Contributions of Women and minorities in the history of psychology

Contributions of Women and minorities in the history of psychology

Introduction

Women have suffered under rules set by various societies. In the past, their work was to give birth and take care of the home. They did not experience equal rights that their fellow gender enjoyed. Matters that pertained to governance, business, and authority were far from the outreach of the women. People claimed that women should serve only the traditional roles in any given society and leave the rest to men. The women therefore, faced various forms of discrimination with different laws and the social attitudes playing active roles in imposing prejudice. Women would not hold property like the male gender, and some oppressive practices made women not have the right to inherit property from their husbands. The women had a challenge, and they were discriminated against and would also face economic discrimination. The banks took them to be a high-risk type of clientele, and they would not even open bank accounts. They were further restricted from accessing credit without signatures from their fathers despite some also having secure jobs. Women’s contribution to the education sector was not much felt, and the male gender dominated in all aspects. However, with time some significant changes were witnessed, and the efforts by the female gender have impacted the society. Melanie Klein is a woman that defied all odds and made progressive changes and contributions to the field of psychology.

The life of Melanie Klein

Klein was the last born in a family of four in Vienna. At a pretty young age, she almost gave up on her ambitions of becoming a doctor, and she later married Arthur, who was a friend to the brother. The marriage had its set of challenges and unfulfilling, which left Klein depressed. The family would then move to central Europe, where Klein began to a period of psychoanalytic therapy. The treatment being conducted by Sandor Ferenzi would later become a trigger of lifetime passion in psychoanalysis and be inspired by Freud’s philosophies (Sayers & Forrester, 2013). Klein would then join the Berlin Psychoanalytical Society, where her craft extended in studying and analyzing children (Aguayo & Salomonsson, 2017). She would write and take notes of the patients she handled who were children at the time.

Contributions of Klein

Klein made various contributions in her life. One of her contributions is when she became the backbone for subsequent productive theoretical thinking that later became one of her most significant publications of Psychoanalysis of Children. She took a different perspective and challenged the status quo of previous psychoanalysis handled before. She would partake the patients as adults and focused on identifying their fears and form of anxieties they expressed when they played (Klein, 2018). It was a different approach to pioneering work dealing with children, and it was not received well in Berlin.  It ensued Klein being treated with suspicion by other psychologists. However, Alix and James Strachey took an interest in Klein’s work and requested her to come to London, and she was received warmly.

Another contribution of Klein was when she moved to London and started working as psychoanalysis and developing her work. Over time, Klein became a household name in the field of psychoanalysis and the British Society. Klein’s theoretical papers, Early Stages of Oedipus Complex & The importance of Symbol Formation caused controversies in the field of psychoanalysis. Klein inquisitiveness was undeterred, and she continued pursuing theories that were grounded on her clinical experiences. The works developed by Klein explained and revealed that the psychoanalytic system was effective in comprehending anxieties linked to fear. It would help the patient understand aggressive impulses and help in exploring the inner self.

Despite the death of her son, Klein was strong enough and wrote papers that had significant contributions to the society. The papers included; a contribution to the psychogenesis of manic depressive states & Mourning and its relation to Maniac-depressive states. In the two papers that Klein developed, they argued that the children are conscious that they have no control in their world. Instead, the child required and depended on having supportive figures in their lives. In the depressive position, Klein explained that a child gets to feel their supporting figures are destroyed, which in turn created anguish. Highlighting the depressive position lied in the much-needed concern to make restitution for the damage done.

The World War II brought more influence to what Klein was doing in her psychoanalysis works. At that time, she shortly moved to Pitlochry and treated Richard a ten-year-old. The treatment of Richard is noted as the Narrative of the child analysis, which helped in the understanding of the worries and concerns during times of turbulence. Notes on some schizoid mechanism can be termed as one of her most celebrated works that even presently has been used in a citation of psychoanalytic. In her works, Klein defined concepts of projective identification that later become an appreciated concept for the future of psychoanalysts.

Challenges Faced by Klein

In her married life, Klein experienced depression and was caused due to the domineering relationship she had with her mother. Before her, nobody had attempted analyzing children, and Klein leaped faith in the unknown. It was a path she had not traveled, and it bore uncertainties, and she was considered controversial for the stand she took. Klein’s marriage did not work, and it impacted the upbringing of her children. Klein’s concepts in psychoanalysis were unpopular, and other Berlin analysts did not endorse her.  Due to the stand that she took in her works of psychoanalysis, it cost her a lot. One of the significant undoing was the conflict that ensued between Melitta and Klein.

Melitta was her daughter, and she did not support the controversial discussions and works by her mother, and the conflict ensued until the death of Klein. She also suffered the loss of her children, and Klein chose to find solace from the suffering by focusing more on her works. The conflict that ensued between her daughters encouraged her to explore more on restitution, gratitude, which represents the mother-infant relationship (Sherwin 2017). Klein’s research and work were so central, and it related to the personal experiences she had with her daughter.

How Klein’s contributions influenced psychology

The contributions of Klein has had a great influence on psychology. She is a woman who has impacted the psychoanalysis field due to her bold disagreements with Freudian theory. She challenged the status quo when it came to the development of child analysis. The theories developed by Klein on projective identification and schizoid defence have profoundly influenced the current psychoanalytical theory presently. Klein surprisingly excelled well in her journey as a psychoanalyst despite it being male-dominated. She did not have a medical degree, and that did not deter her from making significant strides in psychoanalysis. Klein’s strengths were extra-ordinary, and it was more of creative insights rather than scientific discovery. Klein’s focus on young children made her discover the vital stages of child development that she felt earlier analyst had mainly ignored.

Conclusion

The history of women has been that that has undergone various changes in history. Notably, the female gender has not been fairly represented and has faced multiple sorts of discrimination. The society made women believe that they were expected to attend to the traditional roles. They were not supposed to seek jobs and were instead given roles to protect the children and fend for them. Women did not have voting rights, and they could now own property as dictated in societal norms.  However, Melanie Klein was different. She was a woman who, despite all the odds, made significant contributions towards the psychology field. Despite the challenges and being a male-dominated path, she challenged the status quo. Klein’s contribution to psychoanalysis paved the way for child analysis that previous analysts had not explored. The notes taken by Klein became the backbone for subsequent productive theoretical thinking that would later become one of her most significant publications of Psychoanalysis of Children. Klein took a different perspective and challenging the status quo of previous psychoanalysis handled before. Over time Klein became a household name in the field of psychoanalysis and the British Society. Klein was controversial in her works, and it cost her developing a beautiful relationship with her daughter. She suffered from having to lose her children, and it prompted her to devote her life to more studies in psychoanalysis. Klein surprisingly excelled well in her journey as a psychoanalyst despite it being male-dominated. She did not have a medical degree, and that did not deter her from making significant strides in psychoanalysis.

References

Aguayo, J., & Salomonsson, B. (2017). The Study and Treatment of Mothers and Infants, Then and Now: Melanie Klein’s “Notes on Baby” in a Contemporary Psychoanalytic Context. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 86(2), 383-408.

Klein, M. (2018). On the Theory of Anxiety and Guilt 1. In Developments in psychoanalysis (pp. 271-291). Routledge.

Sayers, J., & Forrester, J. (2013). The Autobiography of Melanie Klein. Psychoanalysis and History, 15(2), 127-163.

Sherwin-White, S. (2017). Melanie Klein and infant observation. Infant Observation, 20(1), 5-26.