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

This essay provides a critical analysis of the psychoanalytic theories of Melanie Klein and D.W. Winnicott. It explores Klein's focus on unconscious phantasies and their impact on early childhood relationships, including concepts like the paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions. The assignment also examines Winnicott's perspectives on the development of the self, including the concepts of the 'true self' and 'false self', the importance of the 'good enough mother', and the role of transitional objects and play in child development. The essay further discusses the stages of dependency and the significance of holding, care, and living together in the infant-parent relationship, as well as the concept of projective identification. The analysis draws upon various scholarly sources to provide a comprehensive overview of these influential theories in psychoanalysis.

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES
A Critical Analysis
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KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES 1
Melanie Klein was one of the most famous theorists during psychoanalytic movement. She is
specialised in the psychoanalysis of children (Heimann et al, 2013). Winnicott is another
leading Psychoanalyst who is well known in the field of some of the popular theories
proposed by him. The most renounced theory are ‘a true self, false self, the good enough
mother, transition objects’ etc. (Winnicott, D. W., 2013). In this assignment we will critically
analyse and the theories and M. Klein and Winnicott. The theories by Klein and Winnicott
beautifully describe the unconscious and sub concisions emotions and phantasies. Winnicott
was a paediatrician. He has studied psychoanalysis with Klein. He did accept the Klein
theories but he viewed the key aspect of good relationships are actually rooted in the micro
interaction with people.
Klein has talked about the unconscious phantasies that underlie every mental process and
accompany all the mental activity. According to her, there is a somatic representation of
mental events (Klein, M., 2013). This theory was the extension and development of the
Sigmund Freud’s understanding of the unconscious mind. As per Melanie Klein infants
experience unconscious phantasy affects all the childhood interpersonal relations ( Britzman,
D. P., 2012). This theory has helped the psychologists that how the internal representation of
unconscious phantasy plays an important role and how the individuals relate to others later in
the life. In this, the objects which the individual come across are 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. (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

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES 2
realities. In the pre-lingual stage, a child is not able to distinguish between reality and
imagination. Phantasies are a representation of genetic need and drives. As per (Steiner,
2016), 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. According to (Anderson,
2014), 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.
Phantasies lead to anxieties. So, Winnicott talked about unthinkable anxieties which are the
sense of going into pieces as a baby. The people shatter their embryonic ego. The
developments that happen as child during the pre-verbal phase do not have a language but
they remain implicit in memory. This memory that people have is not explicit. When the
people grow as adults, it gets played in the minds as episodes. But, since these are laid down
in the neural pathways, therefore, the rejection can be anticipated. As per (Lamothe, 2014), 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, 2014).
The above theory shows that Winnicott has interesting things to say about the certain features
of infant-parent relationship which are most important, essentially the caregiving relationship

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES 3
and how it develops the infant as they go ahead. As per (Caldwell, 2014), 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.
(Lamothe, 2014) says that this theory describes the 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. 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 initially later on it also comes under influence of father (Flynn,
2015)
This gives rise to the term “paranoid-schizoid position” that describes a collection of
defences, relation to the external objects and the anxieties (Flynn, 2015). This theory tell
about the fantasies that are involved in the various processes during the childhood but that are
nor regarded as probable. But, (Williams, 2016) has questioned that whether the activities
related to fantasies can develop just from the mind or somewhere else? This position implies
to many analysts that Klein viewed developmental advancing on basis of internal state. But, it
will be sophistically remote from the external world. (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. It is believed by (McIvor, 2015) that
the paranoid schizoid state of mind in children is considered to be existing from birth to four
to six months of age. This set of fantasies is based upon the view that the since the beginning,

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES 4
there has been a sense of boundary in its external world and internal world. But, (Kalsched,
2014) says that 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.
After the brain starts to remind of the early memories, then comes the time of holding where
it becomes the responsibility of the environment to take care of all the things. According to
(Schwartz, 2016), it is that period of life when the babies need to signal their needs and the
caregiver has to get entrenched with him/her. The day to day concerns are not talked about in
the theory; instead, the theory regards both of them as one unit. (Anderson, 2014) believes
that when this process of holding happens, it contributes greatly to the psychology of infant.
(Klein, P., 2013) says that, after holding time ends, 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.
As per Klein depressive position starts after paranoid-schizoid position, nearly about 3-4
months. It may continue as a forceful role throughout life. (Skolnick, 2013) says that the
failure to develop a secure internal object gives prolonged deficit in development of
depressive position. The person may live in between in these two states.
(Klein, P., 2013) also offers an understanding of the way by which the psychological birth of
infant happens. This theory is proved and justified because its results are dependent on the
sound clinical observations which give a pre-verbal experience to the people. As per (Caper,
2014), the innovations done by Klein has successfully described the experience of the infants

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES 5
in her own terms and the observations have helped in opening the paths of exploration into
this world.
So, when the theory of Klein became popular and implementable, then Winnicott came up
with the concept of ‘Play’. According to (Rudnytsky, 2013), this play has the greatest role to
play in the life and the culture of the adults. Here, the transitional space and the transitional
phenomenon are used by the adults to develop their personalities. This was more effective
than the previous theory because the effects of this theory were visible directly. Winnicott
clearly described that play and creativity is ideal for the virtual world. But, Winnicott has
continued Klein principle of studying play in the way of understanding a child.
The child has various ego stages that determine the way a person takes this theory personally
or the way this theory becomes implementable in the lives of people. So, Winnicott says that
the capacity to be alone is one of the most important phases of development of the ego.
(Borossa, 2015 has supported his view and he has said that 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).
When a person is alone, he is more aware of his body parts as he can feel everything from the
core of his heart and can realise the importance of the way he is living or the way he should
live. In light of this view, the term part object has been coined by Klein. It is the
preoccupation of certain body parts. As per Klein, when the self and the objects are combined
together, an infant can feel his physical present which can give him pleasure. (Arzt, 2014) has
given an example to prove this, that if any person is suffering from pain in breast, then the

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES 6
bad part is breast. But (Bion, 2013) says that this depends on the perception of the infant that
what he is feeling and how he perceives the external environment.
From here, there is move from part object to whole object functioning. It is difficult to
provide single definition to this concept.
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.
(Britzman, 2016) says that 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 has 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
As per Klein, this occurs when a child is not able to keep two contradictory feelings at the
same time. According to (Hinshelwood, R. D., & Robinson, 2014), 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.
But, this is contrasting to the 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.
As per Klein infants come into this world with life and death instincts. Love is the
manifestation of life and hate is the manifestation of death instinct. From the beginning of the

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES 7
life, infants experiences both life and death instincts (Blass, 2014). Life and death instincts
are first experience in relation to the mother. The newly formed egos of infant have to be
protected from the death instincts.
(Kuhn, 2013) mentions that when one gets the two types of instincts, they develop a potential
space, which is a theory given by Winnicott. Here, they make a space between themselves
and the environment. For example, the potential space between mother and baby, child and
family or individual and society depends on experience and trust. It is scared to individual
(Bouaziz, 2013).
After this, the transition phenomena is talked about where the child prepares for sleep and
also child goes over a repertoire of songs and tunes within the intermediate area as transition
phenomenon .Addiction to those can be stated as a term of regression to the early stage at
which transition phenomenon are unchallenged. (Barreto, 2015) gives the concept of
Winnicott has been done using variety of methods. These theories can only be benefited by
experimental validation. Winnicott has drawn his own experience.
During transition, the child develops envy. The analysis of envy can produce quite interesting
results. Here it can recognise and overcome past good experiences can be remembered and
love regained. This creates a circle of many good feeling which previously denied but now
can be tolerated. Uncovering envy gives possibility of discovering pleasures (Gerhardt, J.
(2016). Its analysis gives a possibility of loving self which has been attacked and destroyed
and so lost. But, opposed to envy is Gratitude . As per Klein as envy expresses destructive
drives and is usually aimed at the object that provides gratification. Therefore envy can see to
lessen or destroy the gratitude towards good object. Gratitude is derived towards the object
that produces satisfaction and appreciation (Klein, 2013) Gratitude is towards child’s good

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES 8
object and subsequently shapes child’s love and capacity to shape love relationship
throughout life.
After sometime, 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). 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).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).
In relation with the love of people, the term reparation was introduced by Klein. (Diamond,
2013) says that it is the ability to recognise our destructive impulses towards those we love.
And also make reparation of damage that we caused them. There is difference between true
reparation and manic reparation which is later on driven by guilt and then from overcoming it
(Klein, 2015)
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 (Aguayo, J., & Regeczkey, A., 2016)

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES 9
If we summarise Winnicott idea the child will develop a healthy false self-depending on the
quality of the care received by the mother. If the quality of the care from the mother is bad
then it will lead to unhealthy false self. Initially a carer supports the illusion. The carer then
gradually disillusion and the child understands its individuality (Schwartz, 2016).
From the above discussion it can be concluded that Klein analysed the psychic states
operating at the level of unconscious Phantasy. Hence it disconnects it from outside world.
On the other hand Winnicott accepted her view but also stated that the development of the
child cannot be studied without taking the external environment into consideration. The child
can have varying interaction with the parent figures which influence its development. Similar
to Klein’s depressive position he also considered the detail of how the infant transition forms
are undifferentiated unity to independence. Thus there is realisation of a separate person.

KLEIN’S AND WINNICOTT’S THEORIES
10
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