Klein Theory Course 2023: Seminar 4

Seminar 4: Klein's Play Therapy Technique

Paper: The Psychoanalytic Play Technique: Its History & Significance (1955)

Klein’s 1955 paper argues that the play technique revolutionised psychoanalysis by making the unconscious life of very young children accessible, thereby transforming our understanding of early development and its role in later psychopathology. It is a reflective, historical account of how she developed the psychoanalytic play technique and why it became foundational for child analysis. It is both a methodological explanation and a statement of its theoretical impact on psychoanalysis.