ABSTRACT

The cushioning effect on the dispute between Klein and Anna Freud afforded by the distance between Vienna and London disappeared in 1938, and no longer damped down the differences of opinion between the two. The criticism of Klein’s work was often constructive, but not always. And indeed, it became rather redundant as she moved on, following Abraham, to develop her interest in the schizoid mechanisms. The controversial position she had found herself in seemed to lead her uncompromisingly to further clinical investigations. The depressive position had led, as we saw, to issues about the sense, and value, of the self.

How did she begin to conceptualise these problems of a coherent identity?