melanie klein trust

The Melanie Klein Trust was founded on 1 February 1955 to promote training and research in the psychoanalytic theory and technique adopted and practised by Melanie Klein, and 'developments thereof'. It is a charitable trust registered with the Charity Commissioners (Reg. No. 251672).

The primary objects of the Melanie Klein Trust are:

• To further and promote training and research in psychoanalytic theory and technique as adopted, developed and practised by Melanie Klein and 'developments thereof'.
• To publish, promote and encourage the publication of books, articles, pamphlets, and papers which are based upon or may further the contributions to psychoanalytic theory and technique made by Melanie Klein.
• To promote clinical work in psychoanalysis based upon the theory and and technique of Melanie Klein.
• Generally to secure the furtherance and development of theory and technique of psychoanalysis adopted, developed and practised by Melanie Klein.
• To do all this in any part of the world.

The Trust gives support to psychoanalytic education; it encourages authors to publish and supports those developing new ideas; it organises conferences and arranges for books to be published; it takes care of the Melanie Klein Archive in which it encourages historical research.

Publishing

One of the major tasks of the Trust is to make available Melanie Klein’s own texts; to this end the Trust edited and promoted the publication of a four- volume edition, first published by The Institute of Psychoanalysis and the Hogarth Press in 1975. Currently these are available in Vintage Paperbacks in the UK and the four titles have been translated into seventeen languages.

The Trust Fund was founded with the possession of the copyright of New Directions in Psycho-Analysis and it also owns the copyright of Developments in Psycho-Analysis by Melanie Klein, Paula Heimann, Susan Isaacs and Joan Riviere. Various books including Introduction to the Work of Melanie Klein by Hanna Segal have been published under the auspices of the Melanie Klein Trust.

The Trust has produced or supported in conjunction with different publishers a number of books for which it holds the copyright: the two volumes of Melanie Klein Today edited by Elizabeth Spillius, The Oedipus Complex Today by Ronald Britton, Michael Feldman, Edna O’Shaughnessy and The Inner World and Joan Riviere edited by Athol Hughes. There are translated editions of many other books sponsored by the Trust.

Several books published in the New Library of Psychoanalysis of The Institute of Psychoanalysis, London were assisted by the Trust, such as Clinical Lectures in Klein and Bion, edited by Robin Anderson. It has also given support and financial help to individual authors whose writing has been considered important for the development of Kleinian thought.

Translation

The Trust has subsidised a number of translations from English into other languages, and other languages into English. Among notable examples are the six-volume German edition of Melanie Klein’s work, and the translation of Claudia Frank’s Melanie Klein’s erste Kinderanalysen, a study of Klein’s early analyses of children in Berlin, published by Karnac. The Trust has also co-operated with the Anna Freud Centre to subsidise the translation from French of A History of Child Psychoanalysis by Claudine and Pierre Geissmann, published in the New Library of Psychoanalysis in 1998.

Education

The Trust co-operates with psychoanalytic groups in the UK and abroad in organising and supporting conferences, seminars and other teaching activities.

Rita Frankiel was an American psychoanalyst, married to Roy Schafer, who became very interested in Melanie Klein's work, and who was part of a group of analysts on the east coast of America that met regularly with British Kleinian analysts. When she died in 2007 she left money to the Melanie Klein Trust in order to foster contact between British Kleinian analysts and analysts and senior candidates in America who were interested in and wanted to learn more about the Kleinian approach to analysis. With that in mind, two British psychoanalysts, Pip Garvey and Richard Rusbridger, have been visiting America twice a year, teaching recently qualified analysts and senior candidates. Pip Garvey visits Washington DC, and Richard Rusbridger works with a group drawn from New York and New Haven.

Conferences

For some years the Trust organised jointly with University College London a number of successful conferences. The Trust now organises bi-annual conferences on topics connected with current developments of Klein’s work.  A limited number of bursaries are available to help analysts attend Kleinian conferences.  For further information contact Mary Block at the Melanie Klein Trust.  kleintrust@aol.com

Archives

Melanie Klein left her papers to the Trust in her will. This became the Trust’s Melanie Klein Archives. Since her death the Trustees have done some research and have added to the original collection and will continue to do so. For technical reasons connected with preservation and organisation of the material, the Archive has been put into the care of the Wellcome Trust but copyright and right of access remains with the Melanie Klein Trust. Elizabeth Spillius has been made Honorary Archivist by the Trust and she has embarked on a major study of its contents. Access is granted to all bona fide researchers.

The Trust is managed by the Trustees, who at present are:

• Michael Feldman (Chair)
• Richard Rusbridger (Hon. Sec.)
• John Steiner (Hon. Treasurer)
• Ronald Britton
• Catalina Bronstein
• Gigliola Fornari Spoto
• Edna O’Shaughnessy
• Priscilla Roth
• David Taylor

Elizabeth Spillius is the Honorary Archivist.

In March 1952 a special issue of The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis was dedicated to Melanie Klein to mark her 70th birthday. These papers became the basis for a book, New Directions in Psycho-Analysis, and the authors donated their copyrights to found the Trust Fund. They were: Paula Heimann, Clifford Scott, Gwen Evans, Marion Milner, Emilio Rodrigue, Herbert Rosenfeld, Lois Munro, Wilfred Bion, Beryl Stanford, Hans Thorner, Joan Riviere, Hanna Segal, Adrian Stokes, Roger Money-Kyrle and Elliott Jaques.

The Trust was formally established in February 1955. Its first Chairman was Melanie Klein, who remained in the role until the year of her death in 1960. The other founding Trustees were Wilfred Bion, Paula Heimann, Betty Joseph, Roger Money-Kyrle and Hanna Segal.

In succeeding years, the Chairmen of the Trust were:

• Wilfred Bion, 1960-67
• Herbert Rosenfeld, 1968-82
• Hanna Segal, 1983-90
• Betty Joseph, 1991-2006
• Michael Feldman, 2006