Recent thinking has identified a viewpoint common to three Scottish thinkers influential in the fields of psychoanalysis and philosophy-Fairbairn, Macmurray and Suttie. A recent argument by Gerson (2004) concerning the political... more
Recent thinking has identified a viewpoint common to three Scottish thinkers influential in the fields of psychoanalysis and philosophy-Fairbairn, Macmurray and Suttie. A recent argument by Gerson (2004) concerning the political implications of a strand of Independent object relations thinking that explicitly includes Fairbairn and Suttie is reviewed and its findings described briefly. Gerson argues that this strand of thinking has its origins in the development of the welfare state. The possibility that the real origins of this viewpoint can be found in social thinking of the Scottish Enlightenment is developed here as a research question. (2005)
