ABSTRACT
Studied her own childrens’ play. The childrens’ play activity was interpreted from an early age (1–2 years) as having symbolic meaning in the context of the unconscious mind. Klein was the first psychoanalyst to view children’s play as a meaningful activity. Klein viewed infantile ‘phantasy’ as an important part of development. She also developed the concept of projective identification in her theories and described the ‘death instinct’ which she related to instinctual drives.
