The views of Melanie Klein and her school on separation anxiety and object-loss

Separation anxiety phenomena are very important in the theory and practice of Melanie Klein and her school. The work of Klein is, as we know, a continuation of the early psychoanalytic research begun in 1911 by Abraham on depression and manic-depressive states. Abraham’s research had preceded Freud’s and had occasioned the latter’s writing of ‘Mourning and melancholia’ (1917e [1915]).