From Dualism to Dynamism: Fairbairn's Critique of Libido Theory 1930-1950

In 1930 Fairbairn wrote ‘Libido theory re-evaluated’, which remained unpublished until 1994. It contains the beginnings of theoretical arguments that, I argue, resulted in his more famous 1940s papers. I posit that Fairbairn's 1930 critique of Freud's analytical dualist theoretical foundation is consistent with, and lays the ground for, his later work. Using the papers ‘Schizoid factors in the personality’ (1940), ‘The repression and return of bad objects’ (1943), ‘Endopsychic structure considered in terms of object-relationships’ (1944), and ‘Object-relationships and dynamic structure’ (1946), I show how Fairbairn's 1930 critique is relevant to his later propositions and elucidate Fairbairn's metatheoretical assumptions, about which he was not explicit after 1930. I argue that his theoretical propositions arise as a result of his longstanding, consistent critique that led him to replace analytical dualism with dynamical structure. Further, I argue that Klein, and Khan and Winnicott's criticism is unjustified; Fairbairn did not challenge the content of a theory he describes as ‘truths of fundamental importance’, he challenged its theorization. Because it resulted in his important theoretical propositions, Fairbairn's longstanding critique of libido theory is important within the history of psychoanalytic thought and deserves scholarly attention.