Melanie Klein: Paranoid-Schizoid + Depressive Position

[@clairebonvalot9247]

I'm doing an oral presentation next week on Klein and I want to thank you so much because you explained her so well, it's really going to help me pass on her theories !

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Yeahy! That makes me happy to hear. Best of luck with your presentation 🍀

[@AcceptandAct]

So well explained. She really had an incredible mind. Complex, weird, beautiful, genius... Both as a psychologist who works with adults AND as a parent to a little child, the concepts of bad breast vs good breast and the splitting defense mechanism, for example are eerily accurate and timeless. How did they come up with all these amazing theories back in the day. Something was surely in the air! :)

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

I’m always so curious to hear from parents whether these theories resonate as I don’t (yet) have children myself. That’s so interesting, thank you for sharing :) It’s super interesting to see how a thinkers own experiences influences the theories they develop. There seemed to have been a lot of curiosity and bravery out there in those days.

[@tristansvoboda1212]

Thank you so much for investing time in these amazing videos. I’m in training to become a psychiatrist and I’d like to think that these are going to help me better understand and treat my patients one day

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you so much, Tristan! Your kind and encouraging words made me happy and sweetened my Sunday :) All the best for you.

[@monikagromnicka9485]

I am delighted with your way of imparting knowledge, explaining theories. I wish you a lot of professional and private success, and for myself on my professional path - more such teachers. seriously. I am overjoyed that I found you and thank you so so much for your time.

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you so much for your kind words 🙏 It truly means a lot. I'm happy to hear that my way of creating resources is helpful for you. I'd love for my future to include more teaching one day. Best wishes

[@sandeep_kr11]

Melanie Klein work to understand child psychology was amazing and i appreciate her for the wonderful work.

[@Van-lm7zb]

Thank you for those great videos. The concepts are well explained and the videos are of great quality too! From a Canadian psychologist also training in psychoanalysis :) Looking forward to more video!

[@Van-lm7zb]

Oh and I'm following you on Spotify. I hope all your videos will be available on that platform. :)

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you so much for your kind comment, it means a lot! So nice to see another psychoanalyst in trainig over here :) I wish you all the best for the rest of your training 🍀

[@OriginsofEternity]

Another video! Glad you’re back :)

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you for your comment! I'm also glad to be back :)

[@OfficialFahimAhmed]

Massive welcome back! Your videos have really helped me in my journey as a therapist in training. So much value. Keep up the impactful work☺️

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you so much for your kind words, Fahim :) That means a lot. I wish you best of luck for the rest of your training!

[@selssur]

Thank you for the most beautifully explained and well-designed video about Melanie Klein. I’d love to hear your thoughts on Jacques Lacan as well since I enjoy the different perspectives it brings. Hope to hear about that too! 😊

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you so much for your kind words! Unfortunately I don't understand Lacan, he is a total mistery. But Bruce Fink wrote a good introduction to his theories that helped me a little bit. Best wishes!

[@SaraNWho]

Thank you for coming back 🌠

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you for still being here :)

[@shmoolicious]

I just love the fact that you've made a new video! Thank you!

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Yeahy! Thank you so much for your kind words, that’s so encouraging :)

[@dorayuyu02]

thank you for making these videos! it’s so helpful to understand the concepts and ideas in psychoanalysis/psychodynamics on a deeper level! Could you also make a video about Margaret Mahler?

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you so much for your comment! Hm, I haven't read any original Mahler literature so far, so not in the near future unforunately. But I'll hopefully dive into more books :)

[@cariri12]

I love your work, your voice, the soft accent when pronouncing the german names. So much work put into it. I know how hard teaching psychoanalysis can be. Would it be easier if it was in your mother tongue? Im curious about your hardships doing it. Love from Brazil 🙌🏻

[@bahmankhodadadi3193]

Dear Alina, another wonderful video. 24.7 k subscribers, really? Does not it explain how successful you are with producing excellent materials? I am very proud of you (also missed you) and delighted to see how successful you are in what are doing. People here watching your videos seem to be very satisfied with the information you provide. I keep my fingers crossed and look forward to more videos. Good job!😊

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Bahman! Thank you so much for your kind words, your continued support for afar means a lot :) I don't know how this happened but yes, somehow people seem to enjoy what I create, which continues to be an uncannily exciting experience. I passed by the Cluster of Excellence the other day and was sending good thoughts your way. I hope Yale is an extraordinary experience - including but hopefully beyond the CV. Best of luck with your (upcoming?) publication. Cheering for you!

[@josephsuruiz]

Yey! Was waiting for your come back and its worth it. Because of your channel, I consider enrolling myself to a Masters Degree. I am a Psychology major in my bachelors. 🎉

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Wohoo! Thank you so much for such a kind comment. It means a lot. All the best wish the rest of your studies and whatever direction you chose to follow :)

[@alexgebhardt5925]

Thank you so much for making this video! I am definitely going to be thinking about Kleinian analysis for a while!

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you for your comment, Alex. It is quite interesting, isn't it?

[@poitersdelarosinides1833]

Such a pleasure to listen to your interpretations. Glad l found this channel however late.

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you so much for your kind words. Welcome to the channel :)

[@asalane20]

Beautiful, clear synopsis of some complex concepts

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you so much!

[@juanjoseredondo2314]

Thank you very much!! Im going to study this.

[@lauradavidescu5810]

Hi, Alina! Yes, your videos are very good, thank you for the work and generosity you put into them! And for the way you try to shed a bit of light on how Klein might have come to conceptualize the infant's nascent psyche. For example at minute 11.25, when you put words on "what exactly is going on in an infant", this early chaotic mental life when language and memory are not available, sense-making only relies on black and white body perceptions, interception, as an input, etc. I, for one, still have this "epistemological itchiness" when it comes to how did Klein come up with her original conceptualisation? What was her observation field, what fed her thinking? Although I see how her main concepts have been largely validated by clinical observation of psychopathology.

[@Random7131]

Thank you so much for this well explained material!

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

You're so welcome, thank you for your comment.

[@migueladrianvalevelazquez8703]

Alina glad your back 😊

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Glad to be back! Thank you, Miguel.

[@JulioTex]

That was so interesting and well explained! Thank you for that :)

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you so much for your kind words! It’s been a labour of love :)

[@SaraTaravati]

Thankyou, so well explained. Loved it!

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you so much, Sara!

[@Vantagehub]

Very well explained, well done👍

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you so much 🙏

[@timetoblossom1203]

Hi Alina Happy to see your video again Have you by any chance deleted the earlier videos? I watched video about unworthiness and inferiority-superiority, and can’t find it😅

[@MongeyMongey]

Great video as usual, what are some accessible readings that aren't necessarily written by her but based on her work?

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you so much. I found Hanna Segal's "Introduction to Melanie Klein" comparatively readable. You can also always start with a chapter on Melanie Klein in a book such as "Freud and Beyond" by Steven Mitchell, which is a great introduction to all sort of psychodynamic schools of thought. Best of luck!

[@mcwulf25]

This is probably the best explanation I have come across regarding Klein. Not just a random set of theories but how a real human experiences splitting etc. I also like the closing remarks about theorists.

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm happy to hear my video was helpful :) Klein is a tricky one indeed... I've recently started reading Thomas Ogden who (also) conceptualizes Klein's theories not as developmental theories but describing modes of experience, which just makes a lot more sense :) Best wishes!

[@mcwulf25]

@PsychodynamicPsychology Thanks for your reply and thanks for the videos. Looking forward to your Ogden video ☺️

[@tali7140]

Excellent, thank you! It would be wonderful, if you could do a video on symbol-formation.

[@JU-dz9mh]

I love this dokumentation

[@juanjoseredondo2314]

Amazing video. Once i saw Otto Kernberg saying that Superego grow in Layers one by one. Id like if is possible, understand this metaphor well. Maybe Klein says this because every layer is an integration of the experience using the introyection on the external world.

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you for your kind words, Juan. Interesting! The first thing that comes to mind would be the different levels of incorporation < introjection < identification. That's how I'd imagine Kernberg meant it, which maps a little onto Klein I guess.

[@criquet-l3b]

Wonderful ❤

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you so much!

[@MrZAPPER1000]

16:06 makes u think about how aestheticism can be dangerous at some parts of life

[@dkmagos]

this helped me understand Don Carveths videos. This was so good!! thank you.

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Yeeees! This made me so happy to hear. His videos can be tricky without knowing the "fundamentals". Enjoy :)

[@abebayehusahle3294]

I AM FRO ETHIOPIA, AFRICA I AM SECOND YEAR PSYCHIATRY RESIDENT I AM IMPRESED WITH YOUR WAY OF PRESENTATION 🤩😍 SUBSCRIBED LIKED

[@Babka113]

6:59 kleine‘s “positions” seem to be what sam vaknin would call “self states”?

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

I have never heard of Sam Vaknin, so I cannot answer. Do you recommend diving into his work?

[@Babka113]

@@PsychodynamicPsychologyI actually have no background whatsoever in psychology but I personally find his videos intriguing. Discovering his channel was a very random affair and I got hooked because he described my family of origin dynamic so well with his descriptions of NPD, the shared fantasy, etc. His videos gave me the language to describe the chaos and dysregulation in which I grew up. I understood all the concepts that you spoke about in this video only because I’ve listened to so many of his videos these last three years. So yes, I do recommend him, but I’m just a lay person!

[@davidp3761]

Thank you

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you for your comment and appreciation.

[@naetek6430]

..the first Kleinians used part objects languages...if you read the contemporary Kleinians they dont use it..they incorporated ideas from Bion like container cointained ...and you will learn a lot..they are brilliant.. About the directness...it's a technique...they Analyze transference immediately...

[@veganphilosopher1975]

Thanks for this. I read a paper by Klein in a reading group and couldn't make sense of it. Any tips for self studying psychodynamic theory?

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

That makes me happy to hear. Puh, well, psychodynamics is a big field… anything you’re interested in in particular?

[@veganphilosopher1975]

@@PsychodynamicPsychology I'm a software developer. I'm interested in using theories from psychodynamics to model the mind. I really would love to look into psychodynamics from a scientific/philosophical perspective. Scientists sympathetic to psychoanalytical vies like Mark Solms And Marvin Minsky have influenced me.

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

I just now have started reading “The Hidden Spring” by Mark Solms. Other than that I’m not very familiar with this field. But maybe Bion and his theory of thinking might be interesting for you. It’s very complicated though.

[@veganphilosopher1975]

@@PsychodynamicPsychology I've heard a lot about Bion. I'll have to check it out. I plan to read Freud's major works then I'll survey other figures like Anna, Klein, Jung and such. 100% on the pee and poo commentary. 😂 I read a paper about Karl Abraham a student of Freud's the whole paper was about depression and retention of 💩 in fairness, I think it was insightful

[@Our_Patterns]

@@veganphilosopher1975you could also join the book club!

[@veronicaboxley4171]

Hi Alina, I like to go through the top 10 videos but I only see 1 under the individual psychology list. Please help

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Hi Veronica, I have taken down lots of videos because I wasn't proud of them anymore. I hope to re-record some and republish them in the future.

[@veronicaboxley4171]

@@PsychodynamicPsychology thank you for the response. I really appreciate your videos especially the wrong goals video. Is there way to pay for the old videos.

[@Robin0716-ow4du]

More content please.

[@user-rq2ow5lj1b]

Mark: 10:05

[@yahyaesadozdemir4558]

What happened to the other videos of yours?

[@Sara.alimohamadi.1988]

Please make a video about how to find our true self based on horney theory.

[@alexrowdy2718]

What took so long ! 8 months !

[@wolfkrispie]

Wonderful content.. My only note to this video would be not to whisper.. The quality of your voice is so soothing that I wanted to take a nap. I realise that talking to a camera is difficult, perhaps imagine you are addressing a small crowd in front of you. This is such an important topic and should be yelled from the mountain top! Thank you for putting it out.

[@antiochiaadtaurum3786]

i disagree, you must have been tired to begin with

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you for your constructive criticism, Dante, and for your kind words. There is always something to improve :)

[@Jan-f4k5h]

Thank you for the great summary of Melanie Klein's work! However, your criticism of Klein at the end of the video seems too deliberate in my eyes in parts, e.g. the mention of Klein's pandering to her male colleagues. It seems like an attempt to judge a historical figure by today's standards, which gives the whole thing a strange spin.

[@edgreen8140]

No it makes sense. That was 40 something years ago. Did harry potter have projective identification. The "drama of the gifted child " was excellent. Don't know why it got rewritten after 1988. I love object relations British but I'm american . But used Other methods cog/beh. No need when you can do a decent clinical interview and in time come up with the correct dx and treat.

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

I just looked up that Harry’s birthday is in 1980, so the story started in 1990/1991. 40 years would have made me feel too old, haha!

[@juanjoseredondo2314]

I agreed with you but not with PDS. 20 years as psicotherapist in Spain, Act therapy + cognitive-behaviour thecnics doesnt helpme with bpd, npd. I think Lineham's work is the path. But Transfer Focus Therapy, mentallitation, Coherence therapy, AEDP, are awesome to connect with the client. Regards

[@naetek6430]

...the mith that Klein did not take into account the real object...unfortunately if you/people dont read Klein...but I heard...well....

[@Our_Patterns]

🙏🏻

[@dawidnazarko926]

I missed you 😊

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

I missed making videos :)

[@desperatefortuneproduction3296]

A very interesting video, but I'm noise-sensitive and struggle with background noise, so I found the background music irritating and distracting. I find it easier to assimilate information by reading, but when listening I prefer to be able to concentrate wholly on the speaker, with no extraneous noise.

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

I'll be putting together a blog/medium article based on this video in the near future. That might be a better way for you to consume this information!

[@lauramach3300]

Feat video , you were missed lately

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Thank you, Laura, I also missed being on here!

[@e-t-y237]

An infant is thinking about annihilation, persecution, death, life, splitting good and bad?? It just seems way, way, way archaic and overanalyzed. Brutal directness in therapy has value, but is certainly not enough for healing and recovery. The early years of this stuff is like the early years of astronomy. It's profoundly errant.

[@danirrcc4028]

Defense

[@JeeprzCreepers56]

Its actually quite relevant, try harder. 😂

[@andyk6192]

I would argue that an infant, or any other living being, is primarily concerned with annihilation. In the literal etymological sense, from the Latin nihil (nothing), it means to be made into nothing- to be completely obliterated or destroyed. In a basic biological sense, it is survival. In the sense that we are social primates with complex dependencies for our survival, it makes sense that we would have certain instinctive behaviors and ways of implicitly learning about ourselves in relation to others. We do fear persecution from a young age. We do have innate aggression and a conditioned relationship to that aggression. We do learn that we and others are good or bad, and can struggle to reconcile that through healthy ambivalence. How we cope with that to survive and remain connected varies. It seems bizarre to me to discount these things.

[@e-t-y237]

@@andyk6192 I like the Latin angle. Perhaps the infant's aversion to being nothing -- i.e. to being ignored -- best describes its motivation. I hardly think it has any concept of survival or death.

[@andyk6192]

@@e-t-y237 but to be ignored as an infant means survival or death. If the infant does not cry when it is abandoned or hungry, and if no one comes, it dies. we are primates at the end of the day.

[@WalterBurton]

TMT.

[@highhopes8027]

excuse me, I'm not a psychologist, but always have wondered, stumbling upon such videos- are we seriously trying to apply scientific methods to fictional characters, trying to understand it this way? maybe some disclaimer should address the question. sure, im not alone wondering

[@Our_Patterns]

Scientific methods and theoretical concepts are two different things. Using analogies with commonly understood themes can be useful for grasping seemingly abstract ideas.

[@highhopes8027]

@@Our_Patterns thanks, I'll think about it more. i just thought that reality is always mmmuch more complex than any fiction. but maybe, our science is superficial enough yet. or I'm kind of romantic

[@Our_Patterns]

@@highhopes8027 I think that’s why Snape’s character and story arch is so compelling - it’s all very complex. Using literary references where the writer gets deep into the subjective experience of the character is sometimes the closest the public can get to a shared understanding of someone else’s life to apply and understand the psychological concept being conveyed. With a character from a well-known story, we all have access to the exact same information about the person, and we are more likely to have a shared recognition of who the character is, inside and out. But even with this, I imagine each reader’s feelings about and understanding of Snape varies. Inventing a character to specifically highlight a psychological and theoretical concept might allow the educator to more precisely demonstrate the concept, but then again, there is a reason why Harry Potter is a global phenomenon - it’s because JK Rowling has a gift at describing the complexity of her characters and their individually compelling stories. A psychologist or novice writer is unlikely to be able to convey the experience of a fictional character as well as JK Rowling.

[@PsychodynamicPsychology]

Beautifully put! Thank you :)

[@don-eb3fj]

Not one of us lives in "reality", we EXPERIENCE phenomena of reality through the interpretation of our sense organs, our psychological states, and the STORIES we generate and internalize to organize and explain our perceptions. The capacity to do this is behind all our "rational" capacities and is what separates us from the "lower" animals and allows us to divide ourselves from a state of nature (for good and for ill) and cannot escape our reliance on that ability without collapsing into a primitive state ruled by our unfiltered senses and instincts. Our cultures and our entire human existence depends on our acceptance of and immersion in a story; narratives and metaphors are the bridges that allow us to (attempt to) understand ourselves, the natural world, each other, and the forces that govern existence itself that are beyond the comprehension of our senses and instincts. We humans, unendowed with thick hides, sharp teeth, and deadly claws could not have survived without our narrative abilities, which are the basis of our ability to live cooperatively, and we have never lived without our stories. Myths and legends, religions, political and social ideologies, monetary systems, our personal psychologies, and yes, even science, are structured narratives that determine how we experience the phenomena that we accept as reality. Modern science has sought to dispell our "superstitions" about the nature of existence and our place in it by reducing the scope of our experience of reality to the narrow material perceptions of our senses and their mechanistic extensions, developed through the use of the very psychological processes that "Science" doctrine would have us deny - when Friedrich Nietzsche declared that "God is dead", it was his despair over this awareness and it's horrifying implications that inspired him. He saw the foundations of humanity crumbling and the central fires of our cultures burned to ash and foresaw the cold, sterile exposure to an indifferent universe we would suffer because of it. Look around. Was he wrong? "Science" has attempted to "cure" us of our primitive nature by slaying our dragons and demons, by banishing terrifying gods from our memory, by subduing Nature in favor of a cold comfort; in the process, we have lost ourselves, been reduced to little more than wind-up automata existing only to serve as a cog in a clockwork fever dream of someone else's story, written in the cold light of scientific jargon and objective delusion, the symbols of modern myth and epic hubris. We have evolved our cultures and our technologies to the point we can no longer live comfortably with, a part of us is homesick for the close familial ties and tribal interdependence we are evolved for. Through our modern retellings of the oldest stories, our glowing digital screens become a window looking backwards to our days when the spirits of creation lurked just beyond the reach of the light of the central fire, the cold harshness of existence dispelled by the warmth of the flames, huddled together under warm blankets woven from the threads of common narratives, the stuff of dreams. Of what value are stories like Harry Potter? I would ask instead : of what value is a world without wonder? Which world were we really meant for?

[@thatkanpuriaguy8177]

Seems very derivative and rebranding of freuds concept with a lot of word salad. The Potterization didn't help at all. Seemed very trivializing.

[@streaming5332]

Alian doesn't sound German, she has an American accent.

[@adamborowicz7209]

The video is very OK and your work is just great, but in reality there's no "death drive/instinct" and equating it with "agression" is just wrong.

[@erikthompson8389]

Great introduction but wish presentation was less precious

[@GR-hl4gk]

Talk slower please….