Depression and reparation as themes in Melanie Klein' analysis of the painter Ruth Weber

Abstract

The term reparation was introduced by Melanie Klein in 1929 in connection with, amongst other things, an analysis of a series of paintings by a certain Ruth Kjär, known to her from a newspaper article by the Danish author Karin Michaelis. Up to now, neither the precise identity of the artist nor the pictures in question have been known in a Kleinian context. This paper demonstrates the artist in question to be the Danish painter Ruth Weber; some of her work is reproduced here.