Dominique Agostini : Melanie Klein, Analyst of Adolescents: The Case of “Ilse”

Having studied the case of “ Felix ” and the Kleinian concepts of internal objects and of unconscious fantasy illustrated by the case of this adolescent boy, the author uses the case of “ Ilse ” to explore Kleinian conceptions of female sexual identity.
Klein centered her analysis of Ilse on this adolescent girl’s envious sadism towards an internal mother who was, in fantasy, the owner of the father, and on the omnipotent guilt which mirrored these fantasies. This guilt robbed Ilse of her passage through “ psychical puberty ” and, consequently, of all the rest of her development. While the first part of the analysis sets Ilse in the latency phase, the attenuation of her guilt in analysis will improve her feeling of identity, of personal responsibility : Ilse becomes more genuine, more free.