ABSTRACT
Kleinian theory The psychoanalytical theories of Melanie Klein are sometimes seen within the context of object-relations theories. They have had an influence on psychotherapists and social workers, though Yellowly has noted: 'If social work is indeed about change, then the kind of change strategy implicit in Kleinian theory has little relevance to social work, and it has little to offer as a theory of change' (Social Work Theory and Psychoanalysis, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1980, p. 163). Kleinian theory is based largely on the direct experience of applying and modifying psychoanalytic technique in the treatment of very young children. It places the dynamics of ego and super-ego formation in the first year of life; emphasises the intensity and complexity of infantile phantasy; gives structural importance to what are described as the depressive and paranoid positions; explores particular feelings (e.g. envy) and particular mechanisms (e.g. projection or unconscious attribution, and introjection or the absorption of 'external' feelings, etc.). Salzberger-Wittenberg, I. (1970) Psycho-A nalytic Insight and Relation-
ships: a Kleinian Approach, Routledge & Kegan Paul.
