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Infancy
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Melanie Reizes (Klein) is born
Melanie is the youngest of 4 children. Her father, Moriz, is a trained doctor and her mother, Libussa, took care of the children. -
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Childhood
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Sister's Death: Initiative vs Guilt; Preoperational Thinking
Melanie's sister passed away from scrofula when Melanie was 4 years old. This happened during her early developmental years which could have had negative effect on her development. Children this age are beginning to form friendships and the death of her sister could have caused Melanie to struggle socially, leading to them developing initiative vs guilt socioemotional feelings. Klein would have seen this event as very symbolic and is full of intuitive reasoning. -
Academics: Formal Operational
At this age, Klein is entering into Piaget's formal operational stage of thinking. At 12, she begins to improve her reasoning and is able to think more logically. Although, Klein continues building her reasoning skills throughout her life and does not just gain them as she enters adolescence. -
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Adolescence
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Academics: Identity vs Identity Confusion
At the age of 16, adolescents are figuring out how they are going to shape themselves for the future. Klein decided that she wanted to study medicine, focusing on psychiatry, and had her mind made up on her career choice. Klein was trying on different ways of thinking and different career opportunities in school and decided what she wanted to spend her life doing. At this point, Klein's parents are allowing her room to explore so she does not become confused with her own identity. -
Brother's Death: Emerging Adulthood
Klein's brother passed away from heart failure when she is 20 years old. Losing two of her siblings whom she was very close with at such an early age may have had an effect on her development as both of the deaths occurred during her adolescence and childhood. These are both important times in her life as they are building her for the rest of her life. As Klein was an emerging adult, the death of her brother may have conflicted with her ability to explore herself and may have made her unstable. -
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Early Adulthood
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Marriage: Intimacy vs Isolation
Klein finds her husband at age 17and marries him the day after her 21st birthday. Erikson says that people will develop socioemotionally from 18-35 years old by balancing intimacy and isolation. Klein has her first child in 1904 and second in 1907. During her second pregnancy and time afterwards, Klein struggles immensely with her mental health and is very depressed and anxious. Klein formed intimate relationships with her husband romantically and platonically with others such as Ferenczi. -
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Middle Adulthood
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Influential Papers and People: Cognitive Peak
Klein attended the Fifth Psychoanalytic Congress and listens to Sigmund Freud read one of his papers, which deepened Kleins interest in psychoanalysis. This is one of the only times that Klein and Freud ever came face to face. Cognitively, Klein was beginning to age and was becoming more influenced by her education and knowledge from others. Her intellectual skills are peaking and Klein begins forming her own psychoanalytical theories. -
Establishing Herself: Intimacy vs Isolation
Klein became a full member of the Berlin Psychoanalytic Society and begins her career in child psychoanalysis. This is around the same time Freud published his theory of the ego, superego, and Id. Klein finds herself struggling in her marriage and they decide to end things. Klein is able to focus more energy on time on psychology. She begins many close friendships with fellow psychologists and begins reading her papers at conferences. -
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Late Adulthood
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Building the Future: Generativity vs Stagnation
Klein moves to New York, separating from her husband, and focuses her time on working with children. She published one of the most important papers of her career 'Notes on Some Schizoid Mechanisms'. Klein spent most of her final years preparing the last of her work to be published for future psychologists. During this stage of her life she made many contributions for future generations with her research in psychoanalysis. -
Family: Integrity vs Despair
Along with publishing some of her final works, Klein began spending more time with her children and grandchildren. As she came closer to death, she realized that what she wanted so spend more time doing was improving her familial relationships. By the later years in her life, her mental health problems were improved from when she was raising her children. At a glance, Klein's life seems to be more positive than negative, her positive achievements outweighed her despair throughout her life.