There is evidence that Melanie Klein intended to write what she called an ‘infant book’ containing theoretical and practical sections, including psychoanalytically based advice on child rearing. In her latest blog post the Trust’s honorary archivist, Jane Milton, reproduces some unpublished notes that offer a glimpse of this never-realised project.
Klein’s notes demonstrate her nuanced and compassionate thinking on the topic. Milton says, “In the course of Klein’s lifetime, as today, approaches to parenting oscillated between the very permissive and the extremely severe. Klein’s writing shows her espousal of a warm, kind approach to raising children, but also a concern that a complete lack of parental boundaries increases persecutory and depressive anxieties in children.”