This book provides a thorough introduction to the stimulating and controversial ideas of the woman who charted the field of child analysis—Melanie Klein.

Freud was surprisingly silent on the “dim and shadowy era” of earliest infancy. It was Melanie Klein, one of Freud’s most innovative followers, who revolutionized child analysis with her “play technique,” illuminating the baby’s most primitive fantasies and conflicts. Now, at last, the most important of Klein’s writings are together in one volume, brilliantly edited and introduced by one of Britain’s best known feminist thinkers.

The Selected Melanie Klein feature the significant ideas of the woman who took the field of child analysis by storm, including her ideas on treatment of psychotics, revisions of Freud’s ideas on female sexuality, the discovery of the direct connection between normal ego development and psychosis, and the important role fantasy plays in daily life.