Introduction to Fairbairn’s Psychology of Dynamic Structure

Graham S. Clarke was born in Colchester, Essex, UK in 1942. He went with his family to Australia as “ten pound poms” in 1949, returning via the Suez Canal just before it was closed in 1956. He did a year at Sydney Technical High School (Australia) before going to Clacton County High School (UK) until 1961. Graham took a BSc (Hons) Architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL (1961–1964). It was here that he attended a series of lectures byRichard Buckminster Fuller whose idea of comprehensive anticipatory design science prompted him to seek a career in computing. In 1967 he did an MSc in applications of computing at what was then the North London Polytechnic. He worked as a computingadvisor at City University before starting a PhD in experimental psychology at Hatfield Polytechnic which he never completed. After working on a computer-based authoring system, he went to Chelmer Institute (now part of Anglia Ruskin University) before going to Essex University, Computer Science Department, as a Computer Officer in 1986. He was a founder member of the Intelligent Inhabited Building Group there until his retirement in 2007.Having had a long-term interest in the “anti-psychiatry” movement headed by R. D. Laing and David Cooper and having attended the Dialectics of Liberation conference at the Round House in Chalk Farm in 1967, while at Essex he took a part-time master’s in Psychoanalytic Studies at the Tavistock (1995) and later a PhD in Psychoanalytic Studies at Essex University (2002). He published his first paper on psychoanalysis and film in Free Associations journal in 1994 and since then has published many more papers and articles, as well as five books.

'This muscular, lucid, and accessible introduction to Fairbairnian object relations is a treasure trove of brilliant theoretical insights and creative provocations for those engaged in film and cultural studies and creative writing, as well as for a wider readership engaged in understanding contemporary cultural production and the human condition. Graham Clarke analyses a Renaissance masterpiece and three complex but hugely popular audiovisual artefacts from the last forty years from psychoanalytic, cultural, aesthetic, and political perspectives, and to thrilling effect. Who knew that a book on psychoanalytic theory could leave one wanting more?'

• AcknowledgementsAbout the authorForeword by Ross ClarkeIntroductionPart I: Introduction to Fairbairn’s “psychology of dynamic structure”1. Dynamic structure, psychic growth and mature dependence2. Fairbairn and the social3. Fairbairn and the aestheticPart II: Applications4. A painting by Bronzino: An Allegory with Venus and Cupid5. A TV series by Dennis Potter: The Singing Detective6. An animated film from Japan: Spirited Away7. A science fiction film from the USA: Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (EEAO)Part III: Envoi8. RetrospectConclusionReferencesIndex