Information

The Melanie Klein Trust


Trustees:

Michael Feldman (Chair),
Richard Rusbridger (Hon. Sec.)
Ronald Britton,
Gigliola Fornari Spoto,
Betty Joseph,
Edna O’Shaughnessy,
Catalina Bronstein
John Steiner (Hon. Treasurer).

Elizabeth Spillius is the Hon. Archivist.

Registered Charity: 251672

What is the Melanie Klein Trust?

The Melanie Klein Trust is a charitable trust registered with the Charity Commissioners (Reg. No. 251672) 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”.

What does it do?

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.

How is it managed?

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

Michael Feldman (Chair), Richard Rusbridger (Hon. Sec.) Ronald Britton, Gigliola Fornari Spoto, Betty Joseph, Edna O’Shaughnessy, Catalina Bronstein, and John Steiner  (Hon. Treasurer).

Hanna Segal, a former Chair, acts as Consultant to the Trustees.
Elizabeth Spillius is the Hon. Archivist.

The History of the Trust

In March 1952 a special issue of The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis was dedicated to Melanie Klein to mark her seventieth 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 first Chairman of the Trust was Melanie Klein and she remained so until the year of her death in 1960. The other Trustees at the outset were Wilfred Bion, Paula Heimann, Betty Joseph, Roger Money-Kyrle and Hanna Segal.

In succeeding years, the Chairmen of the Trust were:
Wildred Bion 1960-67
Herbert Rosenfeld 1968-82
Hanna Segal 1983-90
Betty Joseph 1991-2006
Michael Feldman 2006

The aims, objects and status of The Melanie Klein Trust

The Founders established the Trust with its “charitable purposes” and method of government defined in the Deed of 1 February 1955.

In its preamble the Deed described the theory and technique it was concerned with as follows:  “Sigmund Freud created and developed the theory and technique of psychoanalysis, and Melanie Klein, by extending her researches into earliest infancy, has added fundamentally to the theory and technique of psychoanalysis and to the psychoanalytic treatment of children and psychotics".

The primary objects of the Trust are laid down in the Deed:

●   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 Fund

The original capital of the Trust was quite small but it has been augmented by donations, legacies, royalties from publications and investment.  With the increased income the fund has generated the Trust has been able to expand its activities.

The Trust's Activities

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 Psycho-Analysis 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 Psycho-Analysis of the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 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 Psycho-Analysis 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.

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.

Archives

In her will Melanie Klein left her papers to the Trust.  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.

Copyright © 2006The Melanie Klein Trust