Fairbairn and the Object Relations Tradition

Ronald Fairbairn developed a thoroughgoing object relations theory that became a foundation for modern clinical thought. This volume is homage to the enduring power of his thinking, and of his importance now and for the future of relational thinking within the social and human sciences. The book gathers an international group of therapists, analysts, psychiatrists, social commentators, and historians, who contend that Fairbairn's work extends powerfully beyond the therapeutic. They suggest that social, cultural, and historical dimensions can all be illuminated by his work.Object relations as a strand within psychoanalysis began with Freud and passed through Ferenczi and Rank, Balint, Suttie, and Klein, to come of age in Fairbairn's papers of the early 1940s. That there is still life in this line of thinking is illustrated by the essays in this collection and by the modern relational turn in psychoanalytic theory, the development of attachment theory, and the increasing recognition that there is 'no such thing as an ego' without context, without relationships, without a social milieu.

Series Editors’ Foreword , Introduction , Introduction , Prologue , Historical , From instinct to self: the evolution and implications of W. R. D. Fairbairn’s theory of object relations , From Oedipus to Antigone: Hegelian themes in Fairbairn , Making Fairbairn’s psychoanalysis thinkable: Henry Drummond’s natural laws of the spiritual world , Splitting in the history of psychoanalysis: from Janet and Freud to Fairbairn, passing through Ferenczi and Suttie , Fairbairn, Suttie, and Macmurray—an essay , Religion in the life and work of W. R. D. Fairbairn , Fairbairn and homosexuality: sex versus conscience , Fairbairn in Argentina: the “Fairbairn Space” in the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association (APA) , Some comments about Ronald Fairbairn’s impact today , Clinical , Why read Fairbairn? , On the origin of internal objects in the works of Fairbairn and Klein and the possible therapeutic consequences , Fairbairn: Oedipus reconfigured by trauma , Sitting with marital tensions: The work of Henry Dicks in applying Fairbairn’s ideas to couple relationships , W. R. D. Fairbairn’s contribution to the study of personality disorders , Fairbairn: abuse, trauma, and multiplicity , Fairbairn and multiple personality , Fairbairn and “emptiness pathology” , Fairbairn’s unique contributions to dream interpretation , The analyst as good object: A Fairbairnian perspective , Expanding Fairbairn’s reach , Theoretical , The contribution of W. R. D. Fairbairn (1889–1965) to psychoanalytic theory and practice , John Padel’s contribution to an understanding of Fairbairn’s object relations theory , Fairbairn elaborated: Guntrip and the psychoanalytic romantic model , From Fairbairn to Winnicott , Fairbairn and Ferenczi , Mitchell reading Fairbairn , Fairbairn’s influence on Stephen Mitchell’s theoretical and clinical work , Self and society, trauma and the link , Fairbairn and Pichon-Rivière: Object relations, link, and group , The “intuitive position” and its relationship to creativity, science, and art in Fairbairn’s work , Revising Fairbairn’s structural theory , Fairbairn’s accomplishment is good science , Fairbairn and partitive conceptions of mind , Fairbairn and the philosophy of intersubjectivity , Applications , Fair play: A restitution of Fairbairn’s forgotten role in the historical drama of art and psychoanalysis , Viewing Camus’s The Stranger from the perspective of W. R. D. Fairbairn’s object relations , The family is the first social group, followed by the clan, tribe, and nation , Fairbairn’s object relations theory and social work in child welfare , Envoi

Graham S Clarke, David E Scharff