You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Fairbairn was the first to challenge head on Freud's theory of libidinal drives and his structural theory of the personality while remaining securely within the psychoanalytic fold. His alternative formulations are borne out by the researches of Bowlby, Ainsworth and other attachment theorists, as well as the researches of Stem, Brazelton, Cramer and others who research the developing relationship between mothers and babies. This may be why there seems to be a rediscovery of Fairbairn at present; this book is both a product of and a contribution to this renewal of interest. It is predominantly by North American writers and displays a trend among them to seek to reconcile and assimilate varying schools of thought, e.g. Fairbairn's ideas and those of Ego psychologists or Kohutian Self-psychologists. This might suggest that the book is primarily aimed at the American market. However there are also contributions by a number of British analysts and psychotherapists.
It is a big work, consisting of 17 essays, an epilogue and three appendices. It is complex, and, as well as covering every aspect of Fairbairn's work, opposing points of view are offered. As the editors say, the book is best considered a complement to Sutherland's Fairbairn's Journey into the Interior, and Fairbairn's own Psychoanalytic Studies of the Personality, and is a serious study aid. After some introductory papers, it is divided into a theoretical and a clinical section, followed by papers on how Fairbairn's work relates to ideas about the Self. Perhaps the overriding experience is of the strength and fertility of Fairbairn's formulations, which have provoked so many diverse, fruitful strands of thought.
There is a good deal of repetition with so many writers dealing with the same subject, but this has the advantage of helping one understand Fairbairn's work from a number of points of view. The concept of ‘Object’ in Fairbairn's and Klein's theories, by Mitchell, is particularly helpful, especially in t