Ronald Fairbairn
William Ronald Dodds Fairbairn (; 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.
Life
Ronald Fairbairn was born in Edinburgh in 1889. He 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 received a doctorate in Medicine on 30th March 1929 from the University of Edinburgh. He also taught psychology and practised 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.
