八〇年代中期以來，梅蘭妮•克莱菌的客體關係理論被社會 學者用來説明許多社會不公的議題，其中也包括種族歧视。克萊 菌主張嬰兒時期的心靈危機會持續到成年，且未解的危機在與他 人互動闕係激化時會再次出現。童妮•摩里森的小説《摯愛》提 供了一個種族互動的脈絡，有助於理解克萊茵理論中心靈危機的 形成與演變。本文援引客體關係理論閲讀此本小説，一方面希望 探討種族的衡突和對立是否使這些心靈危機變得更加難解；另一 方面，也希望透過理論深入發掘小説所描繪的白人種族歧视背後 的心理機制，以及黑奴們的心理歷程如何因奴隸制度而備受煎熬。 本文共分四部分：第一部分介紹克萊茵理論中諸如自我分裂 和投射認同等主要概念；第二部分利用這些概念重新撿視種族歧 視；第三部分分析奴隸制度如何阻礙黑奴的心理發展，尤其是他 們愛人與被愛的能力；第四部分則探討小説結尾暗示種族創傷的 療癒起點在於愛。

From the mid-1980s on, Melanie Klein^ work on object relations theory has been borrowed by sociologists to account for issues of social injustice, among which racism is the main focus. Klein contends that major psychic crises in infancy continue into adulthood and unresolved crises reemerge when interactions with others become agitated. Toni Morri-son^ Beloved offers a racial context where these interactions become the most agitated. By way of a Kleinian explication of the novel, this paper aims to achieve a dual purpose. On the one hand, it explores to what extent Klein^ formulation of psychic development is rendered difficult in racial encounters like slavery, especially for the disadvantaged racial others. On the other hand, it applies Klein's insights to further investigate how the novel exposes the psychic activities of the white racists and reveals the interior life of the traumatized slaves. The paper is divided into four parts. In part one, I introduce major concepts of Klein’s theory, such as splitting of the self and projective identification. In Klein's view, the psychic development of the infant is fraught with inner fears and anxieties; to cope with them, the infant employs different mechanisms of defense and engages in complex object relations. In part two, I reexamine racism within this Kleinian framework and elucidate why black people are psychically constructed and stigmatized as the racial Other—especially how they are stereotypically targeted for a negative projection. Kleinian theory helps us gain a better understanding of how white racism contains a fundamental human hostility toward black people and how this hostility could take a toll on both the white racists and the black slaves. In part three, I focus attention on the psychic development of the slaves and investigate to what extent the psyche of slaves are tortured and traumatized by racist practices. Specifically, I analyze how the slaves internalize racist thoughts and how this internalization inhibits their ability to love and to be loved. In the final part, I reconsider the depressive mood which lingers at the end of the novel and argue that the possibility of working over racial grief hinges on the idea of love.