Elizabeth Spillius (née Bott (March 3, 1924 – July 4, 2016) was a Canadian-English anthropologist, sociologist, and Kleinian psychoanalyst.

Life

Born to

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

psychologists Helen Bott and Edward Alexander Bott, Elizabeth Bott studied psychology at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

and anthropology at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

, where she gained her MA in 1949. She then travelled to London to work in anthropology at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

and the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations. Often regarded as a member of the

Manchester Group Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

of anthropologists, her best-known work was ''Family and Social Network'' (1957), based on her 1956 PhD with working-class families in

East London East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...

, in which she formulated what was subsequently labelled the Bott Hypothesis: that the density of a husband and wife's separate social networks was positively associated with marital role segregation. The first results of her seminal work have been presented in front of a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

seminar under the title ''Urban Families: Conjugal roles and social networks'' (1954) and subsequently have been published in 1955 and 1957. Therein she has also conceptualized different aspects of labour and task-division between couples and examined the supporting function of the environment relevant to current co-parenting research. In 1956, she began training analysis as a Kleinian psychoanalyst with Lois Munro. From 1958 to 1960, she carried out anthropological fieldwork in

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

with her husband James. She became a member of the British Psychoanalytical Society in 1964, and a training and supervisory analyst in 1975. From 1988 to 1998, she was general editor of the

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

series ''New Library of Psychoanalysis''. She has written several works of introduction to the work of

Melanie Klein Melanie Klein (; ; Reizes; 30 March 1882 – 22 September 1960) was an Austrian-British author and psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst known for her work in child analysis. She was the primary figure in the development of object relations theory. Kl ...

. She died on 4 July 2016 and was buried on the eastern side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in North London, England, designed by architect Stephen Geary. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East sides. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for so ...

Works

* Elizabeth Bott. 1957. ''Family and Social Network''. London: Tavistock. * (ed.) ''Melanie Klein today: developments in theory and practice'', Tavistock/Routledge, 1987. New Library of Psychoanalysis 7–8. * (ed. with Michael Feldman) ''Psychic equilibrium and psychic change : selected papers of Betty Joseph'', Tavistock/Routledge, 1989. New Library of Psychoanalysis 9 * (ed. with a preface) ''Melanie Klein in Berlin: her first psychoanalyses of children'' by Claudia Frank. Routledge, 2009.

References

External links

Bott, Elizabeth, [afterwards
Mrs James Spillius "collection" (MS 307)">fterwards">Bott, Elizabeth, [afterwards
Mrs James Spillius "collection" (MS 307)* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spillius, Elizabeth 1924 births 2016 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery Canadian sociologists Canadian psychoanalysts Canadian anthropologists University of Toronto alumni University of Chicago alumni Canadian women sociologists Canadian women anthropologists Canadian emigrants to the United Kingdom