Trigant Burrow

(Nicholas) Trigant Burrow, (September 7, 1875 - May 24, 1950) was an American psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, psychologist, and, alongside Joseph H. Pratt and Paul Schilder, founder of group analysis. He was the inventor of the concept of neurodynamics.

Life

Trigant Burrow was the youngest of four children in a well-off family of French origin. His father was an educated Protestant freethinker, his mother, however, was a practicing Catholic. He initially studied Literature at the Fordham University, Medicine at the University of Virginia, receiving his M.D. in 1900, and eventually Psychology at Johns Hopkins University (Ph.D., 1909). While working at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, he had the opportunity to attend a theater performance, during which he was introduced to two European doctors who were on a lecture tour in the United States: Sigmund Freud and Karl Jung. The same year Burrow traveled with his family to Zurich in order to undergo a year-long analysis by Jung. Upon his return to the United States he practiced as a psychoanalyst in Baltimore until 1926. The American Psychoanalytic Association was founded in 1911, and he acted as the president in 1924 and 1925. In 1926 Burrow founded the Lifwynn Foundation for Laboratory Research in Analytic and Social Psychiatry and published his first major work, The Social Basis of Consciousness. Until his death Burrow acted as the research director for the foundation and devoted particular attention to the physiological substructures of harmonious and rivaling participants within groups and societies, but also between states. His methods for measuring the electrical activity of the brain in connection with specific eye movements has led some to call him the father of neuropsychotherapy and trauma therapy [Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)].

Founder of Group Therapy

In 1921 Burrow was analyzed by one of his analysands, Clarence Shields. The student criticized the perceivable difference in authority during the analysis and demanded his teacher be more forthright. It came as a shock to Burrow when he realized, "that, in individual application, analytical attitude and authoritarian attitude can not be separated." When the roles of analyzer and patient were reversed it became clear that both displayed blind spots, adherence to social conventions and considerable utilization of defense mechanisms. In Trigant Burrow's eyes acknowledging this distortion of the analytical endeavor is indispensable to restoring relationships to normality. To Burrow and Shields, clarifying and ultimately diminishing the neurotic dislocation of emotions and cognition seemed possible only in a group setting. Both invited previous patients, relatives, and colleagues, including the Swiss Psychiatrist, Hans Syz, to sit in on some group sessions. Trigant Burrow coined the term group therapy and wrote three fundamental texts which were released between 1924 and 1927.

Psychoanalysis as a Social Science

Under the impression that Psychoanalysis should be further developed with more emphasis on the group, Burrow devised the concept of psychoanalysis as a social science.

Important publications

• The Social Basis of Consciousness, London 1927
• The Structure of Insanity
• The Biology of Human Conflict, New York 1937
• The Neurosis of Man, London 1949
• Science and Man's Behavior, New York 1953
• Preconscious Foundations of Human Experiences, New York, London 1964
• Das Fundament der Gruppenanalyse oder die Analyse der Reaktionen von normalen und neurotischen Menschen, Lucifer-Amor: 21. 104–113

References

External links

• Works by or about Trigant Burrow in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Persondata
Name	Burrow, Trigant
Alternative names	American psychoanalyst
Short description
Date of birth	September 7, 1875
Place of birth
Date of death	May 24, 1950
Place of death