British Independent Group (psychoanalysis)
Encyclopedia
The Independent or Middle Group of British analysts represents one of the three distinct sub-schools of the British Psychoanalytic Society, and 'developed what is known as the British independent perspective, which argued that the primary motivation of the child is object-seeking rather than drive gratification'. The 'Independent group...is strongly associated with the concept of countertransference
as well as with a seemingly pragmatic, anti-theoretical attitude to psychoanalysis'.
, 'the British Psycho-Analytical Society divided into several sets of followers - eventually three sets in one'. On the one side, were the followers of Melanie Klein
, on the other those of Anna Freud
, and 'in between, as a kind of buffer zone, were the British group who came to be known as "Independents" - Sylvia Payne
, Marjorie Brierley, Ronald Fairbairn
and Ella Freeman Sharpe, and eventually Donald Winnicott
and Paula Heimann, who moved away from the Kleinian group'. Subsequently, 'some new refugees, notably Michael Balint
and Michael Foulkes, became prominent Independents'.
', and for some 'has formed the central core of the British Psychoanalytical Society
...interprets in terms of either the Oedipal or the pre-Oedipal relationship'. D. W. Winnicott was arguably 'for many years the most prominent member of the Independent Group in the British Psycho-Analytical Society, and as such in incomplete opposition to both classical analysis and Kleinian theory...but he consistently denied that he was its leader'. Certainly, among the Independents, 'the four British psychoanalysts who by their writing and teaching have had the biggest influence on psychoanalysis...are Ronald Fairbairn, Michael Balint, John Bowlby
, and Donald Winnicott....Related ideas have been developed and applied by such writers as Marion Milner
and Charles Rycroft
'.
'Contemporary publications for the Independent Group include those of Christopher Bollas
, Patrick Casement, Eric Rayner and Harold Stewart
'. Others known through their writings include 'Nina Coltart
, Neville Symington
...Gregorio Kohon, Roger Kennedy, [&] Rob Hale'.
For Eric Rayner, 'what characterises the British Independents' - 'there are about 130 paid up members now; some are explicitly close to the Kleinians, others incline to the Contemporary Freudians' - is that 'most owe ideas to both sides; and probably all follow approaches from their forbears in the original British Society, not to mention other theorists as well...The Independents have many differences of opinion about theory and technique, but they share a basic attitude in common. This is to evaluate and respect ideas for their use and truth value - no matter from whence they come'.
for his part considered that 'Fairbairn is one of the best heuristic bridges between transactional analysis
and psychoanalysis'. Similarly Lacan
paid tribute to 'the notion of transitional object, introduced by D. W. Winnicott, which is a key-point for the explanation of the genesis of fetishism'; and his followers argued that the Middle Group's object relations led directly to Lacan: 'Winnicott glimpsed the transitional object. That is what Lacan sums up, condenses, justifies and constructs with object a
'.
Gradually however their influence entered the mainstream. 'British object relations theory influenced North American psychoanalysis over the last thirty years' of the twentieth century to an ever-increasing degree, beginning with figures like Arnold Modell
, Heinz Kohut
and Otto Kernberg. 'The English object-relations people (D. W. Winnicott, W. R. D. Fairbairn, Michael Balint, Harry Guntrip
, and others) who predate and foreshadow the Kohut and the Kernberg groups' were a major influence upon them, (openly acknowledged or not), so that for example arguably 'Kohut offers essentially the same program...[as] Winnicott and Balint'.
Thereafter the late twentieth century saw a 'remarkable confluence of...ego psychology
and object relations..."a certain kind of rapprochement of the two traditions" in which object relations had certainly the greater part to play, (despite the Lacanian grumble that 'crossing one with the other in varying quantities...is no substitute for Lacan's "return to Freud"'). As a result, it is at least arguable that 'Object relations theory...has become the organizing set of ideas in modern psychoanalysis worldwide'.
of the benefits of 'draw[ing] on several theoretical models, reflecting the pluralism in the field today', as well as of the way 'the therapist's personality places a personal stamp on the therapy conducted' - thereby strengthening the Independent Group's awareness that the therapist, 'to encompass the diversity of clinical phenomena that will be encountered...cannot afford to be too monogamously wedded to one particular theory'.
Countertransference
Countertransferenceis defined as redirection of a psychotherapist's feelings toward a client—or, more generally, as a therapist's emotional entanglement with a client.-Early formulations:...
as well as with a seemingly pragmatic, anti-theoretical attitude to psychoanalysis'.
Origins
In the wake of the wartime Controversial discussionsControversial discussions
The Controversial discussions were a protracted series of 'Scientific Meetings' of the British Psychoanalytical Society which took place between October 1942 and February 1944 between the Viennese school and the supporters of Melanie Klein...
, 'the British Psycho-Analytical Society divided into several sets of followers - eventually three sets in one'. On the one side, were the followers of Melanie Klein
Melanie Klein
Melanie Reizes Klein was an Austrian-born British psychoanalyst who devised novel therapeutic techniques for children that had an impact on child psychology and contemporary psychoanalysis...
, on the other those of Anna Freud
Anna Freud
Anna Freud was the sixth and last child of Sigmund and Martha Freud. Born in Vienna, she followed the path of her father and contributed to the newly born field of psychoanalysis...
, and 'in between, as a kind of buffer zone, were the British group who came to be known as "Independents" - Sylvia Payne
Sylvia Payne
Sylvia Payne was one of the pioneers of psychoanalysis in the United Kingdom.-Early life:Born as Sylvia May Moore in Marylebone, London, the daughter of Rev. Edward William Moore and his wife Letitia. Her father was incumbent of Brunswick Chapel and an adherent of the Higher Life movement, being...
, Marjorie Brierley, Ronald Fairbairn
Ronald Fairbairn
William Ronald Dodds Fairbairn was a Scottish psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and a central figure in the development of the object relations theory of psychoanalysis.-Life:He was born in Edinburgh in 1889...
and Ella Freeman Sharpe, and eventually Donald Winnicott
Donald Winnicott
Donald Woods Winnicott was an English paediatrician and psychoanalyst who was especially influential in the field of object relations theory. He was a leading member of the British Independent Group of the British Psychoanalytic Society, and a close associate of Marion Milner...
and Paula Heimann, who moved away from the Kleinian group'. Subsequently, 'some new refugees, notably Michael Balint
Michael Balint
Michael Balint or Bálint Mihály was a Hungarian psychoanalyst and proponent of the Object Relations school.-Life:...
and Michael Foulkes, became prominent Independents'.
Development
From that beginning, 'the buffer group of Independents, notably Donald Winnicott, began to make original contributions of their own and to mark a distinctive character for the group'. Alongside the Kleinians the "Middle Group" represented 'the other division of psychoanalysts who use "object-relations" theoryObject relations theory
Object relations theory is a psychodynamic theory within psychoanalytic psychology. The theory describes the process of developing a mind as one grows in relation to others in the environment....
', and for some 'has formed the central core of the British Psychoanalytical Society
British Psychoanalytical Society
The British Psychoanalytical Society was founded by the British psychiatrist Ernest Jones as the London Psychoanalytical Society on October 30, 1913....
...interprets in terms of either the Oedipal or the pre-Oedipal relationship'. D. W. Winnicott was arguably 'for many years the most prominent member of the Independent Group in the British Psycho-Analytical Society, and as such in incomplete opposition to both classical analysis and Kleinian theory...but he consistently denied that he was its leader'. Certainly, among the Independents, 'the four British psychoanalysts who by their writing and teaching have had the biggest influence on psychoanalysis...are Ronald Fairbairn, Michael Balint, John Bowlby
John Bowlby
Edward John Mostyn "John" Bowlby was a British psychologist, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, notable for his interest in child development and for his pioneering work in attachment theory.- Family background :...
, and Donald Winnicott....Related ideas have been developed and applied by such writers as Marion Milner
Marion Milner
Marion Milner , sometimes known as Marion Blackett-Milner, was a British author and psychoanalyst. Outside psychotherapeutic circles, she is better known by her pseudonym, Joanna Field, as a pioneer of introspective journaling.-Biography:...
and Charles Rycroft
Charles Rycroft
Charles Frederick Rycroft was a British psychologist and a well-known author. For most of his career he had a private psychiatric practice in London.-Life:...
'.
'Contemporary publications for the Independent Group include those of Christopher Bollas
Christopher Bollas
Christopher Bollas is a British psychoanalyst and writer.-Early life and education:Bollas grew up in Laguna Beach, California and later graduated in history from UC Berkeley. As an undergraduate Bollas studied intellectual history with Carl Schorske, psychoanalytical anthropology with Alan Dundes,...
, Patrick Casement, Eric Rayner and Harold Stewart
Harold Stewart
Harold Frederick Stewart was an Australian poet and oriental scholar. He is chiefly remembered as the enigmatic other half of Ern Malley.Stewart's work has been associated with James McAuley and A. D...
'. Others known through their writings include 'Nina Coltart
Nina Coltart
Nina Coltart , a British psychoanalyst, psychotherapist, and essayist, was born in Kent, England. Her father was a medical doctor and her mother, a housewife. In 1940 she and her younger sister Gill were evacuated to Cornwall, where they lived with their maternal grandmother and a nanny who, years...
, Neville Symington
Neville Symington
Neville Symington, a member of the Middle Group of British Psychoanalysts, 'has trodden a long and interesting path...tak[ing] him from his birthplace in Portugal, via England, to Australia, and with membership of the Port Wine Trade, the Catholic Church, the Tavistock Clinic, and the British...
...Gregorio Kohon, Roger Kennedy, [&] Rob Hale'.
For Eric Rayner, 'what characterises the British Independents' - 'there are about 130 paid up members now; some are explicitly close to the Kleinians, others incline to the Contemporary Freudians' - is that 'most owe ideas to both sides; and probably all follow approaches from their forbears in the original British Society, not to mention other theorists as well...The Independents have many differences of opinion about theory and technique, but they share a basic attitude in common. This is to evaluate and respect ideas for their use and truth value - no matter from whence they come'.
Influence of the British independents
The influence of the British object relations school has been widespread and increasing in the psychoanalytic world. Initially, it might prove more attractive to the analytic maverick. Thus for example Eric BerneEric Berne
Eric Berne was a Canadian-born psychiatrist best known as the creator of transactional analysis and the author of Games People Play.-Background and education:...
for his part considered that 'Fairbairn is one of the best heuristic bridges between transactional analysis
Transactional analysis
Transactional analysis, commonly known as TA to its adherents, is an integrative approach to the theory of psychology and psychotherapy. It is described as integrative because it has elements of psychoanalytic, humanist and cognitive approaches...
and psychoanalysis'. Similarly Lacan
Lacan
Lacan is surname of:* Jacques Lacan , French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist** The Seminars of Jacques Lacan** From Bakunin to Lacan: Anti-Authoritarianism and the Dislocation of Power, a book on political philosophy by Saul Newman** Lacan at the Scene* Judith Miller, née Lacan...
paid tribute to 'the notion of transitional object, introduced by D. W. Winnicott, which is a key-point for the explanation of the genesis of fetishism'; and his followers argued that the Middle Group's object relations led directly to Lacan: 'Winnicott glimpsed the transitional object. That is what Lacan sums up, condenses, justifies and constructs with object a
Objet Petit a
In the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, objet petit a stands for the unattainable object of desire. It is sometimes called the object cause of desire...
'.
Gradually however their influence entered the mainstream. 'British object relations theory influenced North American psychoanalysis over the last thirty years' of the twentieth century to an ever-increasing degree, beginning with figures like Arnold Modell
Arnold Modell
Arnold Modell is a clinical professor of social psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and a supervising and training analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. He received his bachelor's degree from Columbia College in 1945...
, Heinz Kohut
Heinz Kohut
Heinz Kohut was an Austrian-born American psychoanalyst best known for his development of Self psychology, an influential school of thought within psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theory which helped transform the modern practice of analytic and dynamic treatment approaches.-Early life:Kohut was born...
and Otto Kernberg. 'The English object-relations people (D. W. Winnicott, W. R. D. Fairbairn, Michael Balint, Harry Guntrip
Harry Guntrip
Harry Guntrip was a psychologist known for his major contributions to object relations theory. He was a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a psychotherapist and lecturer at the Department of Psychiatry, Leeds University, and also a Methodist minister. He was described by John D...
, and others) who predate and foreshadow the Kohut and the Kernberg groups' were a major influence upon them, (openly acknowledged or not), so that for example arguably 'Kohut offers essentially the same program...[as] Winnicott and Balint'.
Thereafter the late twentieth century saw a 'remarkable confluence of...ego psychology
Ego psychology
Ego psychology is a school of psychoanalysis rooted in Sigmund Freud's structural id-ego-superego model of the mind.An individual interacts with the external world as well as responds to internal forces. Many psychoanalysts use a theoretical construct called the ego to explain how that is done...
and object relations..."a certain kind of rapprochement of the two traditions" in which object relations had certainly the greater part to play, (despite the Lacanian grumble that 'crossing one with the other in varying quantities...is no substitute for Lacan's "return to Freud"'). As a result, it is at least arguable that 'Object relations theory...has become the organizing set of ideas in modern psychoanalysis worldwide'.
Criticism
Because of their theoretical open-mindedness, 'one of the criticisms levelled at the independent psychoanalysts in the British Society is that they are said to be "woolly minded"'. Alternatively, because 'Independents do not offer a general explanatory scheme...they have been called "terminally open-minded"'. There is however growing recognition in psychodynamic psychotherapyPsychodynamic psychotherapy
Psychodynamic psychotherapy is a form of depth psychology, the primary focus of which is to reveal the unconscious content of a client's psyche in an effort to alleviate psychic tension. In this way, it is similar to psychoanalysis. It also relies on the interpersonal relationship between client...
of the benefits of 'draw[ing] on several theoretical models, reflecting the pluralism in the field today', as well as of the way 'the therapist's personality places a personal stamp on the therapy conducted' - thereby strengthening the Independent Group's awareness that the therapist, 'to encompass the diversity of clinical phenomena that will be encountered...cannot afford to be too monogamously wedded to one particular theory'.
Further reading
- Gregorio Kohon, The British School of Psychoanalysis: the Independent Tradition (London 1986)
- E. Raynor, The Independent Mind in British Psychoanalysis (London 1990)