ABSTRACT
Melanie Klein’s phenomenological theory, particularly of the paranoid–schizoid and depressive positions, and of pathological defences, which disrupt self-integration and psychic development, as well as her theories on envy and reparation, is understood in developmental terms. Klein’s phenomenological theory that manifests in clinical situations is most consonant with this view, and, in D. W. Winnicott’s terms, such theory need not be “impinged” on by a metapsychology that might have subjective roots in Klein’s personal psychohistory. Klein’s brilliant clinical observations are related to her clinical theory, and they can be easily framed in developmental terms. Winnicott focuses on how spontaneity and play are blocked. Klein focuses on how mourning, loss, separation, and, therefore, love, are blocked. Both are speaking about characteristics of true vs. false self-development. To polarise Klein and Winnicott would be to polarise loneliness and solitude, rather than seeing the dialectic between them, with the clinical dimensions related to this dialectic.
