ABSTRACT
Melanie Klein’s formulations on the body occupy a central position in her theory of mind. In Klein’s words: The first gratification that the child derives from the external world is the satisfaction experienced in being fed. Klein placed the main emphasis on the intra- and intersubjective relationships rather than on the vicissitudes of quantities of energy and their transformation. In Kleinian theory the notion of drives is inherently attached to the notion of internal objects. While Klein extensively explored the infant’s unconscious phantasies about his body and the maternal body, Wilfred Bion placed greater emphasis on the role of perception of both mental and physical processes and its impact on the capacity to think. The infant’s experience of painful or uncomfortable bodily sensations that bring anxiety are dealt with by an attempt at evacuating them by projection into the object that is felt to be the one causing the pain/discomfort.
