ABSTRACT
The period 1919 to 1934 may be considered as the first phase of Melanie Klein's development. Klein's views about anxiety, to which she always paid a great deal of attention, evolved as her work progressed. Klein, in her work with little children, observed that unconscious phantasy was early, ubiquitous and dynamic, influencing all the child's perceptions and object relationships. It is only with the formulation of the depressive position that Klein came to describe in a more systematic way the evolution and integration of the internal objects. From the beginning of her work, Klein saw the child as actively symbolizing, in his activities in the external world, his phantasies about his parents and siblings; and she regarded symbolism as the basis of all sublimation. Klein drew attention to the fact that it was much more frequent than was acknowledged, and showed that it could be treatable.
