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In this brief volume on W. R. D. Fairbairn, John Sutherland attempts three main tasks: a biographical sketch; an introduction to Fairbairn's work; and an integration of the two to account for the particular theory Fairbairn developed—one that placed the ego's object-seeking at the center and emphasized the role of external object relations, particularly the early maternal relationship, in the formation of internal object relations and psychic structure. Sutherland, himself a wellknown object-relations theorist, draws on his own experiences with Fairbairn as student, analysand, and colleague; on recollections by Fairbairn's second wife and children; and on a self-analytic diary that Fairbairn kept in midlife. The book provides a scholarly, interesting, and often provocative introduction to Fairbairn, but Sutherland does not achieve equal success with each of the projects he has undertaken.
As biography, the book lacks the middle distance we ordinarily expect. It swings from a distant, rather impersonal view to an extraordinarily intimate one. As a result, we do not feel in the end that we really know Fairbairn. This flaw can be partly ascribed to the sources