنها تستطيع أن تتأمل حياة الأطفال بما طبعت عليه من رحمة).بالتأكيد هذا الخروج (لم يلق ارتياحا من قبل الرجال)فهم يدركون أنه لم يكن تحليلا حقيقيا بما إنه لم يطبق على الكبار إلا أنهم اقتنعوا بعد حين كعادة كل فكرة غير متقبلة في البداية.
ميلاني كلاين عالمةُ نفس عاشت طفولة قاسية اتسمت ب: الرفض والحرمان النفسي والطبيعي قبل ذلك، في الوقت الذي كانت تحلم أن تصبح طبيبة كأبيها، إلا أن حلمها لم يتحقق لتجد في التحليل النفسي متنفسا لها وملجأ لإبداعاتها في وقت كان حضور المرأة لهذا التخصص نادرا، مع كل هذا فقد ثارت ولم تؤمن بكل قواعده فاتجهت لتطبيق التحليل النفسي على الأطفال عن طريق اللعب ( لأنها تستطيع أن تتأمل حياة الأطفال بما طبعت عليه من رحمة).بالتأكيد هذا الخروج (لم يلق ارتياحا من قبل الرجال)فهم يدركون أنه لم يكن تحليلا حقيقيا بما إنه لم يطبق على الكبار إلا أنهم اقتنعوا بعد حين كعادة كل فكرة غير متقبلة في البداية.
January 12, 2014
I guess a person who has not read or heard about any ideas of Klein, could not be introduced with her through this book, even be confused. Since the fact that Klein's theories are very complex and "abstract", I would personally recommend the ones, who has already heard about at least some basic ideas of Klein, to read it. It is a joyful summary of both her personal life and psychoanalytical approaches. I really appreciate the drawings.
April 23, 2014
Being already familiar with Klein's theories, I read this as a refresher and 'add on' to my knowledge. I found this a useful exercise, as I re-read about her more familiar ideas, and expanded on some that I had only come across in passing. I would say that this was an excellent dip in book, you already have some basic knowledge about Klein, otherwise I can see how this quick trip through child development theory might be a bit confusing.
December 21, 2021
Schizophrenics are people who have internalized a bad object which is then introjected upon their own disintegrating mind thru an organic brain disease that is conceptually understood at birth; childishness comes easily to those who are intimately acquainted with psychic terror.
August 8, 2012
Very funny!
May 5, 2014
Loved the graphics and format. A easy to understand introduction to Melanie Klein.
March 21, 2020
There are lots of little reasons I didn't like this book. 1) It focused way more on her biography than her theories. 2) The explanation of her theories was unclear. 3) the book is hard to read, because it's a lot of small white text on a black background. 4) the drawings are sort of horrifying: babies with no eyes and dark cavernous eye sockets, women with wildly strange hairdos--for no reason. 5) The writing is unnecessarily dense.
I read lots of these types of books (graphic books about philosophers, psychologists, and theories). This is the poorest one I have read. I really got noting out of it beyond what I already knew about Klein--so it's not the format itself I object to. I haven't read many in this series though, so maybe it's typical of the "Introducing..."series.
One thing I did take away is that a lot of her theory was based on working with profoundly disturbed individuals, which made me wonder if they even apply to the average neurotic.
I read lots of these types of books (graphic books about philosophers, psychologists, and theories). This is the poorest one I have read. I really got noting out of it beyond what I already knew about Klein--so it's not the format itself I object to. I haven't read many in this series though, so maybe it's typical of the "Introducing..."series.
One thing I did take away is that a lot of her theory was based on working with profoundly disturbed individuals, which made me wonder if they even apply to the average neurotic.
March 11, 2018
A good introduction!
January 6, 2019
Easy to read and helpful too.
March 5, 2019
Excellent
This book gives an excellent overview of Klein's theory. It nicely puts it in context and connects her work to other theoreticians. It is concise but deep.
This book gives an excellent overview of Klein's theory. It nicely puts it in context and connects her work to other theoreticians. It is concise but deep.
August 20, 2021
One of my absolute favorites in the series so far; I feel like I learned the most from this book of any I’ve read. I had never even heard of Melanie Klein before! Extremely interesting.
September 13, 2022
Фантастически простая и интересная книга, оказавшаяся для меня очень своевременной.
May 8, 2023
Unexpectedly engrossing! Didn't finish it only because the friend (a child psychiatrist) who had lent it to me needed it back.
October 9, 2024
Okay.
December 18, 2024
We love a psychoanalysis girlie
October 30, 2008
I believe Melanie Klein is not respected anymore. I believe she was te woman who was unkind to her own children while she was a therapist for children.
December 29, 2020
Engaging and accessible entry-level text on Klein's life, practice, and theories.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews