Kleinian Psychoanalysis / Melanie Klein
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Seen by:The Life and Death Instincts in Kleinian Object Relations Theory.
This short essay on the psychical operations of the Life and Death Instincts, as seen in the Object Relations theories... more
This short essay on the psychical operations of the Life and Death Instincts, as seen in the Object Relations theories of Melanie Klein, was my first glance at Psychoanalytic Instinct Theory, studied and written in the Spring of 2008. Three years later, in the Autumn of 2011, I was in possession of the entire 24 volumes of The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, at my home and able to study them at leisure. A Psychoanalysis research associate on the Psychoanalysis, Literature and Practice Seminar Series at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, suggested I read Freud’s essay the Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Chapter 1 in Volume 18 of the Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud.
To my dismay the Beyond the Pleasure Principle chaper 1 of volume 18 is a very long essay indeed in 7 parts, but I was curious and had a desire to explore Freud’s writings as it felt like an adventure. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Part 5 of the Beyond the Pleasure Principle essay is where Freud lays down the fundamental components of his Instinct Theory. My essay attached here is British psychoanalyst Melanie Klein’s interpretation, development and use of some of the possible psychical mechanisms and processes that can be said to result from Freud’s Instinct Theories. In this Abstract (also attached as an Appendix to my Kleinian, Life and Death Instincts in Object Relations Theory essay), I am tempted to summarize Freud’s actual Instinct Theory itself, as described in Part 5 of Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Vol. 18, p.34-43, as I have never heard it discussed or even mentioned in any Psychoanalytic context and I think it merits attention, especially considering the current Environmental zeitgeist and hegemony that we are all being subjected to.
(Instinct Is Conservative - Journal Article on Freud's Instinct Theory uploaded as a separate word doc.)
In comparison with Klein’s use of Instinct theory, it is plainly evident that she was interested in the functions of instincts as they can be seen operating in everyday life and death experiences and relations, while Freud was much more interested in the very nature of instinct itself. I hope my summary of Freud’s Instinct Theory will show how deep and wide variation in Psychoanalytic theorizing and practice is and how open and attentive Psychoanalytic inquiry and investigation is to an individual theorist’s inherent psychical constitution and conditioned psychodynamics, born of their inner personal/subjective life and death experiences, their external relations with significant others and the external collective conditions that individuals are subjected to. People, individuals/subjects, instinctively find, perceive, understand and even believe what they desire to know and this is one of the reasons why every reader/thinker is biased and projects onto and conditions a text with their own needs, ideas, prejudices, hopes, wishes and delusions. Every past thought and feeling is reawakened and modified by fresh experience through the cycles of time. I certainly can be accused of spinning Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle (Part 5) text to suit my own interests and purposes, just as Melanie Klein took Freud’s ideas where she and her colleagues in the British School of Psychoanalysis (that was not yet formed at that time) were heading. Individuals have their own agenda, but can’t achieve it without others, as the Psychoanalytic theories of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan have made exceptionally clear, in his own way, for his individual purposes and for the purposes of the collective (professional, social, political, etc.) ideologies that he chose to cathect. There can be no Self, whatever you want to call it - individual, person, human being, human organism, etc. - without an Other, because of the function of the I.
List of Short Psychoanalytic Psychology Essays by Ayla Michelle Demir
List of Short Psychoanalytic Psychology Essays by Ayla Michelle Demir
July 2011
Exploring... more
List of Short Psychoanalytic Psychology Essays by Ayla Michelle Demir
July 2011
Exploring Creativity Psychoanalytically:
Freud on the Nature of Creativity. 3000 words
Klein on the Nature of Creativity. 3000 words
The Affect of Creative Art 1500 words
December 2010
Introduction to Lacan: Consider the main features of Freud’s concept of the Ego. In what ways did Lacan’s ideas on the Formation of the Subject depart from Freud’s? 3000 words
July 2010
Psychoanalysis and Art: Using Psychoanalytic ideas discuss a work of Art - Man in the Tree Automatically produced Surreal Watercolour Painting by Ayla Michelle. 3000 words
March 2010
Psychoanalysis, Leadership and Organisation: A Review of Freudian and Kleinian Psychoanalytic Theories of Group Psychology. 3000 words
March 2008
Kleinian Object Relations Theories: The Role of the Life and Death Instincts in Kleinian Object Relations Theory. 3000 words
December 2007
Kleinian Object Relations Theories: Describe the Paranoid-Schizoid and Depressive Positions. 3000 words
July 2007
Loss, Longing and Creativity, Psychoanalysis and Literature: Discuss Loss of Self in Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved. 3000 words
March 2007
The Freudian Foundations of Psychoanalysis: Describe and give examples of Defence Mechanisms in Everyday Life. 3000 words
December 2006
The Freudian Foundations of Psychoanalysis: Describe and Evaluate Josef Breuer’s case of Anna O. 3000 words
July 2006
Jung and Analytical Psychology: How does a study of Alchemy, enhance our understanding of Unconscious Processes and Carl Jung’s concept of Individuation. 3000 words
January 2006
Narcissism, Depression and Authenticity: Describe the links between Freudian and Jungian theories of Narcissism in understanding Sex Addiction. 3000 words
December 2005
The Meaning of Myths: The Myth of Persephone. 1500 words
The Critical Curriculum
by David Hulks
Journal of Art & Design Education, vol. 11, no. 3, 1992
Article eventually used as a chapter in an edited anthology of art education discussions Article eventually used as a chapter in an edited anthology of art education discussions

