ABSTRACT
Guntrip was one of the earlier British psycho-analytic theorists to want to shift the focus of psychotherapeutic theory towards ‘schizoid’ problems – the problems some people encounter in trying to maintain a vital sense of self in a realistic relationship to other people, while feeling continually undermined by anxieties about falling apart. In his introduction to Schizoid Phenomena, Object Relations and the Self he wrote:
‘It is necessary to bring out very clearly the fact that psychodynamic theory has moved on beyond the original classic theory of superego control, guilt and depression.’
