Depressive Position

From the Melanie Klein Trust website:

‘Depressive position’ is a mental constellation defined by Klein as central to the child’s development, normally first experienced towards the middle of the first year of life. It is repeatedly revisited and refined throughout early childhood, and intermittently throughout life. Central is the realisation of hateful feelings and phantasies about the loved object, prototypically the mother. Earlier there were felt to be two separate part-objects: ideal and loved; persecuting and hated. In this earlier period the main anxiety concerned survival of the self. In the depressive position, anxiety is also felt on behalf of the object.

Backlinks

The following pages link to this page:

• Wilfred Bion