[2] Melanie Klein considered the ability to recognise our destructive impulses towards those we love and to make reparation for the damage we have caused them, to be an essential part of mental health.
A key condition for that to take place is the recognition of one's separateness from one's parents,[3] which makes possible the reparative attempt to restore their inner representations, however damaged they may be felt to be.
[3] Where the damage done to the internal world is felt by a patient to be extreme, however, the task of reparation may seem too great, which is one of the obstacles facing the analytic attempt at cure.
[7] Manic reparation denies the pain and concern of feeling guilty by using magical methods of repair[8] which maintain omnipotent control of the object in question, and refuse to allow it its separate existence.
[9] Donald Winnicott made his own distinctive contribution to the role of reparation in the "personalising" of the individual, the move from the ruthless use of the external object to a sense of concern.