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With the publication of Michael Fordham: Innovations in Analytical Psychology, James Astor is the first author to bring together in one place the full extent of Fordham's work in analytical psychology. Astor has performed what is a formidable task for any author to do well; as Fordham's work takes into account the entire body of psychoanalytic writing, a feature unusual enough in Jungian writers and a scholarly principle not (to my knowledge) adhered to by writers of other psychoanalytic schools.
Astor's book brings home to the reader the broad scope of Fordham's contributions to analytical psychology. In addition to his significant creative writings, Fordham also had a major, long-term role in establishing high quality training standards as well as programmes for child and adult analysis. He invigorated our field by establishing critical evaluation of Jung's work while Jung was still alive and with his acknowledgement. Moreover, at Jung's direct request, Fordham organized as well as edited Jung's Collected Works. Analytical psychology today is therefore permeated with Michael Fordham's influence and innovation.
As Astor points out, Fordham discovered that manifestations and symbols of the self and individuation are clinically evident in early childhood, an area which Jung had explored to only a limited degree. By the time Fordham began to communicate to Jung his discoveries, Jung reported to him that he had also become interested in the dreams of childhood but was too old to carry on that work. He encouraged Fordham to continue his investigations in analytic understanding of childhood. And so he did.
Fordham brought many innovations to analytical psychology. The following listing illustrates the reach of his work in analytical psychology:
In the 1930s, he initiated child analysis founded on principles of analytical psychology.
He contributed a psychodynamic and psychogenetic formulation of development throughout the life cycle based in analytical psychology.
He develope