Life
He was born in Edinburgh in 1889. Fairbairn was educated at Merchiston Castle School and at Edinburgh University where he studied for three years in Divinity and Hellenic Greek studies. He served with General Allenby in the Palestinian campaign, and when he returned he undertook medical training. He also taught psychology and practiced analysis.
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 had a profound influence on British object relations and the relational schools. Fairbairn was one of the theory-builders for the Middle Group (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.
Fairbairn was the father of Sir Nicholas Fairbairn, QC (24 December 1933 – 19 February 1995), a British politician.
Read more about this topic: Ronald Fairbairn
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