Fairbairn and Relational Theory

Book excerpt: The richness of Fairbairn's work is demonstrated in a series of essays offering a unique exploration of the application of his concepts to diverse areas ranging from philosophy to psychopathology. This volume opens with an examination of the origins and relevance of Fairbairn's ideas and subsequently turns to the application of his theory to the study of depression, hysteria, and to the field of liason psychiatry. Fairbairn's ideas are further applied to the study of dreams and aesthetics in two original essays. The book concludes with a delineation of the future of his contribution to contemporary theories of object relations and to the emergence of a new psychoanalytic paradigm.