Description
Book SynopsisGathering together an incredible array of contributors from the past century of the Tavistock to cover all aspects of amazing work they do. With chapters from David Armstrong, James Astor, Andrew Balfour, Fred Balfour, Sara Barratt, David Bell, Sandy Bourne, Wesley Carr, Andrew Cooper, Gwyn Daniel, Dilys Daws, Domenico di Ceglie, Emilia Dowling, Andrew Elder, Caroline Garland, Peter Griffiths, Rob Hale, Sarah Helps, Beth Holgate, Juliet Hopkins, Marcus Johns, Sebastian Kraemer, James Krantz, Mary Lindsay, Julian Lousada, Louise Lyon, David Malan, Gillian Miles, Lisa Miller, Mary Morgan, Nell Nicholson, Anton Obholzer, Paul Pengelly, Maria Rhode, Margaret Rustin, Michael Rustin, Edward R. Shapiro, Valerie Sinason, Jenny Sprince, John Steiner, Jon Stokes, David Taylor, Judith Trowell, Margot Waddell, and Gianna Williams
The Tavistock Century traces the developmental path taken from the birth of a progressive and inspirational institution. From their wartime and post-war experience, John Rickman, Wilfred Bion, Eric Trist, Isabel Menzies, John Bowlby, Esther Bick, Michael Balint, and James Robertson left us a legacy of innovation based on intimate observation of human relatedness.
The book contains entries across the full range of disciplines in the lifecycle, extending, for example, from research to group relations, babies, adolescents, couples, even pantomime. It will be of enormous value to anyone working in the helping professions; clinicians, social workers, health visitors, GPs, teachers, as well as social science scholars and a host of others who are directly or indirectly in touch with the Tavistock wellspring.
Trade Review'A book worth reading about a great history [...] This book has now made the history and significance of the Tavi, including the mythical side (e.g. “Operation Phoenix”, the new life from the ashes of the Second World War) much clearer to me.'
-- Thomas von Salis, Swiss Archives of Neurology, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (translated)
There is much individual and collective wisdom between the lines of this thought-provoking collection, which charts the scope and evolution of the Tavistock’s pioneering and often controversial work, illustrates its influence on social policy, and tracks its innovative and often revelatory explorations of the human condition. For decades, the Tavistock’s work has helped shape how we see ourselves, as persons and as a society. Much thinking that has entered the mainstream emerged from its challenging, interdisciplinary research and practice, and this book shows stage by stage how a self-questioning approach generates new knowledge, and how theory can be humanely applied.
-- Dame Hilary Mantel, Booker Prize winner, 2009 and 2012
Some institutions make their contribution not just by discharging duties or doing jobs, but by creating a culture. The impact of the Tavistock on our social assumptions, its impact on education, business, the understanding of the family, the life of the arts and, of course, therapy, demonstrates beyond any doubt that it has genuinely been a culturally defining presence. It has educated the listening and the noticing of generations; and in that sense has enlarged the personal and the social world for all of us. It is right that the hundred years of its remarkable life should be marked and celebrated in this welcome book.
-- Dr Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury
The “Tavi” – a name that is instantly recognisable wherever people get together to reflect on what makes us tick as people, institutions, and society. This delightful mixture of homage and history is a witty and wise tribute to the first hundred years of a remarkable place.
-- Professor Sir Simon Wessely, Regius Chair of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London
… a splendid publication that vividly portrays aspects of a remarkable institution’s history over the past 100 years. … It is such a highly enjoyable book that I read it end to end in one sitting, and since then I have repeatedly and selectively dipped into its forty-four chapters. … the editors and contributors have given us a brilliant and inspiring 2020 vision.
-- Andrew Briggs * International Journal of Infant Observation and Its Applications 23(3), 2020 *
This thought-provoking collection of essays […] is wide ranging in scope, with sections on social work, nursing, court work, publications, government policy and much more. […] Part history, part homage to a national institution […] There is hope and wisdom here from a multiplicity of voices […] This book is a tribute to the place that first put psychotherapy on the public agenda a century ago and has done so much to educate the way we listen and observe.
-- Jane Cooper, former senior counsellor at University of Cambridge – Therapy Today, March 2021
Table of Contents Preface
Foreword: The Tavistock enigma
Part I
The Tavistock legacy
CHAPTER ONE
Challenge, change and sabotage
CHAPTER TWO
What lies beneath
CHAPTER THREE
Psychoanalysis, social science, and the Tavistock tradition
CHAPTER FOUR
Research at the Tavistock
CHAPTER FIVE
“Mummy’s gone away and left me behind” James Robertson at the Tavistock Clinic
CHAPTER SIX
The Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology, 1920–2020
CHAPTER SEVEN
John Bowlby at the Tavistock Clinic
CHAPTER EIGHT
Balint Groups
CHAPTER NINE
Alexis Brook in primary care
CHAPTER TEN
Extending the reach of the “talking cure”
Part II
Pregnancy and under 5s
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The psychopathology of publications concerning reactions to stillbirths and neonatal deaths
CHAPTER TWELVE
Parent–infant psychotherapy at a baby clinic
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Service for under-fives in the child and family department at the Tavistock: short-term applications of psychoanalytic practice and infant observation
Part III
Children and Adolescents
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Child Guidance Training Centre 1929–1984
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Gloucester House: a story of endurance, inspiration, and innovation
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
A foothold in paediatrics
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Early psychoanalytic approaches to autism at the Tavistock
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Eating Disorders Workshop—Tavistock Adolescent Department
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The creation of a service for children and adolescents facing gender identity issues
CHAPTER TWENTY
The establishment of the Young People’s Counselling Service
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Facing it out: the Adolescent Department
Part IV
Couples and families
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
A brief history of Tavistock Relationships
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Tavistock Relationships and the growth of couple psychoanalysis 1988–2019: a personal memoir
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Family therapy across the decades; evolution and discontinuous change
Part V
Working with adults
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Brief psychotherapy: practice and research
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The Tavistock Adult Depression Study (TADS)
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Working at the Tavistock Clinic Adult Department 1972–1997
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The Adult Department
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The Adult Department: a group at work
CHAPTER THIRTY
The Fitzjohn’s Unit
Part VI
Psychology, social work, and nursing
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The psychology discipline
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Holding tensions: social work and the Tavistock
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Nursing at the Tavistock
Part VII
Consultation, court, and organisations
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Child protection and the courts
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Autonomic countertransference: the psychopathic mind and the institution
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
The Tavistock legacy in America: making sense of society
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Psychoanalytic thinking in organisational settings and the therapeutic community tradition
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Group relations and religion
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
The new landscape of leadership: living in radical uncertainty
Part VIII
Performance, publications, and policy
CHAPTER FORTY
“Give them time” Pigeon holes and pasta—the making of a Tavistock TV programme
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
The Tavistock Gazette, pantomimes, and books
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Tavistock pantomimes
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
The Tavistock Clinic Series
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Tavistock policy seminars: a contained and disruptive space
Afterword
Soldiering on
References
Index
