Back to the Roots: The Influence of Ian D. Suttie on British Psychoanalysis

Thus article discusses several ideas of the Scottish psychiatrist Ian D. Suttie concerning childhood and the nature of mental suffering. Suttie is seen as the prototype of a British Independent psychoanalyst because he combined a thorough knowledge of Freudian theory with a "structure of feeling" grounded in both British psychology and the Hungarian psychoanalytic tradition originating with Ferenczi. The author also highlights how a number of prominent contemporaries in psychology and psychiatry, including William McDougall and W. H. R. Rivers, played a significant role in the development of such a "structure of feeling" in British psychoanalysis.