Letters from Melanie Klein to Marcelle Spira

A collection of 45 letters from Melanie Klein, the Austrian-British psychoanalyst, to Marcelle Spira, the Swiss psychoanalyst, sent between 1955 and 1960 along with 6 draft letter from Spira to Klein sent between 1955 and 1956.

The correspondence concerns Spira's translations of Klein's works, including her contribution to Jean-Baptiste Boulanger's translation into French of The Psychoanalysis of Children, discussions on areas of psychoanalysis, Spira's career and practice in Geneva, Klein's publications including Envy and Gratitude, arrangements for Spira's visit to London in November 1956 and arrangements for Klein's visit to Switzerland in August 1957. Klein's letters are written in English and Spira's letters are in French.

1955-1960

1 file

Letters from Klein to Spira are arranged together chronologically, followed by the letters from Spira to Klein, also arranged chronologically.

Marcelle Spira was born on 19 March 1910 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. At the outbreak of the Second World War she moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she trained as a psychoanalyst under Kleinian analysts. She returned to Switzerland in 1955 and helped promote the growth of psychoanalysis in the country as well as promoting Kleinian concepts within the Swiss Psychoanalysis Society. She moved to the island of Giglio in Italy in 1981 and she died there on 1 April 2006 at the age of 96.

Biographical details for Melanie Klein are recorded here.

At Wellcome Collection: the Melanie Klein archive, reference PP/KLE

The letters are published in Jean-Michel Quinodoz: "Melanie Klein and Marcelle Spira, Their Correspondence and Context" (London: Routledge, 2015) and in the French language version "Melanie Klein. Lettres à Marcelle Spira" (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2013)

After Marcelle Spira's death in 2006 the letters were deposited with the Centre de Psychanalyse Raymond de Saussure in Geneva where they were studied and published by the Swiss psychoanalyst Jean-Michel Quinodoz in his book Melanie Klein and Marcelle Spira, Their Correspondence and Context. In 2016 Quinodoz, on behalf of the Centre de Psychanalyse Raymond de Saussure, gave the letters to the Melanie Klein Trust who transferred them to Wellcome Library, custodians of the Melanie Klein archive.