William Ronald Dodds Fairbairn
| Dr William Ronald Dodds Fairbairn MA MD D.Psych | |||||||||
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| Born | 1889 | ||||||||
| Died | 1964 | ||||||||
| Residence |
Lecturer in Psychology, Edinburgh University, 18 Lansdowne Crescent, Edinburgh 12 18 Grosvenor Crescent, Edinburgh 12 [1949] | ||||||||
| Occupation |
medical psychiatrist psychoanalyst | ||||||||
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Contents
Notes
Office Notes
House Notes
1934.10.23 proposed by C.G. Seligman, seconded by R.W. Firth
1965.10 death reported
Notes From Elsewhere
William Ronald Dodds Fairbairn (/ˈfɛrbɛrn/) FRSE (11 August 1889 – 31 December 1964) was a Scottish psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and a central figure in the development of the object relations theory of psychoanalysis.
Ronald Fairbairn was born at the Red House, Cluny Gardens,[1] in Edinburgh in 1889, the son (and only child) of Thomas Fairbairn, a chartered surveyor, and President of the Edinburgh Architectural Association,[2] and Cecilia Leefe.[3] He was educated at Merchiston Castle School and at Edinburgh University where he studied for three years in Divinity and Hellenic Greek studies, graduating MA in 1911.
In the First World War he joined the Royal Engineers and served under General Allenby in the Palestinian campaign, and then the Royal Garrison Artillery.
On his return to home he began medical training (probably inspired by his war experience). He received a doctorate in Medicine (MD) on 30 March 1929 from the University of Edinburgh.[4] From 1927 to 1935 he lectured in Psychology at Edinburgh University and also independently practised analysis. From 1941 until 1954 he was Consultant Psychiatrist to the Ministry of Pensions.[5]
In 1931 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were James Drever, Edwin Bramwell, Sir Godfrey Hilton Thomson and Robert Alexander Fleming.
On the basis of his writings he became an associate member of the British Psychoanalytical Society in 1931, becoming a full member in 1939. Fairbairn, though somewhat isolated in that he spent his entire career in Edinburgh,[6] had a profound influence on British object relations and the relational schools. Fairbairn was one of the theory-builders for the Middle Group[7] (now called the Independent Group) psychoanalysts. The Independent Group contained analysts who identified with neither the Kleinians nor the Anna Freudians. They were more concerned with the relationships between people than with the "drives" within them.
He died in Edinburgh at the age of 75. He is buried with his wives in Dean Cemetery in western Edinburgh. The grave lies very close to the main east entrance and lodge-house.
He married twice: firstly to Mary Ann Gordon (d.1952); secondly to Marion Frances Archer.
He was the father (by Mary Ann) to Sir Nicholas Fairbairn, QC (24 December 1933 – 19 February 1995), a British politician.
Publications
External Publications
Fairbairn's works include: Psychoanalytical Studies of the Personality (1952) and From Instinct to Self: Selected Papers of W. R. D. Fairbairn (1994). There is also a biography by John D. Sutherland, Fairbairn’s Journey into the Interior (1989), a study of his work by James Grotstein and R. B. Rinsley, Fairbairn and the Origins of Object Relations (1994), and an edited study by Neil J. Skolnik and David E. Scharff, Fairbairn Then and Now (1998).
House Publications
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