ABSTRACT
W. R. D. Fairbairn's link to G. W. F. Hegel is known and has been established by E. F. Birtles, who focuses on the contribution of the dialectic idea to clinical theory and practice. Hegel views reality as mediated through the mind. Essentially unified, mind always divides against itself, as it grasps every concept partially, which invites the discomfort involved in the parts not grasped. These "enlightened" and "dark" sides are usually referred to as thesis and antithesis. Fairbairn views mind as essentially unified, but at the same time as universally divided against itself and seeking reintegration through engagement with the external world. In his perception of home and public life as beset by friction and struggling to define their relations with each other, Fairbairn approximates the model laid out by Hegel and his British followers. As in Hegel, the home is retained but is placed beneath the social and political structures where mature dependence plays itself out.
