Klein had been working on the primitive levels and processes of the mind for a number of years, at least since 1930, although this work goes back to her interest in Abraham’s work in the early 1920s. The point was that these processes were theoretically the problems of the psychotic disorders. She could then consider the question whether this approach was any use when she had in treatment a psychotic boy, in 1929. She laid the basis for an interest in Dick’s serious deficit in symbol-formation.

How did Klein begin to see the emotional roots of psychotic states and experiences?