ABSTRACT
In a “Memorandum on her technique” written in the context of the “controversial discussions” in the British Psychoanalytical Society between 1941 and 1945 (see King & Steiner, 1991), Melanie Klein describes how her analytical work and experience with children influenced her technique with adult patients. She mentions first the transference, which, in analyses of children, she has found to be active—in both its positive and its negative form—from the very beginning. Observing this to be the case in adults too, she would likewise interpret the transference at a very early stage of an adult analysis (Klein, 1943, p. 635). As to her technique of analysing defence mechanisms, Klein again notes how her analyses of children proved fruitful for her technique with adults:
I owe to the analysis of young children a fuller understanding of the earliest object relations, and a new insight into the origin of anxiety, guilt, and conflict. These findings enabled me to develop a technique by which children from two years onwards are being analysed. This technique not only opened up a new and promising field for therapy and research, but had also a strong influence on the technique with adults. [ibid., p. 637]
