Foulkes’ letter to Wilfred Abse. A comment

Abstract

The correspondence between S.H. Wilfred Abse (1915-2005), a Welsh psychiatrist, group analyst and an old colleague of Foulkes in Northfield where they worked together for three months in 1944 (Harrison and Clarke, 1992: 700) is a fascinating read. Initiated by Abse who asked Foulkes for a comment on a forthcoming presentation of his, it is not only a hallmark of professional exchange and a deeply felt friendship, but also a remarkable account of the last period of Foulkes' professional career as a group analyst. As such, it not only offers valuable insights into the origins of group analysis but also provides an overview of its theoretical and clinical advances at the beginning of the 1970s. Moreover, it allows a fleeting glimpse of the group analytic community in London at the time.It is well known that in the 1960s, Foulkes published a collection of papers on the history of group analysis since its inception and later on (Foulkes, 1964). Regarding its origins he wrote: 'In the mid-twenties, I came across one or two papers by Trigant Burrow which must have made a deep impression on me as they put the idea of group analysis as a form of treatment into my mind' (Foulkes, 1984: 13) 1 . However, apart from Burrow, Foulkes emphasized that at the time, there were other influences in the air' (Foulkes, 1984: 13) which had an impact on his thinking, namely a number of plays from the contemporary theatre; for instance Six Characters in Search of an Author by Pirandello, and Maxim Gorki's play on The Lower Depths (Nacht-Asyl) (Foulkes, 1984: 13)' which he remarked was 'a play without a hero, a leaderless group on the stage driven by strong anonymous forces (ibid)'. It was this play that made him wonder 'about the pathogenic and therapeutic power of the theatre and of everyday life'