Harry Guntrip
Encyclopedia
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. Sutherland as "one of the psychoanalytic immortals".
, Ronald Fairbairn
, and D. W. Winnicott are synthesized. But he also advanced his own ideas in which he criticized Freud for being too oriented toward biology and therefore dehumanizing. He argued that the regressed ego exerts a powerful effect on life and understood the schizoid sense of emptiness as reflecting the withdrawal of energy from the real world into a world of internal object relations.
He worked extensively with schizoid patients who were detached, withdrawn, and unable to form real human relations. He came to regard the self as the fundamental psychological concept, psychoanalysis
as the study of its growth, and psychoanalytic therapy as a means of providing a personal relationship in which the alienated, withdrawn self is given an opportunity for healthy growth and development, and finally putting it in touch with other persons and objects.
Object 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....
. He was a Fellow of the British Psychological Society
British Psychological Society
The British Psychological Society is a representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom. The BPS is also a Registered Charity and, along with advantages, this also imposes certain constraints on what the society can and cannot do...
and a psychotherapist and lecturer at the Department of Psychiatry, Leeds University, and also a Methodist minister. He was described by John D. Sutherland as "one of the psychoanalytic immortals".
Work
In Guntrip’s writing, the work of Melanie KleinMelanie 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...
, 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 D. W. Winnicott are synthesized. But he also advanced his own ideas in which he criticized Freud for being too oriented toward biology and therefore dehumanizing. He argued that the regressed ego exerts a powerful effect on life and understood the schizoid sense of emptiness as reflecting the withdrawal of energy from the real world into a world of internal object relations.
He worked extensively with schizoid patients who were detached, withdrawn, and unable to form real human relations. He came to regard the self as the fundamental psychological concept, psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
as the study of its growth, and psychoanalytic therapy as a means of providing a personal relationship in which the alienated, withdrawn self is given an opportunity for healthy growth and development, and finally putting it in touch with other persons and objects.
Published works
- Schizoid Phenomena, Object-Relations, and the Self (1992). Karnac Books.ISBN 1-85575-032-5
- Psychoanalytic Theory, Therapy, and the Self: A Basic Guide to the Human Personality in Freud, Erikson, Klein, Sullivan, Fairbairn, Hartmann, Jacobson, and Winnicott (1985). Karnac Books.ISBN 0-946439-15-X
- Personality Structure and Human Interaction (1995). Karnac Books.ISBN 1-85575-118-6
- Psychology for Ministers and Social Workers (1949)
- You and Your Nerves
- Mental Pain and the Cure of Souls
- Middle Age (with L. J. Tizard)
Further reading
- Dobbs, Trevor M. (2010) Faith, Theology and Psychoanalysis: The Life and Thought of Harry S. Guntrip, James Clarke & Co., ISBN 9780227173305.
- Hazell, J (1986) H.J.S.Guntrip: A Psychoanalytical Biography, Free Association BooksFree Association BooksFree Association Books is an innovative project started in 1980s London. It arose as the brainchild of Bob Young and colleagues, who, disillusioned by the decline of the liberatory movement, began a search using psychoanalysis to understand the problems of liberation...
, ISBN 1-85343-333-0.