Melanie Klein (1882–1960)

Abstract

Melanie Klein was born Melanie Reizes in 1882. Her father, Moriz Reizes, was a medical doctor in Deutsch-Kreutz, a small town about 70 miles from Vienna. He was married twice, the first marriage lasting a short time and ending when he was 37 years old. His second marriage in 1875, at age 47, was to Libussa Deutsch, Melanie’s mother, who was 24 years younger than him. The couple had three children very quickly, Emilie in 1876, Emanuel in 1877, and Sidonie in 1878. The family moved to Vienna shortly before Melanie’s birth on March 30, 1882 (Segal, 1992). Later in life, Klein reflected on some of the causes for early discontent. Her mother told her that she was an unexpected child. Unlike her three siblings, she was not breast fed by her mother, but had a wet nurse. Furthermore, she often felt as though her three siblings were a unit and that she was not a part of that unit. Yet, as the youngest of the four siblings, she was inspired with a strong sense of competitiveness. Her father, whose approval she longed for, and who was in his fifties when Melanie was born, was not available to spend time with her and openly stated his preference for her sister Emilie. Her parents’ marriage was not an amiable one, Libussa often expressed to her family her contempt for her husband (Grosskurth, 1986).