Melanie Klein

“One of the many interesting and surprising experiences of the beginner in child analysis is to find in even very young children a capacity for insight which is often far greater than that of adults.”

“The analysis of young children has taught me that the Oedipus complex begins at a much earlier age than we have been accustomed to suppose.”

“The projection of good feelings and good parts of the self into the mother is essential for the infant's ability to develop good object-relations and to integrate his ego.”

“Feelings of love and gratitude arise directly and spontaneously in the baby in response to the love and care of his mother.”

“In the baby's mind, the 'internal' mother is bound up with the 'external' one.”

“My psycho-analytic work has convinced me that when in the baby's mind the conflicts between love and hate arise, and the fears of losing the loved one become active, a very important step is made in development.”

“Greed is an impetuous and insatiable craving, exceeding what the subject needs and what the object can and is willing to give.”

“The ego is incapable of splitting the object--internal and external--without a corresponding splitting taking place within the ego.”

“It is an essential part of the interpretive work that it should keep in step with fluctuations between love and hatred, between happiness and satisfaction on the one hand and persecutory anxiety and depression on the other.”

“The sense of guilt is the normal correlate of the capacity for love, and it is the price of that love.”

“The whole of the child's life is a continuous struggle against anxiety.”

“Envy is the angry feeling that another person possesses and is enjoying something desirable - the envious impulse being to take it away or to spoil it.”

“Guilt is the greatest stimulus to reparation.”

“We are all inclined to accept conventional forms of behaviour and existing standards of value as the only possible ones.”