Grup d´Analisi Barcelona

Pioneers: S. H. Foulkes

Foulkes2Introduction to the life and work of S. H. FOULKES

by Hanne Campos

This is a chapter of the unpublished book on “The Group Method of Analysis” dedicated to S. H. Foulkes (1898-1976), the author who at the beginning of the Second world war develops the ideas of group analysis, first in relation to the patients he saw in the context of the surgery of a general practitioner and, afterwards, in the environment of a military hospital where, at that time, other psychiatrists had begun to work with groups of soldiers who came back from the front. Previously, at the end of the nineteen-twenties, Foulkes had knowledge of some of the papers published by Trigant Burrow. At that time he also decides to move to Vienna to complete his psychiatric training and, eventually, is analized by Helene Deutsch, the then director of the Institute of Psychoanalysis of Vienna.
We think of Foulkes as a professional “on the boundaries of groups” because of his insistence in assuring the articulation between psychoanalysis and groupanalysis, between disciplines inevitable in inter- and multidisciplinary work in health and training, and the point of view he maintained of the inclusive and progressive group relation between autoanalysis-psychoanalysis-groupanalysis-psychiatry and, eventually, life itself, a scheme he presented in his first introductory book of 1948.
Juan Campos trained with Foulkes in the Maudsley Hospital of London at the end of the fifties of last century. His ever more cordial relationship between colleagues, in the seventies led to Foulkes entrusting him with the translation into Castilian of his last book. “Group-analytic Psychotherapy: Method and Principles”. Although Juan enjoyed this personal relationship with the author, when he writes the portrait which follows, his investigation of biographical data finds rather little information; even though Juan also had a friendly relationship with Elizabeth, Foulkes’ third and last wife, a sure source of data of interest. Foulkes proved to be a highly discrete person as to what concerns his private life. To help people interested in making themselves an idea of who Foulkes was, we include in the material here presented, between others, a thematic analysis of his biography and a synoptic chart of the bibliography of the author elaborated by Hanne Campos.
Foulkes died while conducting a group of colleagues which had been meeting for some years. His last words were “I cannot go on any longer”. He leaves behind, between others, the material he collected and the manuscript notes for the theory book he did not arrive to publish.
Unfortunately, destiny had not in store the time necessary for Juan Campos to finish his biographical consideration on Foulkes. We will have to find his ideas about Foulkes in some of his other writings, especially in Milestones in the History of Group Analysis (1981-2004).

Works of S.H. Foulkes in this blog: