Grace Pailthorpe’s Writings on Psychoanalysis and Surrealism

Alberto Stefana, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, and researcher. He has published about 100 articles in international journals, and authored the monograph History of Countertransference (Routledge, 2017).Lee Ann Montanaro, Ph.D., is a university lecturer and researcher. She specialises in twentieth century literature and art. Her research interests include Surrealism, Psychoanalysis, Modernism and Comparative Literature.

‘Grace Pailthorpe was an extraordinary figure, a pioneering female surgeon, psychoanalyst and artist. The Portman Clinic, of which she is the de jure founder, is a unique institution that specialises in studying the roots of violent, sexual and antisocial behaviour. In some ways this parallels Surrealism’s fascination with the irrational, bizarre and unconventional. This collection of Pailthorpe’s writings represents a major re-appraisal of her life and her involvement with the surrealist movement.’Jessica Yakeley, director of the Portman Clinic, consultant psychiatrist in Forensic Psychotherapy; associate medical director, clinical governance and medical director, The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust‘Surgeon, criminologist, psychoanalyst, surrealist, painter, Grace Pailthorpe was an intrepid pioneer in every aspect of her life, not least in her unique partnership with Reuben Mednikoff. Thanks to this indispensable collection of her theoretical writings on psychoanalysis and Surrealism, we at last have access to a remarkably original mind at work.’Elizabeth Cowling, emeritus professor, History of Art, University of Edinburgh

• Foreword by Robert Hinshelwood  1. Introduction by Alberto Stefana and Lee Ann Montanaro  2. The analysis of a poem (1938)  3. The Birth Trauma lecture (1938): Lecture on drawings. Being an extract from a research now in its final stages  4. The Scientific Aspect of Surrealism (1938-39)  5. Primary processes of the infantile mind demonstrated through the analysis of a prose-poem (1941)  6. Deflection of energy as a result of birth trauma and its bearing upon character formation (1941)  7. Lecture on Surrealism (1944)  8. Surrealism and Psychology (1944)  9. Draft summary of Psychorealism: The sluicegate of the emotions (Not dated)  Afterword by Desy Safán-Gerard