Theories on anxiety in Freud and Melanie Klein. Their metapsychological status.

This paper presents a comparative study of the theories on anxiety formulated by Freud and Melanie Klein, with particular emphasis on the questions of its origin, its meaning for the individual and its function in both theoretical systems. The purpose of this comparative analysis is to offer an instrument which helps frame the theoretical discussions in psychoanalysis in an epistemological context. The authors hold that for Freud anxiety is considered as one more amongst the various manifestations of mental life, which his general theories try to explain, whereas for Melanie Klein anxiety and its destinies occupies a central place in her theories on mental functioning. The differences in both theories, which the authors of this paper describe, especially as to origin, function and meaning of anxiety, respond partially to the different metapsychological points of view with which both authors focus mental life--points of view which they have themselves investigated in a previous paper.

Beyond Freudian metapsychology. The metapsychological points of view of the Kleinian School.

This paper deals with the term 'metapsychology' and its different usages, especially emphasizing the concept of 'point of view' in order to stress its epistemological importance. Two metapsychological areas are then suggested, each with different contents. After an enumeration and brief analysis of the main hypotheses of the Kleinian school, and applying the aforementioned distinction, the following points of view, contained in the Kleinian developments, are put forward and explained; namely, the positional, the economic policy, the dramatic and the spatial points of view.