A Comparative Analysis of Melanie Klein and D.W. Winnicott's Theories

This essay provides a detailed comparative analysis of the psychoanalytic theories of Melanie Klein and D.W. Winnicott. It begins by exploring Klein's key concepts, including unconscious phantasy, the paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions, part-objects, whole-objects, splitting, projective identification, the death instinct, envy, gratitude, and reparation. The essay then transitions to Winnicott's theories, examining absolute dependence, unthinkable anxieties, holding, impingement, the false self, the true self, potential space, transitional objects and phenomena, and play. The introduction highlights the contributions of both theorists to the field of psychoanalysis, and the conclusion summarizes the key similarities and differences between their perspectives, offering a comprehensive overview of their contributions to understanding human development and the complexities of the human psyche.

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES
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KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES 1
Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Theories by Melanie Klein.....................................................................................................................2
Unconscious Phantasy.......................................................................................................................2
Paranoid-Schizoid Position................................................................................................................3
Depressive Position...........................................................................................................................3
Part-Objects.......................................................................................................................................4
Whole-Objects...................................................................................................................................4
Splitting..............................................................................................................................................4
Projective Identification.....................................................................................................................5
Death Instinct....................................................................................................................................5
Envy...................................................................................................................................................5
Gratitude...........................................................................................................................................5
Reparation.........................................................................................................................................6
Theories by D.W. Winnicott...................................................................................................................6
Absolute Dependence.......................................................................................................................6
Unthinkable Anxieties........................................................................................................................7
Holding..............................................................................................................................................7
Impingement.....................................................................................................................................7
False Self............................................................................................................................................8
True Self.............................................................................................................................................8
Potential Space..................................................................................................................................8
Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena............................................................................8
Play....................................................................................................................................................9
The Capacity To Be Alone..................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................9
References...........................................................................................................................................10

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES 2

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES 3
Introduction
Melanie Klein was one of the most famous theorists during psychoanalytic movement. She is
specified in the psychoanalysis of children. She had followed Anna Freud in working directly
with the children (Heimann, P., Klein, M., & Money-Kyrle, R. E., 2013).
Winnicott is the leading Psychoanalyst who is well known in the field of theories (Winnicott,
D. W. (Ed.), 2013). The most renounced theory is a true self, false self, the Good enough
mother , transition objects etc.
Theories by Melanie Klein
Unconscious Phantasy
In her theory, unconscious phantasies underlie every mental process and accompany all the
mental activity. There is a somatic representation of mental events. Much of our activities can
be termed as converting the psychological thoughts into somatic representation ( Klein, M.,
2013) Melanie Klein had extended and developed Sigmund Freud’s understanding of
unconscious mind. As per Melanie Klein infants experience unconscious phantasy affects all
the childhood interpersonal relations. The internal representation of unconscious phantasy
plays an important role how the individuals relate to others later in the life. The objects
which the individual come across is unconsciously interrogated, interjected and later
unconsciously projected onto others. This might cause a change in perception or an
adulterated view of the other person. Our early childhood relationship establishes mental
models or mental representation that an individual develops throughout its life (Segal, H.

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES 4
(2012). These mental models later impact the individual experience and new relationships but
it is in an unconscious manner.
Phantasy is a state of mind of an infant child during its early stage of development. These
phantasies are mainly unconscious and they do not differentiate between the conscious
reality. In the prelingual stage, a child is not able to distinguish between reality and
imagination. Phantasies are a representation of genetic need and drives. They appear in
symbolic form in dreams and in the plays of a child. Phantasy is contacted from internal and
external reality. They are modified by different feelings and then they get projected into real
as the world and the imaginary world. An infant makes sense of the external world through
phantasies. Every new expression of an infant is firstly perceived and processed by the
unconscious phantasy . They are throughout all the mental activities of the infant. Phantasy is
the mental expression of both aggressive and libidinal impulses .( Anderson, R. (Ed.). (2014).
Paranoid-Schizoid Position
The term “paranoid-schizoid position” denotes to a collection of anxieties, defences and
internal and external object relation. These consider being characteristic of the infant’s early
life. It continues to childhood or adulthood. This plays important relationship throughout the
life. The main characteristic is splitting of both self and object into good and bad (Kristeva,
J., 2013).
As per Klein schizoid ways of relating are never given up. The paranoid-schizoid position is
afterwards followed by more mature depressive position.
Depressive Position
The depressive position is experienced by the middle of the first year of the child. It is present
throughout the childhood and intermittently throughout the life. It is the realisation of hateful
feelings from the most loved object. It starts with the child’s mother. In depressive position,
anxiety is also felt on behalf of the subject (Klein, P., 2013).

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES 5
As per Klein depressive position starts after paranoid-schizoid position, nearly about 3-4
months. It may continue as a forceful role throughout life. The person may live in between in
these two states.
Part-Objects
The term part object has been coined by Klein. It is the preoccupation of certain body parts.
As per Klein these objects when taken into self, are experienced by infant concretely as
physically present within the body, causing pleasure. For example the good internal part
object breast or pain in which bad internal part object breast. This depends on infant’s
perception of the external object and also the desires and feeling that that the infant has for
the external object. (Bion, W. R. (2013).
In her, there is move from part object to whole object functioning. It is difficult to provide
single definition to this concept.
Whole-Objects
As per Klein another person who is recognised as having rights, feeling , needs , hopes just
like one’s own is termed as the whole object.
One will definitely realise that mother one hated is the mother one loved. In this case, the
mother is being treated as a whole object and not as a part object. The child as different
feelings towards her and not just a part of her. Here the child treats her as a different person
and these feelings keep on changing during the lifetime ( Britzman, D. P., 2016).
Splitting
As per Klein, this occurs when a child is not able to keep two contradictory feelings at the
same time. There is a constant conflict in itself. The child is not able to focus on them
simultaneously. Eventually, the child focuses on one of them. This leads the child to land in a
less conflicting situation. Children are generally away from conflicting thoughts which can be
well established by this theory. (Hinshelwood, R. D., & Robinson, 2014).

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES 6
Projective Identification
It is a Psychic mechanism used by the infant. Infants own feeling makes him feel that the
object has qualities. Projective identification includes imaginatively splitting off part of
oneself it orders to control other. It is an unconscious fantasy. In this on the internal object is
split off and attributed to an external object. The projected side has to be felt by projector
either its good or bad (Cataldo, J. W., 2013).
Projective identification is an enrichment or extension of Freud’s concept of projection.
Death Instinct
Infants suffer from a great deal of anxiety due to the trauma experienced at the time of birth.
There are also experiences of hunger and frustration. This is caused by death instinct within.
There are attempts to deal with these issues through anxiety and unconscious phantasies. The
infants express all its feeling good or bad towards the mother. (Britzman, D. P. ,2012).
The central of all is a balance of life and death instincts in the infants. Mothering is the
central environment factor which the infant receives.
Envy
It’s the angry feeling that another person possesses .Klein sees envy as a manifestation of all
primary destructiveness. Envy attacks on good object lead to confusion between good and
bad, Ultimately Envy heightens guilt. Envy is the worst sin. Certainly, has to be taken
seriously. (Hinshelwood, R. D., 2015).
Gratitude
Gratitude is inborn. It is crucial is developing a primary relationship with the mother.
Gratitude carries many factors with itself like acceptance of limitations, generosity, sharing
and repressed guilt etc. Gratitude is also linked with trust in good figures. Enjoyment acts as
the basis of gratitude (Ogden, T. H., 2014).
Klein emphasis that gratitude is the goal of the psychoanalytic process.

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES 7
Reparation
Persistence gratification leads to experiences of enjoyment and gratitude. This recurrent
experience of enjoyment makes possible gratitude at the deepest level. Reparation is related
to potentially destructive impulses of envy and greed. (Klein, M. (2015)
Theories by D.W. Winnicott
Absolute Dependence
An infant’s dependence on her parent has been explained by Winnicott as passing through
three stages of dependency – Absolute Dependence, Relative Dependence and towards
Independence. In absolute dependence, the infant doesn’t yet separately identify herself from
her parent. She doesn’t have enough experience yet to distinguish events or compare one type
of caregiving to another. The infant gets parts of the care that are a good fit for her but has to
endure those parts of the care that are a misfit to her needs (Winnicott, D. W., 2014).
Winnicott has interesting things to say about the certain features of infant-parent relationship
which are most important, essentially the caregiving relationship and how it develops the
infant as they go ahead. This relationship is described by Winnicott as having three
overlapping stages. During each of these stages, care takes different meanings than the one
before. These stages are not distinct and do not have a definitive finish, with the infant and
the caregiver swinging back and forth in overlapping stages. The stages are holding and care
to give and to live together. These are stages strongly overlap each other.
Satisfying parental care can be classified into three major overlapping stages. Firstly it is
holding. A child is born with a tendency to hold things. That is the way the child studies the
environment. Secondly, it is mother and infant living together ( Lamothe, 2014). Here the
father’s function as acting as an environment for the child has not been discussed. Thirdly the
father, mother and infants all live together. So though the infant is holding the mother

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES 8
initially later on it also come under influence of father. The father’s behaviour and voice also
affect the infants. So in order to gain absolute dependence, there is a requirement of a certain
amount of independence. Winnicott’s has to construct dependence on the environment during
the independent phase. So there is the holding of another thing rather than holding hands like
holding a cot, cradle or a pram. Holding is a pre manual mechanism with the child. This has
been learnt by the womb world, in this world, the absolute concept of dependency can be
applied completely. Winnicott’s recognises the continuity of absolute dependence of the
womb world and environment holding the characteristic of absolute dependence after birth,
Now if there is a continuation of absolute dependency then there is cut off of learning and
exploring new possibilities.( Flynn, 2015). It is the loss of experience.
Unthinkable Anxieties
This is shattering of our embryonic ego. It is not a part of our explicit memory. We get the
episodes of these memories as adults. Implicit memory forms a part of our neural path hence
we retain a part of it. A therapist has tendency to evoke these feelings. (Kalsched,2014).
Holding
Holding is a time early in an infant’s life when the environment takes care of everything, that
period before the baby even needs to signal a need. It is also the time where the caregiver is
entrenched with the baby. The baby and the caregiver are clearly understandable as one unit,
outside of time and day to day concerns. During holding the infant has her first experiences
of processes that are completed and of those going unfinished. These contribute to the
development of the infant’s psychology (Anderson, 2014).
Impingement
The child psychological development ceases and experiences impingement. There are
chances he could feel ignored. His desires need to be answered; there he could feel problems
with his own subjectivity. This can even cause trauma to the child (Ogden, T. H., 2014)

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES 9
False Self
If the transition is effective then there are chances that the child will develop a healthy false
self. This can be represented to the world the way they are comfortable. Otherwise, there are
chances that the child will remain uncomfortable with itself. Winnicott’s sees the role of
mothers as very significant. Mothers have a sense of control and comfort being connected
with the baby (Eigen, M., 2013).
True Self
It is the sense of integrity. A true self and false self-was identified by Winnicott. The true
self-sets your own identity by which you can establish what you want from the society. A
child is generally 100% true self. The relationship of humans with pets shows true self. The
relationship of a human with dog shows true self (Ehrensaft, 2012).
Potential Space
There is the existence of potential space between individual and its environment. Potential
space is particularly important not just to the development of the child but also the types of
experiences the child has. There is potential space between baby and mother, child and
family, between individual and society and society to the world all this depends on
experience which leads to trust between them (Davis, 2014).
Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena
The transitional phenomenon is used to describe the intermittent area of human experience
between inner reality and outside world. It is the central phenomenon of ideas. It is used as
the course of development of self, locating self firmly. Here there have been thousands of
observations on infants and parents. Together there is build-up of child inner world and the
feelings. The patient's transitional phenomenon can help in understanding psychopathological
conditions such as lying, stealing and various drug addictions (Kuhn, 2013)

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES 10
The example of a transitional object, the first me not-me possession of the baby. Like during
sucking thumb he weaves not-me objects into his own experiences. The transitional objects
allow illusion. The transition object has many properties and the infant creates it itself. The
infant can be either affectionate or aggressive towards it (Eng, 2013).
Play
On the basis of the play, there is the man’s experimental existence. The play is a serious and a
very necessary component of psychic life. It forms part of adult life and culture. In the play,
there is the use of transitional space and transitional phenomenon. The virtual world is ideal
for play and creativity. Winnicott has continued Klein principle of studying play in the way
of understanding a child (Rudnytsky, 2013)
The Capacity To Be Alone
The capacity to be alone is one of the most important phases of development of the ego. The
manifestation of silence may be a positive example of achievement. The silence can simply
as the capacity to be alone. Here we will talk about the positive aspects of being alone. There
is a fundamental and essential component that lies in the capacity of the person to be alone
that is the capacity of the person to be alone when there is the presence of someone else
(Schwartz, 2016).
Conclusion
Both Winnicott and Klein never went against each other approaches. Where Klein mostly
talked about the child psychology and focus of Winnicott was on the theories which were
based on both child and adult psychology. Winnicott also supported and extended Klein’s
work. Both the Psychoanalyst is very well known in their field. Both Winnicott and Klein has
been leading Psychoanalyst of their era.

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES 11
References
Klein, M. (2013). Envy and gratitude: A study of unconscious sources (Vol. 6). Routledge.
Segal, H. (2012). Introduction to the work of Melanie Klein. Karnac Books.
Anderson, R. (Ed.). (2014). Clinical lectures on Klein and Bion. Routledge.
Heimann, P., Klein, M., & Money-Kyrle, R. E. (2013). New directions in psycho-analysis:
The significance of infant conflict in the pattern of adult behaviour (Vol. 7). Routledge.
Kristeva, J. (2013). Melanie Klein (Vol. 2). Columbia University Press.
Klein, P. (2013). Melanie Klein, a psychoanalyst who worked primarily with toddlers in the
early 20th century, is best known for her object relations, or Kleinian, theory. Klein’s theory
is helpful in under-standing perfectionist patients because it addresses the extremes of
behavior, which mirror the intensity and extremes that perfection-ists experience. This
chapter discusses Klein’s concepts and how they can be applied when working with
perfectionist patients. Perfectionism: A Guide for Mental Health Professionals, 77.
Bion, W. R. (2013). Attacks on linking. The Psychoanalytic quarterly, 82(2), 285-300.
Britzman, D. P. (2016). Melanie Klein: Early Analysis, Play, and the Question of Freedom.
Springer.
Hinshelwood, R. D., & Robinson, S. (2014). Introducing Melanie Klein: A graphic guide.
Icon Books Ltd.
Cataldo, J. W. (2013). Yahweh’s Breast: Interpreting Haggai’s Temple through Melanie
Klein’s Projective Identification Theory. Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, 13.