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Though noting the not always apparent role of early environmental influences in Klein’s work, Mitrani (2007) cites her paper “On the Importance of Symbol-Formation in the Development of the Ego.” Here, Klein (1930) presented findings from the analysis of a four- year old autistic boy whom she called Dick, and she introduced the concept of “premature ego- development” (p. 227) to sum up Dick’s dilemma. She described this child’s precocity as a “premature empathy” (p. 227) for and “pre-mature and exaggerated identification” (p. 223) with the mother. She proposed that Dick suffered as a result of a far-too-early onset of the depressive position. In other words, in the transference, Klein observed and inferred Dick’s untimely concern as a very young infant with issues related to the survival of his mother. There are countless references in Klein’s work about the infant’s projection of libidinal aspects of its self into the mother to flesh out what’s missing, to repair her (i.e., the depressive position both premature and not so premature), and also her emphasis on the necessity of the infant’s good objects residing at the core of the ego. Klein’s interplay between good and bad objects emerges particularly succinctly in her paper “On the Sense of Loneliness.” She states that “the ego exists and operates from birth onward. At first it is largely lacking in cohesion and dominated by splitting mechanisms. The danger of being destroyed by the death instinct directed against the self contributes to the splitting of impulses into good and bad; owing to the projection of these impulses onto the primal object, it too is split into good and bad. In consequence, in the earliest stages, the good part of the ego and the good object are in some measure protected, since aggression is directed away from them. These are the particular splitting processes which I have described as the basis of relative security in the very young infant, in so far as security can be achieved at this stage; whereas other splitting projective processes, such as those leading to fragmentation, are detrimental to the ego and its strength.” (Klein, 1963, p. 300). The drive toward integration “increases with the growth of the ego, and based on the introjections of the good object, at first represented by the mother’s breast, although it could be other aspects of mother as well. If the good internal object is established with relative security, it becomes the core of the developing ego.” (Klein 1963, p. 301). “…integration, if it could be achieved, would have the effect of mitigating hate by love and in this way rendering destructive impulses less powerful. The ego would then feel safer not only about its own survival but also about the preservation of its good object…However, integration is difficult to accept. The coming together of destructive and loving impulses, and of the good and bad aspects of the object, arouses the anxiety that destructive feelings may overwhelm the loving feelings and endanger the good object. Thus, there is a conflict between seeking integration as a safeguard against destructive impulses and fearing integration lest the destructive impulses endanger the good object and the good parts of the self.” (Klein, 1963, pp. 301-02).
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