From Psychoanalysis to Group Analysis: The Pioneering Work of Trigant Burrow

Reviews and Endorsements

‘Trigant Burrow is a forgotten pioneer of group and social psychology whose exploration of humankind’s self-destructive tendencies is of the utmost relevance in today’s world. In From Psychoanalysis to Group Analysis: The Pioneering Work of Trigant Burrow, Edi Gatti Pertegato and Giorgio Orghe Pertegato offer us an important reminder of Burrow’s long-neglected research on group analysis, which embodied a social conception of human beings, a study of their interactive behavior within the community, and an innovative tool to overcome conflict in favour of cooperation and solidarity.'
- Steven Rosen, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the College of Staten Island of the City University of New York, and member of the Board of Directors of the Lifwynn Foundation

‘Trigant Burrow, philosopher of the mind and pioneer of group analysis, was a man ahead of his time. His revolutionary ideas on the social nature of the person and the healing properties of groups anticipated the work of later figures like S.H. Foulkes and many others, but jarred with the psychoanalytic establishment of the day, whose members edged him into obscurity. It has taken several decades for Burrow’s voice to be heard again. Now, thanks to the rigorous and painstaking work of reconstruction by the authors of this book, his radical therapeutic techniques and his all-embracing optimism for group therapy have come to light with a relevance which astonishes.
The authors have located Burrow in his social context through their compilation of essays and commentaries which bring him to life with refreshing veracity. Coupled with this they have faithfully reproduced his key papers, allowing the man to speak for himself. True to the spirit of group analysis, they have enabled the silence surrounding Burrow’s work to be broken and in so doing they have advanced our understanding of the therapeutic nature of groups. At last, almost ninety years after his enlightened break with traditional psychoanalysis, Trigant Burrow has found champions for his beliefs. This is a book in which the past speaks to the future with prophetic wisdom.’
- Dr Harold Behr, consultant psychiatrist, training group analyst, Institute of Group Analysis, London, and former editor of Group Analysis, The International Journal of Group-Analytic Psychotherapy