From Freud to Klein, and wild strawberries
pp. 36-66
in: , Klein, Sartre and imagination in the films of Ingmar Bergman, Berlin, Springer, 2015Abstract
Melanie Klein's significance rests partly on her application of psycho analysis to children, evident in her earliest work, but throughou her career we find consistency and evolution in the development o her ideas relating to an internal object world for children and adult alike. Most of Klein's writing refers to examples from her practice an involves formulation of her key concepts, often in relation to Sigmun Freud. Klein rarely applied her ideas to a wider context, but ther are some writings on culture, including notes for a review of Citize Kane (1941). 1 The relevance of Kleinian thinking for culture rests o its conception of art as a practice that is capable of articulating grea negativity for both the artist and the viewer through an understandin of the imagination that is, ultimately, constructive and benign. Thi vision of an imaginary world operating from birth will be explore further by considering the application of Klein's ideas to film and, i particular, Wild Strawberries, one of Ingmar Bergman's most psycho analytic films. The latter offers comparisons to Klein's preoccupatio with the death drive, and the representation of a cathartic process, in which the lead character models a process of psychic transformatio and integration.