About the Book
In this compellingly written and meticulously researched new book, Professor Brett Kahr draws upon extensive unpublished archival sources and upon his four decades of oral history interviews to paint fascinating portraits of many of the icons of mental health. Hidden Histories of British Psychoanalysis: From Freud’s Death Bed to Laing’s Missing Tooth includes detailed accounts of Kahr’s interviews with such noted figures as Enid Balint, Marion Milner, Ronald Laing, John Bowlby and his wife, Ursula Longstaff Bowlby, as well as numerous members of Donald Winnicott’s family.
Framed as a series of glimpses into the early history of British psychoanalysis, Kahr explores how the German-speaking Sigmund Freud learned how to psychoanalyse English-speaking patients; how Enid Eichholz (the future wife of Michael Balint) pioneered couple psychoanalysis in the wake of the Second World War; how Donald Winnicott treated “The Piggle” in the midst of his own health crises; and how Masud Khan degenerated from a clinical sage into an anti-Semite.
A breathtaking combination of interviews, reminiscences, and well-documented scholarship, this book provides a gripping overview of many of the key figures in British psychoanalysis, all of whom made unparalleled contributions to the mental health profession, and whose lives and careers deserve to be visited and revisited.
Table of Contents:
Introduction:
My Love of Deceased Psychoanalysts
PART I: SIGMUND FREUD AS AN ENGLISHMAN
Chapter 1:
“Zooming” in Old Vienna: How Sigmund Freud Became an English-Speaking Psychoanalyst
Chapter 2:
Freud’s London Death Bed: Notes on the “Invalid Couch” at Maresfield Gardens
PART II: UNPUBLISHED WINNICOTTIANA.
Chapter 3:
Donald Winnicott’s Wives: From Alice Buxton Taylor to Clare Britton
Chapter 4:
“The Piggle” Family Papers: Unpublished Archival Gems Regarding Winnicott’s Most Iconic Case
PART III: DR. AND MRS. BOWLBY.
Chapter 5:
“Half-Baked Pseudo-Scientific Rubbish”: How John Bowlby Reinvented Child Psychiatry
Chapter 6:
Ursula Longstaff Bowlby: The Creative Muse of Attachment Theory
PART IV: TWO TRULY UNASSUMING ICONS.
Chapter 7:
Breakfast with Marion Milner: Reminiscences of the World’s Oldest Psychoanalyst
Chapter 8:
Enid Eichholz Balint: The Birth of Couple Psychoanalysis in England
PART V: THE BAD BOYS OF BRITISH PSYCHOANALYSIS.
Chapter 9:
Rajah on the Couch: The Magnificence and Misery of Masud Khan
Chapter 10:
R.D. Laing’s Missing Tooth: The Secret Roots of Genius and Madness
Conclusion:
How to Be Intimate with a Corpse: The Role of Psychoanalytical Historiography
Acknowledgements
References
Index
About the Author :
Professor Brett Kahr has worked in the mental health profession for over forty years. He is Senior Fellow at the Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology in London and, also, Senior Clinical Research Fellow in Psychotherapy and Mental Health at the Centre for Child Mental Health. He holds posts as Consultant to The Bowlby Centre and, also, as Consultant Psychotherapist to The Balint Consultancy. Having worked for many years in the National Health Service, he currently maintains a private practice in Hampstead, North London, for individuals and couples.
Professor Kahr is a Trustee of the Freud Museum London and of Freud Museum Publications, and he is also a trained historian with a special concentration in the history of psychoanalysis. Author or editor of eleven books, his titles include, D.W. Winnicott: A Biographical Portrait, which received the Gradiva Award for Biography; Sex and the Psyche, which became a chosen title in the Sunday Times Book Club and which appeared in serial form in both The Times and The Observer; Tea with Winnicott, selected as one of the “Books of the Year” in The Guardian newspaper; Coffee with Freud; and, most recently, New Horizons in Forensic Psychotherapy: Exploring the Work of Estela V. Welldon, an edited Festschrift in honour of Dr Welldon’s eightieth birthday. He has served as series editor for over fifty-five further titles in his capacity as Series Editor of the “Forensic Psychotherapy Monograph Series” and, also, as Series Co-Editor for both the “History of Psychoanalysis Series” and the “Library of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis”, all published by Routledge.
Review :
‘Few books are simultaneously informative, deep, playful, and pleasurable to read. Combining humility and respect for his subjects with creative audacity and understated eloquence, Brett Kahr’s Hidden Histories of British Psychoanalysis is a rare book of such sort. The two words in the title that give away the author’s passion and craft are “Hidden” (with its impish promise to unveil secrets) and “Histories” (with its sombre acknowledgment of the myriad, divergent sources, choices, and agendas in writing history). Based upon laborious archival research and personal interviews with the London glitterati of psychoanalysis (e.g. John Bowlby, Marion Milner, Enid Balint, Pearl King, R. D. Laing), Kahr offers us a penetrating glimpse into the post-Freudian developments in British psychoanalysis, while introducing us to the strengths and solidities of his dramatis personae as well as to their whims, idiosyncrasies, and occasional madnesses. This is a great contribution to our professional literature indeed!’
‘This is a very sneaky book. Ostensibly it is a series of tales from the history of Anglophone psychoanalysis in the twentieth century. But, in reality, it is a readable, often funny, account by the best historian of psychoanalysis of his generation, Brett Kahr. As much autobiography as historical account, it shows what happens when a brilliant mind meets an intractable object. The essay on the young student Brett Kahr and R. D. Laing’s missing tooth is itself worth the price of the volume, and has the possibility of becoming the classic essay on the pitfalls of celebrity.’
‘A self-described “clinical historian”, a prolific writer and biographer of Donald Winnicott, with a passion for the rigorous rendering of historical detail and the healing of the human soul’s most intractable sufferings, Brett Kahr has made a reputation for himself as the eminent narrator and in depth analyst of the vagaries and some of the most protracted motifs and aspects that animate the legacy of psychoanalysis and that of its leading and lesser-known figures (the “elderly psychoanalysts”, as he lovingly calls them, whose homes, libraries, and couches he recalls visiting here).
‘The present collection of essays adds a series of important chapters to this ongoing and captivating lifelong project. In an at once engaging and well-documented fashion, Kahr takes us back to the contingent elements that, together, gave psychoanalysis in the United Kingdom its inescapable force and necessary radiance. From Freud’s unknown English teacher, to the growth of his English speaking clinical practice, and his remarkable Anglicisation, via the untold sources and adventures related to Winnicott as filtered through his marital life, up to the contributions made by a host of significant but much less-known theorists and practitioners, from “unassuming icons” to “bad boys” in British child, adult, and couple analysis, Kahr’s unique book traces overlooked names and cases, concepts and practices, that have not received the attention they deserve in what he calls “psychoanalytical historiography”.
‘Kahr is attentive to and appreciative of the networks, both familial and professional, within which great thinkers produce their psychoanalytic ideas and do their clinical work. He relies not only on his interviews with his heroes and heroines, but also on conversations with family members, colleagues, patients, secretaries, and medical doctors alike. In a non- judgemental way, he, at times tenderly, also registers the errors, deviations, and even perversions of these great figures. There is a moving resemblance between the fragility of “psychoanalytical psycho-biographical reconstructions”, including the author’s own, and the carefully observed deterioration and bodily disintegration of the heroes and heroines portrayed as they age or fall ill: Freud’s skin, Khan’s cancer, Milner’s loss of hearing, Laing’s falling tooth, and more. Kahr is acutely aware of his heroes and heroines falling into pieces, disintegrating, even shattering “into million pieces”, and, as a clinical historian, seeks to put them back together again, precisely by finding meaning in their history.
‘There is a dark side to these stories, therefore, which the psychoanalyst in Kahr believes one needs to explore, as only the deep probing of such “shadows” yields understanding and the possibility of avoiding their repetition. If the psychoanalytic work turns ghosts into ancestors, Kahr, for his part, does the same with corpses. Indeed, his previous work on the schizophrenic feeling of bodily disintegration keeps him close to the material reality of bodies, odors, sounds, and textures, which are evinced in each one of the remarkable encounters collected in this partly oral history, which relies as much on countless hours spent in the archives.
‘Kahr’s Hidden Histories is a labor of love that in its caring attentiveness humanises the great figures on whose shoulders it stands. Highly readable and greatly enticing, this latest addition to the Freud Museum’s and Karnac’s promising new series, will speak to professionals, historians, and the wider interested reading public alike.’
‘Using storytelling and clinical and research tools, Brett Kahr’s sorcery brings to life several well-known personalities in the British psychoanalytic panoply – its “superstars” as well as its “bad boys”. While profoundly respectful, Kahr’s thoughtful critique of rigorously sourced archival papers, oral history research, and personal interviews rewards the readers with much wisdom and inspiration from foundational figures of psychoanalysis.’
'I fear I have done Professor Kahr a disservice by sharing so many spoilers from his magnificent book. But in my defence, I have shared them with you as an encouragement for you to read it yourself. [...] His commitment to this project shines from his loving descriptions of Marion Milner’s home (it needs a good clean) to his open-minded inquisitiveness into the potential motivations of those like Khan or Laing who can so easily be dismissed as heroes or villains. [...] In the words of this text Brett communicates his deep enthusiasm for the hidden histories that, due to his diligence, are no longer hidden. After all, this book is the result of his exhaustive archival research alongside the interviews he personally conducted.'
'In this charming book of essays, Professor Brett Kahr exercises his passion and skill in historical storytelling to contextualise the personal and professional history of various aspects of 20th century British psychoanalysis. [...] [This book], is a unique and welcome addition to the literature. Derived from countless interviews (over 900 alone into studies on Winnicott, including fifty of his former patients), and from devoted explorations of archival material as well as self-reflection on his various meetings, the tone of the book ranges from the anecdotal to the historiographic, and is very enjoyable [...] Psychoanalysis at its very core embraces the hidden in our histories. It is a joy to read this book which embraces the hidden histories in our psychoanalysis.'
'Brett Kahr has been described as the best historian of psychoanalysis of his generation. In this informative book he shares new details from his interviews and archival research. [...] Kahr is a brilliant storyteller and this enjoyable read has much to offer anyone interested in exploring the roots of modern therapy.'
'Professor Kahr's Hidden Histories of British Psychoanalysis is as fascinating as a case book, and, in the tradition of Sigmund Freud, superbly well written and a joy to read. [...] Hidden Histories will appeal to everyone interested in the history of psychoanalysis. For experienced practitioners, there's the opportunity to learn more about these influential personalities, while trainees and students will find this a useful introduction. Kahr provides revealing insights into their private lives and even the frailty which makes them human. Above all, this is a very humane book, staying true to the essential tenet of psychoanalysis: a fascination with what it is to be human and the desire to understand and relieve existential suffering.'
