Early Trends

A brief study of Fordham's published works between 1932 and 1949 has proved a fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable exercise. It has come as no surprise to discover the foundations of much of his later attitudes and theoretical positions in some of his much less well-known writings, as well as in those specifically mentioned by Hobdell as having been reworked. At the same time the freshness and excitement of his very early writings has proved even more of a delight than had been expected.

Fordham, the budding neurologist, comes first in his 1932 contribution to the journal of his Medical School at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London. However, even in this article on the handling of patients who have been afflicted with subarachnoid bleeding, the emerging psychologist is looking for explanations: ‘Why,’ he asks, ‘was consciousness so materially affected’ in one case submitted to lumbar puncture, ‘and completely unaffected’ in another case? ‘Why is headache so definitely relieved on some occasions and not on others?’ He formulates a guide for the use of lumbar puncture, adding the proviso, ‘The difficulties are so evident that it is impossible to give clear indications.’

Neurologists are not worth the name unless they are also psychologists, and this has always been so, but the extent of, and the drive towards, understanding of the psyche has varied greatly between one individual and another. Fordham's second contribution to his hospital's journal in 1937 is explicitly, ‘The psychological approach to functional disorders of childhood.’ We find him writing: ‘What the psychologist asks is what meaning has this symptom for the patient?’, and he then limits the labels ‘neurologist’ and ‘pathologist’ to those who ask the questions, ‘What are the physical mechanisms underlying this symptom, where in the body is the disturbance created and what is its physical nature?’ This limitation is, however, more for the purpose of debate and specialised investigation than in the interest