William Ronald Dodds Fairbairn (; 11 August 1889 â 31 December 1964) was a Scottish psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and a central figure in the development of the object relations theory of psychoanalysis. He was generally known and referred to as "W. Ronald D. Fairbairn".
Fairbairn died in Edinburgh at the age of 75. He is buried with his wives in Dean Cemetery in western Edinburgh. The grave lies very close to the main east entrance and lodge-house.
Ronald Fairbairn was born at the Red House, Cluny Gardens, in Morningside, Edinburgh in 1889, the only child of Cecilia Leefe and Thomas Fairbairn, a chartered surveyor, and president of the Edinburgh Architectural Association. He was educated at Merchiston Castle School and at the University of Edinburgh where he studied for three years in Divinity and Hellenic Greek studies, graduating with an MA in 1911.
In the First World War, he joined the Royal Engineers and served under General Allenby in the Palestinian campaign, and then the Royal Garrison Artillery.
On his return home, he began medical training, probably inspired by his war experience. He received a doctorate in Medicine (MD) on 30 March 1929 from the University of Edinburgh.
From 1927 to 1935, Fairbairn lectured in psychology at the University of Edinburgh whilst independently practising analysis.
In 1931, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were James Drever, Edwin Bramwell, Sir Godfrey Hilton Thomson and Robert Alexander Fleming.
On the basis of his writings, he became an associate member of the British Psychoanalytical Society in 1931, becoming a full member in 1939. Fairbairn, though somewhat isolated in that he spent his entire career in Edinburgh, had a profound influence on British Object Relations and the relational schools. Fairbairn was one of the theory-builders for the Middle Group (now called the Independent Group) psychoanalysts. The Independent Group contained analysts who identified with neither the Kleinians nor the Anna Freudians. They were more concerned with the relationships between people than with the "drives" within them.
From 1941 until 1954 he was Consultant Psychiatrist to the Ministry of Pensions.
Fairbairn produced only one book-length collection of his papers called Psychoanalytic Studies of the Personality (1952) published in the United States as An Object-Relations Theory of the Personality by Basic Books in 1954.
Collected papers:
Biographies:
Commentary and application:
In 1926, Fairbairn married Mary Ann More-Gordon, the daughter of Harry More-Gordon. Their daughter Ellinor was born in 1927, followed by twins in 1928, however, they did not survive. Their fourth child was born in 1929, and in 1933 their fifth son Nicholas was born, who would go on to become a barrister and MP.
In 1959, he married Marion Frances Mackintosh, daughter of Captain H. E. M. Archer.