Fairbairn, W. Ronald D, Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis--Collected works, Psychotherapy--collected works, Psychoanalytic Theory--collected works 

Ronald Fairbairn's theory of object relations, first published in the 1940's, revolutionized psychoanalysis. Countering Freud's view that the developmental drive emerged almost solely from within an individual, Fairbairn argued that each person's fundamental need for relationships organizes development and its vicissitudes. In the ensuing years, frequently without attribution to Fairbairn, object relations theory became central to psychoanalytic thinking, and a source for modern infant research, relational theory, the study of dissociation and multiple personality, psychoanalytic family therapy, and the techniques of psychoanalytic therapy. Fairbairn's theory drew on his own wide-ranging experience, unusual for his time, which included degrees both in philosophy and medicine at Edinburgh University, where he later taught philosophy and medical psychology from 1927-1935. His thorough reading of Freud and his clinical experience with abused children, sexual offenders, and war neuroses as well as neurotic adults, provided the basis for reorienting psychoanalysis to the study of relationships. At the center of Fairbairn's theory is the concept of dynamic internal relations between the self and its objects that give meaning to experience. Fairbairn thought that infants deal with frustration, rejection, and trauma through introjection and splitting of the object. The resulting matrix of dynamic internal relationships, part of every human being's make-up, profoundly influences behavior and interpersonal interactions in the outer world. Volume I of this two-volume set contains Fairbairn's previously uncollected major papers, which are characterized by flexibility and depth in the application of object relations theory to the clinical situation. The papers on theory and scientific methodology show rigorous logic in the exploration of the scientific underpinnings of psychoanalysis and of the issues posed by the substitution of an object relations view for Freud's classical theory. Volume II consists of early un --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition. Editorial Reviews Review Despite the prominence of object relations theory in current psychoanalytic writing and practice, the seminal work of Ronald Fairbairn in this area has, until recently, received little acknowledgment. By collecting in these two volumes some of his hitherto scattered papers, his daughter, Ellinor Fairbairn Birtles, and her coeditor, David Scharff, have taken an important step toward according Fairbairn the recognition he richly deserves. The papers selected by Birtles and Scharff skillfully trace Fairbairn's journey from his early explication and questioning of Freud's instinct theory to his later original exposition of the centrality of object relations in psychic life. These two volumes will do much to acquaint readers with his brilliant and original contributions to contemporary psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice. (Psychoanalytic Books: A Quarterly Journal Of Reviews) These extraordinary two volumes of material by and about Fairbairn are a virtual treasure trove for anyone at all interested in the history of psychoanalytic ideas. Psychoanalysis has changed radically and pervasively over the past several decades, in theory and in clinical practice, and Fairbairn's ideas both anticipated and helped bring about much of that change. For various reasons, the enormity of Fairbairn's contribution has been only belatedly and insufficiently recognized, and these volumes will goa long way to help rectify that problem. . . . The material is well set into an illuminating historical and conceptual context by the editors, with a rich knowledge of both Fairbairn and British psychoanalysisss (Stephen A. Mitchell, Ph.D.) W. R. D. Fairbairn is now emerging at last from an undeserved obscurity into the limelight of current object-relations theory. One of the true founders of object relations intersubjectivity, his pioneering ideas, prescient in his lifetime, are now enjoying a late and well deserved full blooming. Until now, Fairbairn was known almost exclusively for his metapsychological contributions in the Psychoanalytic Studies of the Personality, published in 1952. With this present two-volume collection, we are treated to the most significant aspects of his other works, which range across a number of subjects, especially child abuse, infant development, and other ideas that are topical today. This is a monumental task of editing, one that has been undertaken by twoeminent Fairbairn scholars, his daughter, Ellinor Fairbairn Birtles, and David Scharff. The personal background material and critique they proffer on this extended works constitutes a significant contribution to Fairbairn's studies.. (James Grotstein) Jill and David Scharff have been instrumental in bringing Fairbairn's ideas out of obscurity and into the mainstream of object relations thinking in this country. (Glen O. Gabbard) Despite the prominence of object relations theory in current psychoanalytic writing and practice, the seminal work of Ronald Fairbairn in this area has, until recently, received little acknowledgment. By collecting in these two volumes some of his hitherto scattered papers, his daughter, Ellinor Fairbairn Birtles, and her coeditor, David Scharff, have taken an important step toward according Fairbairn the recognition he richly deserves. The papers selected by Birtles and Scharff skillfully trace Fairbairn's journey from his early explication and questioning of Freud's instinct theory to his later original exposition of the centrality of object relations in psychic life. These two volumes will do much to acquaint readers with his brilliant and original contributions to contemporary psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice. (Psychoanalytic Books: A Quarterly Journal Of Reviews) These extraordinary two volumes of material by and about Fairbairn are a virtual treasure trove for anyone at all interested in the history of psychoanalytic ideas. Psychoanalysis has changed radically and pervasively over the past several decades, in theory and in clinical practice, and Fairbairn's ideas both anticipated and helped bring about much of that change. For various reasons, the enormity of Fairbairn's contribution has been only belatedly and insufficiently recognized, and these volumes will go a long way to help rectify that problem. . . . The material is well set into an illuminating historical and conceptual context by the editors, with a rich knowledge of both Fairbairn and British psychoanalysis (Stephen A. Mitchell, Ph.D.) W. R. D. Fairbairn is now emerging at last from an undeserved obscurity into the limelight of current object-relations theory. One of the true founders of object relations intersubjectivity, his pioneering ideas, prescient in his lifetime, are now enjoying a late and well deserved full blooming. Until now, Fairbairn was known almost exclusively for his metapsychological contributions in the Psychoanalytic Studies of the Personality, published in 1952. With this present two-volume collection, we are treated to the most significant aspects of his other works, which range across a number of subjects, especially child abuse, infant development, and other ideas that are topical today. This is a monumental task of editing, one that has been undertaken by two eminent Fairbairn scholars, his daughter, Ellinor Fairbairn Birtles, and David Scharff. The personal background material and critique they proffer on this extended works constitutes a significant contribution to Fairbairn's studies. (James Grotstein) --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition. About the Author David E. Scharff is a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in adult and child psychiatry, as well as a former president of AASECT. He is the author and co-author of numerous psychoanalysis and psychotherapy books.