ABSTRACT
Pearl King occupies a unique position in the international psychoanalytical movement. She has practised as a psychoanalyst for over fifty years, having become the very first nonmedical President of the British Psycho-Analytical Society, and having served as Secretary to the International Psycho-Analytical Association as well. She recently received the Sigourney Award, the highest honour that one can earn in the field of psychoanalysis, arguably the psychoanalytical equivalent of an Academy Award or the BAFTA, for lifetime achievement. She has always remained a modern psychoanalyst in the best sense of the word. She recognized the brilliance of both John Bowlby and Donald Winnicott, and encouraged their work. Winnicott alluded to the tension felt by many psychoanalysts at that time, who believed that Bowlby had abandoned the principles of orthodox psychoanalysis. Pearl is one of the few people alive today who worked very closely with both, and who knew each of them in a variety of contexts.
