ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some research into the activities and influence of the New Zealand psychiatrist Frederic Truby King, in relation to a clinical case where Truby King's baby-feeding methods played a crucial role as major pathogenic agent. Truby King is seen as the product of his time and of his biography. It was intriguing to discover that Truby King's dates were almost identical to those of Sigmund Freud, that he too had studied medicine, had visited Professor Charcot in Paris, and was a passionate believer in the scientific method. On a visit to Japan in 1904, Truby King was impressed by the universal custom of breast-feeding among mothers and became convinced that the prejudice against breast-feeding in his country needed to be reversed. In the therapy, the core complex was gradually identified as it was enacted, and then attempted to be worked through in the transference.
