The Development of Charles Rycroft's Thought

Charles Rycroft began his private practice in 1947, before completing his psychoanalytic training. He was still practising a week before his death in 1998, just over half a century later. I shall try to give some idea of the development of his thinking from his early writing, when he was within the mainstream of the British Society, to his late development as an independent thinker and writer. I shall be using two sources of information - his own published work and my personal recollections of him. Rycroft was my training analyst until 1962 and I read all his papers soon after they were published. I had always been in the habit of thinking for myself and he never made any attempt to influence me. Through reading his work I was able to continue on my own path. I had a second analysis with him many years later during which I began to write papers of my own. He always made it clear to me which of my ideas he accepted and where he disagreed with me. He never made any value judgments about what I wrote but always made me feel that I had his support in my exploration of ideas. He approved in general of the way in which I built on his work in my own writing, but sometimes thought I was trying to describe things which he felt were better left unsaid. From the early 1980s we met as fellow members of the 1952 Club, where psychoanalytical ideas are discussed in a non-political atmosphere.

I shall begin with a brief account of his background and education. Rycroft was born in 1914 and spent his early years in the secure environment of an upper-class country house. His mother was the second wife of Sir Richard Rycroft, the 5th Baronet, whom Charles described as the most important man in the village. His father died when Charles was 11 and his mother had to return with her four children to her own family, as her stepson inherited the title. The death of his father and his mother's subsequent depression greatly affected Charles's future. His father had expected Charles to have an a