Trigant Burrow, (September 7, 1875 - May 24, 1950) was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 psychoanalyst, psychiatrist

Psychiatrist

A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...

, psychologist

Psychologist

Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...

, and, alongside Joseph H. Pratt and Paul Schilder, founder of group analysis

Group Analysis

Group analysis is a method of group psychotherapy originated by S. H. Foulkes in the 1940s. Group work was perhaps born of the need to deal economically and efficiently with a large body of returning soldiers with shared problems, but it soon developed into a much broader form in which individuals...

. He was the inventor of the concept of neurodynamics.

Life

Trigant Burrow was the youngest of four children in a well-off family of French origin. His father was an educated Protestant freethinker, his mother, however, was a practicing Catholic. He initially studied Literature at the Fordham University

Fordham University

Fordham University is a private, nonprofit, coeducational research university in the United States, with three campuses in and around New York City. It was founded by the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York in 1841 as St...

, Medicine at the University of Virginia

University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...

, receiving his M.D. in 1900, and eventually Psychology at Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

 (Ph.D., 1909). While working at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, he had the opportunity to attend a theater performance, during which he was introduced to two European doctors who were on a lecture tour in the United States: Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...

 and Karl Jung. The same year Burrow traveled with his family to Zurich in order to undergo a year-long analysis by Jung. Upon his return to the United States he practiced as a psychoanalyst in Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

 until 1926. The American Psychoanalytic Association

American Psychoanalytic Association

American Psychoanalytic Association is an association of psychoanalysts in the United States. It was founded in 1911, and forms part of the International Psychoanalytical Association.-External links:**...

was founded in 1911, and he acted as the president in 1924 and 1925. In 1926 Burrow founded the Lifwynn Foundation for Laboratory Research in Analytic and Social Psychiatry and published his first major work, The Social Basis of Consciousness. Until his death Burrow acted as the research director for the foundation and devoted particular attention to the physiological substructures of harmonious and rivaling participants within groups and societies, but also between states. His methods for measuring the electrical activity of the brain in connection with specific eye movements has led some to call him the father of neuropsychotherapy and trauma therapy [Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)].

Founder of Group Therapy

In 1921 Burrow was analyzed by one of his analysands, Clarence Shields. The student criticized the perceivable difference in authority during the analysis and demanded his teacher be more forthright. It came as a shock to Burrow when he realized, "that, in individual application, analytical attitude and authoritarian attitude can not be separated." When the roles of analyzer and patient were reversed it became clear that both displayed blind spots, adherence to social conventions and considerable utilization of defense mechanisms. In Trigant Burrow's eyes acknowledging this distortion of the analytical endeavor is indispensable to restoring relationships to normality. To Burrow and Shields, clarifying and ultimately diminishing the neurotic dislocation of emotions and cognition seemed possible only in a group setting. Both invited previous patients, relatives, and colleagues, including the Swiss Psychiatrist, Hans Syz, to sit in on some group sessions. Trigant Burrow coined the term group therapy and wrote three fundamental texts which were released between 1924 and 1927.

Psychoanalysis as a Social Science

Under the impression that Psychoanalysis should be further developed with more emphasis on the group, Burrow devised the concept of psychoanalysis as a social science.

Important publications

• The Social Basis of Consciousness, London 1927
• The Structure of Insanity
• The Biology of Human Conflict, New York 1937
• The Neurosis of Man, London 1949
• Science and Man's Behavior, New York 1953
• Preconscious Foundations of Human Experiences, New York, London 1964
• Das Fundament der Gruppenanalyse oder die Analyse der Reaktionen von normalen und neurotischen Menschen, Lucifer-Amor: 21. 104–113

External links