The Independent or Middle Group of British analysts represents one of the three distinct sub-schools of the

British Psychoanalytical Society The British Psychoanalytical Society was founded by the British neurologist Ernest Jones as the London Psychoanalytical Society on 30 October 1913. It is one of two organizations in Britain training psychoanalysts, the other being the British ...

, and 'developed what is known as the ''British independent'' perspective, which argued that the primary motivation of the child is object-seeking rather than drive gratification'. The 'Independent group...is strongly associated with the concept of

countertransference Countertransference is defined as redirection of a psychotherapist's feelings toward a client – or, more generally, as a therapist's emotional entanglement with a client. Early formulations The phenomenon of countertransference (german: G ...

as well as with a seemingly pragmatic, anti-theoretical attitude to psychoanalysis'.

Origins

In the wake of the wartime

Controversial Discussions The controversial discussions were a protracted series of meetings of the British Psychoanalytical Society which took place between October 1942 and February 1944 between the Viennese school and the supporters of Melanie Klein. They led to a tripar ...

, 'the British Psycho-Analytical Society divided into several sets of followers – eventually three sets in one'. On the one side, were the followers of

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

, on the other those of

Anna Freud Anna Freud (3 December 1895 – 9 October 1982) was a British psychoanalyst of Austrian-Jewish descent. She was born in Vienna, the sixth and youngest child of Sigmund Freud and Martha Bernays. She followed the path of her father and contribu ...

, and 'in between, as a kind of buffer zone, were the British group who came to be known as "Independents" – Sylvia Payne, Marjorie Brierley,

Ronald Fairbairn William Ronald Dodds Fairbairn () 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. He usually used, and was known as ...

and Ella Freeman Sharpe, and eventually

Donald Winnicott Donald Woods Winnicott (7 April 1896 – 25 January 1971) was an English paediatrician and psychoanalyst who was especially influential in the field of object relations theory and developmental psychology. He was a leading member of the Brit ...

and Paula Heimann, who moved away from the Kleinian group'. Subsequently, 'some new refugees, notably

Michael Balint , , image = Monte Verità Gedenktafel Michael Balint 1K4A4638-b.jpg , caption = , birth_name = Mihály Maurice Bergsmann , birth_date = , birth_place = Budapest , death_date = , death_place = London , occupation = psychoan ...

and Michael Foulkes, became prominent Independents'.

Development

From that beginning, 'the buffer group of Independents, notably Donald Winnicott, began to make original contributions of their own and to mark a distinctive character for the group'. Alongside the Kleinians the "Middle Group" represented 'the other division of psychoanalysts who use "object-relations" theory', and for some 'has formed the central core of the

...interprets in terms of either the Oedipal or the pre-Oedipal relationship'.

D. W. Winnicott Donald Woods Winnicott (7 April 1896 – 25 January 1971) was an English paediatrician and psychoanalyst who was especially influential in the field of object relations theory and developmental psychology. He was a leading member of the Brit ...

was arguably 'for many years the most prominent member of the Independent Group in the British Psycho-Analytical Society, and as such in complete opposition to both classical analysis and Kleinian theory...but he consistently denied that he was its leader'. Certainly, among the Independents, 'the four British psychoanalysts who by their writing and teaching have had the biggest influence on psychoanalysis...are Ronald Fairbairn, Michael Balint,

John Bowlby Edward John Mostyn Bowlby, CBE, FBA, FRCP, FRCPsych (; 26 February 1907 – 2 September 1990) was a British psychologist, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst, notable for his interest in child development and for his pioneering work in attachm ...

, and Donald Winnicott....Related ideas have been developed and applied by such writers as Marion Milner and

Charles Rycroft Charles Frederick Rycroft (; 9 September 1914 – 24 May 1998) was a British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He studied medicine at University College London, and worked briefly as a psychiatrist for the Maudsley Hospital. For most of his caree ...

'. 'Contemporary publications for the Independent Group include those of

Christopher Bollas Christopher Bollas (born 1943) is a British psychoanalyst and writer. He is a leading figure in contemporary psychoanalytic theory. Early life and education Bollas was born in the United States in Washington, DC. He grew up in Laguna Beach, C ...

Patrick Casement Patrick Casement is a British psychoanalyst and author of multiple books and journal articles on contemporary psychoanalytic technique. He has been described as a pioneer in the relational approaches to psychoanalysis and psychotherapy by Andrew S ...

, Eric Rayner and

Harold Stewart Harold Frederick Stewart (14 December 19167 August 1995) was an Australian poet and oriental scholar. He is chiefly remembered alongside fellow poet James McAuley as a co-creator of the Ern Malley literary hoax. Stewart's work has been assoc ...

'. Others known through their writings include ' Nina Coltart,

Neville Symington Neville Symington (3 July 1937 - 3 December 2019) was a member of the Middle Group of British Psychoanalysts which argues that the primary motivation of the child is object-seeking rather than drive gratification. He published a number of books ...

... Gregorio Kohon, Roger Kennedy, Rob Hale'. For Eric Rayner, 'what characterises the British Independents' – 'there are about 130 paid up members now; some are explicitly close to the Kleinians, others incline to the Contemporary Freudians' – is that 'most owe ideas to both sides; and probably all follow approaches from their forebears in the original British Society, not to mention other theorists as well...The Independents have many differences of opinion about theory and technique, but they share a basic attitude in common. This is to evaluate and respect ideas for their use and truth value – no matter from whence they come'.

Influence of the British independents

The influence of the British object relations school has been widespread and increasing in the psychoanalytic world. Initially, it might prove more attractive to the analytic maverick. Thus for example

Eric Berne Eric Berne (May 10, 1910 – July 15, 1970) was a Canadian-born psychiatrist who created the theory of transactional analysis as a way of explaining human behavior. Berne's theory of transactional analysis was based on the ideas of Freud but ...

for his part considered that 'Fairbairn is one of the best heuristic bridges between

transactional analysis Transactional Analysis (TA) is a psychoanalytic theory and method of therapy wherein social interactions (or “transactions”) are analyzed to determine the ego state of the communicator (whether parent-like, childlike, or adult-like) as a ba ...

and psychoanalysis'. Similarly

Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, , ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, and pu ...

paid tribute to 'the notion of

transitional object Transition or transitional may refer to: Mathematics, science, and technology Biology * Transition (genetics), a point mutation that changes a purine nucleotide to another purine (A ↔ G) or a pyrimidine nucleotide to another pyrimidine (C ↔ ...

, introduced by D. W. Winnicott, which is a key-point for the explanation of the genesis of fetishism'; and his followers argued that the Middle Group's object relations led directly ''to'' Lacan: 'Winnicott glimpsed the transitional object. That is what Lacan sums up, condenses, justifies and constructs with object ''a'''. Gradually, however, their influence entered the mainstream. 'British object relations theory influenced North American psychoanalysis over the last thirty years' of the twentieth century to an ever-increasing degree, beginning with figures like

Arnold Modell Arnold Howard Modell (December 7, 1924 – January 4, 2022) was an American clinical professor of social psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and a supervising analyst, supervising and training analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and ...

Heinz Kohut Heinz Kohut (3 May 1913 – 8 October 1981) was an Austrian-born American psychoanalyst best known for his development of self psychology, an influential school of thought within psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theory which helped transform the mode ...

and

Otto Kernberg Otto Friedmann Kernberg (born 10 September 1928) is a psychoanalyst and professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine. He is most widely known for his psychoanalytic theories on borderline personality organization and narcissistic pathology. I ...

. 'The English object-relations people (D. W. Winnicott, W. R. D. Fairbairn, Michael Balint,

Harry Guntrip Henry James Samuel Guntrip (29 May 1901 – 1975) was a British psychologist known for his major contributions to object relations theory or school of Freudian thought. He was a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a psychotherapist an ...

, and others) who predate and foreshadow the Kohut and the Kernberg groups' were a major influence upon them, (openly acknowledged or not), so that for example arguably 'Kohut offers essentially the same program... sWinnicott and Balint'. Thereafter the late twentieth century saw a 'remarkable confluence of...

ego psychology Ego psychology is a school of psychoanalysis rooted in Sigmund Freud's structural id-ego-superego model of the mind. An individual interacts with the external world as well as responds to internal forces. Many psychoanalysts use a theoretical c ...

and object relations..."a certain kind of rapprochement of the two traditions" in which object relations had certainly the greater part to play, (despite the Lacanian grumble that 'crossing one with the other in varying quantities...is no substitute for Lacan's "return to Freud"'). As a result, it is at least arguable that 'Object relations theory...has become the organising set of ideas in modern psychoanalysis worldwide'.

Criticism

Because of their theoretical open-mindedness, 'one of the criticisms levelled at the independent psychoanalysts in the British Society is that they are said to be "woolly minded"'. Alternatively, because 'Independents do not offer a general explanatory scheme...they have been called "terminally open-minded"'. There is, however, growing recognition in

psychodynamic psychotherapy Psychodynamic psychotherapy or psychoanalytic psychotherapy is a form of psychological therapy. Its primary focus is to reveal the unconscious content of a client's psyche in an effort to alleviate psychic tension, which is inner conflict wi ...

of the benefits of 'draw ngon several theoretical models, reflecting the pluralism in the field today', as well as of the way 'the therapist's personality places a personal stamp on the therapy conducted' – thereby strengthening the Independent Group's awareness that the therapist, 'to encompass the diversity of clinical phenomena that will be encountered...cannot afford to be too monogamously wedded to one particular theory'.Casement, ''Learning'' p. 168

References

{{Reflist, 2

Origins

Development

Influence of the British independents

Criticism

See also

References

Further reading