Psychotherapy and Christianity in Scotland
My mother and her entire family were all from the west of Scotland, up and down the coast along the Firth of Clyde and into Glasgow. One day, God willing and the pandemic receding, I may get over to see it.
Partly because of that, but also partly because of a sense that events in London, as always, tend to outshine and overshadow others in the United Kingdom, I have cultivated for several years an interest in figures in Scotland who have been important and influential in the development of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. E.g., W.R.D. Fairbairn's pioneering work on the schizoid personality type remains fascinating to me, as does his life, some of it covered in John Sutherland's 1989 book, Fairbairn's Journey into the Interior, which I read last year.
Even more fascinating, in part because more dramatic and "radical," is the life and work of the psychiatrist R.D. Laing, whose Wisdom, Madness and Folly: The Making of a Psychiatrist I read last year.
Along comes a new book to deepen our knowledge of Scottish developments in mental health in the last century. Set for release at the end of June is Miracles of Healing: Psychotherapy and Religion in Twentieth-Century Scotland by Gavin Miller (Edinburgh UP, 2020), 184pp.
About this book the publisher tells us this:
Although a tide of secularization swept over the post-war United Kingdom, Christianity in Scotland found one way to survive by drawing on alliances that it had built earlier in the century with psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. Psychoanalysis was seen as a way to purify Christianity, and to propel it in a scientifically rational and socially progressive direction. This book draws upon a wealth of archival research to uncover the complex interaction between religion and psychotherapy in twentieth-century Scotland. It explores the practical and intellectual alliance created between the Scottish churches and Scottish psychotherapy that found expression in the work of celebrated figures such as the radical psychiatrist R.D. Laing and the pioneering psychoanalyst W.R.D. Fairbairn, as well as the careers of less well-known individuals such as the psychotherapist Winifred Rushforth.
Partly because of that, but also partly because of a sense that events in London, as always, tend to outshine and overshadow others in the United Kingdom, I have cultivated for several years an interest in figures in Scotland who have been important and influential in the development of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. E.g., W.R.D. Fairbairn's pioneering work on the schizoid personality type remains fascinating to me, as does his life, some of it covered in John Sutherland's 1989 book, Fairbairn's Journey into the Interior, which I read last year.
Even more fascinating, in part because more dramatic and "radical," is the life and work of the psychiatrist R.D. Laing, whose Wisdom, Madness and Folly: The Making of a Psychiatrist I read last year.
Along comes a new book to deepen our knowledge of Scottish developments in mental health in the last century. Set for release at the end of June is Miracles of Healing: Psychotherapy and Religion in Twentieth-Century Scotland by Gavin Miller (Edinburgh UP, 2020), 184pp.
About this book the publisher tells us this:
Although a tide of secularization swept over the post-war United Kingdom, Christianity in Scotland found one way to survive by drawing on alliances that it had built earlier in the century with psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. Psychoanalysis was seen as a way to purify Christianity, and to propel it in a scientifically rational and socially progressive direction. This book draws upon a wealth of archival research to uncover the complex interaction between religion and psychotherapy in twentieth-century Scotland. It explores the practical and intellectual alliance created between the Scottish churches and Scottish psychotherapy that found expression in the work of celebrated figures such as the radical psychiatrist R.D. Laing and the pioneering psychoanalyst W.R.D. Fairbairn, as well as the careers of less well-known individuals such as the psychotherapist Winifred Rushforth.
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