L'enfant et les sortilèges revisited

The author discusses 'L'Enfant et les sortilèges', an opera by Ravel based on a short story by Colette, which traces the trials and tribulations of a young boy whose bad behaviour leads to his being sent to his room, left alone and given only tea and bread until dinner. His progression from anger to persecution and fear, the various defences he employs to protect himself from feeling overwhelmed and his despair are graphically illustrated through words and music. The author considers the opera in relation to Klein's theory of the paranoidschizoid position and the struggle involved in maintaining contact with good objects, externally and internally. Revisiting the opera in light of Meltzer's contribution to psychoanalytic thinking provides a wider perspective in which to explore what he has termed the aesthetic conflict and its place in relation to the depressive position and developmental processes.