Essential Readings from the Melanie Klein Archives: Original Papers and Critical Reflections brings together a selection of previously unpublished material by Melanie Klein, one of the key architects of child psychoanalysis, and sets it in the context of the contemporary understanding of her work, with contributions by a range of leading Klein scholars.

The book contains lectures, letters, notes and an autobiography by Klein, as well as key pieces of analysis on Klein’s work from major Kleinian analysts, with contributions from Claudia Frank, R.D. Hinshelwood, Jane Milton and Maria Rhode based on wide-ranging research into Klein’s archive. Bringing the work of Claudia Frank to an English audience for the first time, there is also a new chapter by Maria Rhode featuring further case material on Klein’s famous young patient ‘Dick’, the subject of Klein’s 1930 paper on symbolism, which is discussed in relation to current ideas about the autistic spectrum. This material fleshes out our understanding of Klein’s thinking, shines new light on the major features of her work, and the influences on the analyst herself.

Melanie Klein was a pioneering and sometimes controversial figure within psychoanalysis, whose new approach to child analysis and new understanding of our inner world were revolutionary. Her large archive (now available online) contains papers and drafts of papers, notes for lectures and seminars and a vast amount of case material, all of which is of scientific interest. Essential Readings from the Melanie Klein Archives will be of great interest to Klein scholars, as well as to researchers and readers in the wider history and development of psychoanalysis.