S. H. Foulkes

Born in 1898 Karlsruhe, Germany, S. H. Foulkes(1898–1976) was a psychoanalyst and the founder of Group Analysis, also founding the Group Analytic Society, London, with an international membership in many countries.

S. H. Foulkes studied medicine in Heidelberg and Frankfurt where he graduated in 1923, and for a time he worked with the neurologist Kurt Goldstein. He trained as a psychoanalyst from 1928–30 in Vienna, where his analyst was Helene Deutsch, and then returned to the new Institute of Psychoanalysis in Frankfurt, which shared a building with the Institute of Sociology, before coming to England in 1933 as a refugee from Germany and he then settled in England prior to World War II. Here Foulkes continued to work as a psychoanalyst and became a training analyst. He also had interests in neurology, psychiatry, sociology, and psychology.

Foulkes' early work with groups of WW2 soldiers at Northfield Hospital (UK) contributed to his founding of the Group Analytic Society (GAS) in 1952, based in London and with international membership. He was later instrumental in starting the Institute of Group Analysis (IGA) in 1971 for training practitioners. Both the GAS and the IGA have spawned numerous related professional associations and training bodies in the UK and several other countries.

Foulkes regarded groups as basic to human existence, all individuals being born into social groups (families, cultures, societies) that shape the lifespan continuously in conscious and less conscious ways.

Books
Foulkes S.H. (1948). Introduction to group-analytic psychotherapy. Heinemann.

Foulkes S.H. & Anthony E.J. (1957). Group Psychotherapy: The Psycho-Analytic Approach. Penguin.

Foulkes S.H. (1964) Therapeutic Group Analysis. Allen & Unwin.

Papers
Foulkes S.H. & Lewis E. (1944) Group Analysis: Studies in the Treatment of Groups on Psycho-Analytic Lines. B.J.Med.Psychol., 20, 175-84, reprinted in Foulkes (1964).

Foulkes S.H. (1946a). Principles and practice of group therapy. Bull. Menninger Clin. 10, 85-89.

Foulkes S.H. (1946b). Group analysis in a military neurosis centre. Lancet, 1, 303-310.