THE LIFE AND WORK OF JOHN RICKMAN

1
THE LIFE AND WORK OF JOHN RICKMAN NO ORDINARY
PSYCHOANALYST     An Exhibition to celebrate the
publication of No Ordinary Psychoanalyst The
Exceptional Contributions of John Rickman edited
and compiled by Pearl King and including her
biography of Rickman together with a reissue
of Selected Contributions to Psychoanalysis by
John Rickman
2

• John Rickman's Early Life 
•  
• John Rickman was born on 10 April 1891. His
  parents lived in a small town called Dorking in
  the County of Surrey, not far from London. He had
  an athletic figure and was tall for his age,
  measuring six feet when he was only sixteen, but
  remaining that height for most of his life. Both
  his parents were Quakers. When he was still an
  infant his father became ill with tuberculosis.
  His father went to France to seek a warmer
  climate for his illness, but died there before
  his son was 2 years old. Thus John grew up, at 22
  Rose Hill, Dorking in what we now refer to as a
  'one parent family'. His mother remained a widow
  for the 55 years before she died in 1948.
• Rickman attended a Dame School in Dorking.
  There was one held in Rose Hill House, not far
  from the Quaker's Meeting House, in Dorking. The
  Quakers were and still are a significant group in
  that town. When John was old enough, he was sent
  to the well known Quaker boarding school called
  Leighton Park, in Reading. He was a thoughtful
  and observant adolescent. When he was retiring
  after 13 years as Editor of the British Journal
  of Medical Psychology he described how "In his
  reading he came across a book in the school
  library which immediately produced a profound
  effect on his thought. Flatland 1884 by 'A
  Square' (a pseudonym for Edwin Abbott) is about a
  world limited to two dimensions but otherwise
  like our own in that its population was endowed
  with perception, feeling and reason".

3
John Rickman's Early Life (Continued)

• Although Rickman had great difficulty in passing
  the entrance examinations in Latin, he was
  pleased when he did get a place at King's
  College, Cambridge. It was at Cambridge that he
  met Adrian Stephen and his friends, who later
  became part of the Bloomsbury Group. Rickman was
  well built and athletic in appearance and he was
  particularly pleased when he won a Cambridge
  rowing 'Blue'. Rickman read Medicine but had an
  interest in Law. He took a Natural Science Tripos
  and his pre-clinical examinations at the
  University of Cambridge, before he moved to St.
  Thomas's Hospital in London, and qualified in
  medicine in 1916.
•  
• The accompanying text for this exhibition is a
  distillation (largely in her words) from Pearl
  King's biographical introduction to No Ordinary
  Psychoanalyst The Exceptional Contributions of
  John Rickman.

4
Photograph of John Rickmans father and mother
with Rickman as a baby on his mothers lap.
5
Photograph of John Rickman as a schoolboy on the
beach.
6
Photograph of 22 Rose Hill, Dorking, the house
where John Rickman grew up and where his mother
lived.
7
Photograph of John Rickman aged 4 to 5 outside
the family home on a rocking horse.
8
Photograph of John Rickman aged 10 with his
mother
9
The front cover of Flatland A Romance
of Many Directions by Edwin Abbott, first
published in 1884. Flatland had an impact on
Rickman as an adolescent.
10
John Rickmans leaving report from Leighton Park
School, 1910. 
11
John Rickman in Russia

• As soon as he was qualified as a doctor, Rickman
  enrolled with 'The Friends War Victims Relief
  Committee' and went to Russia rather than be
  conscripted into the Royal Army Medical Corps. In
  1916 Dr. John Rickman joined 'The Friends War
  Victims Relief Service'.. Their Unit was set up
  in Buzuluk, in Mogatova, in the Samara Province
  in South Russia. It was staffed by Quakers from
  England and America. Dr. Tyler Fox was the Chief
  Medical Officer for the Quaker Relief mission in
  Russia between 1916 -1917, and co-ordinated their
  activities.
• John Rickman, as a country doctor, was soon
  involved in trying to meet the demands of his
  patients, scattered over a 60 miles radius, from
  the local rather primitive hospital, where he and
  the nurses tried to train the local girls.
  Rickman described his experiences in a number of
  publications, which were collected in The People
  of Great Russia (Gorer Rickman, 1949).
• In 1917, Lydia Cooper Lewis, an American Social
  Worker joined the Unit. The Russian Communist
  revolution took place in October/November 1917.
  In March 1918, John and Lydia married. Richenda
  C. Scott's Quakers in Russia (1964) quotes a
  remarkable description of the dangers that
  Rickman experienced in Russia
•  
• "The day following, John Rickman, who had gone
  into the town to visit the refugee barracks and
  find out how the inmates had fared during the
  siege, was again arrested, this time by the
  Cossacks. The Cossacks turned him over to the
  Czechs, who shut him up in the railway station
  which they were using as headquarters. Spies and
  prisoners were constantly being taken out of the
  room where he was confined, and shot out of hand
  in the yard beyond its windows. John Rickman felt
  assured that his own turn would come very soon.
  He reiterated to the guard that he was an English
  doctor who had been working in the province for
  the past eighteen months,' the Czechs retorted
  that this confirmed their suspicions for of
  course there were no English in the region.
  Rickman had saved all the permits which the local
  council had given him as a doctor for the use of
  the Zemstvo post horses, and at last thought of
  producing these as proof that he had been in the
  district since 1916. These soiled and creased
  pieces of paper finally convinced the Czech
  officers, and he was set free. When the Czechs
  came to know of the work of the Unit at first
  hand in Buzuluk they could not do enough for the
  Quaker team. "

12
The dustcover of Richenda C. Scotts Quakers
in Russia. London Michael Joseph. 1964 which
contains a description of Rickman in Russia.
13
A document in Russian issued in 1918 by the
American Consulate General to John Rickman as a
bearer of official mail, together with an English
translation.
14
A draft of John Rickmans Tyler Fox Note to
Obituary.
15
A copy from John Rickmans papers of the opening
of his first commissioned article on Russia under
the pseudonym Vratch published in The Lancet 5
March, 1938, together with his description of the
articles.
16
The front cover of John Rickmans An Eye Witness
from Russia published by the Peoples Russian
Information Bureau in 1919.
17
The title-page of The People of Great Russia A
Psychological Study by Geoffrey Gorer and John
Rickman, 1949.
18
The Post-War Years Cambridge to Vienna   After
the war, Rickman had difficulty finding
employment, for he had not fought for King and
Country, being a Conscientious Objector.
Eventually Rickman was appointed as Medical
Officer at Fulbourn Hospital, south of Cambridge.
One of his first tasks was to set up formal
Nursing Training in the Hospital. This linked up
with his attempts to train peasant women in
Russia. The Rickmans stayed in the Old Vicarage,
Grantchester, made famous by Rupert Brookes poem
(1912). Later, Rickman wrote about this period
of his life By good fortune I had as mentors a
few men of quite outstanding mobility Dr
W.H.R. Rivers, a physiologist of the special
senses, anthropologist and psychologist, was a
person to whom it was possible to speak in terms
of the viewpoint of the observer as well as the
content of the events viewed Through his
friendship with Rivers he was introduced to the
beginnings of the Medical Section of the British
Psychological Society. Rickman remembered It
was from Rivers that I first heard the advice If
you are going to do anything in the field of
psychiatry or psychology you must get analysed
. Rivers, an Associate Member of the British
Psychoanalytical Society from 1919, suggested
that Rickman should go to Vienna to be analysed
by Freud. With Ernest Joness recommending him as
a clever man a very solid, promising fellow,
Rickman contacted Freud who replied on a post
card that he would undertake to analyse him. His
fee was two guineas per session. Rickman started
work with Freud in 1920. John Rickman moved to
Vienna, with his wife Lydia. Lydia linked up with
the Quaker Relief Unit in Vienna, and when John
was not working with Freud and studying
psychoanalysis, he also worked with the Quaker
Relief Unit. There was great poverty in Vienna in
the area where the Quakers were then working. In
1921 John Rickman came back to London to sit his
MRCP examination. While he was in London his
daughter Lucy was born. In a letter to his friend
Geza Roheim in Budapest, he wrote First we now
have a daughter, aged one month and 6 days, a
sturdy satisfying little mortal, full of vitality
and developing quickly enough to be continually
interesting (31st August 1921,). Meanwhile
Rickman was becoming interested in psychoanalytic
publications and offered to do some translations
for Freud and Jones. While he was in Vienna.
Freud asked him to work at applying Freuds
theories to the understanding and treatment of
psychoses.
19
Photograph of W.H. Rivers who encouraged John
Rickman in Cambridge after the war to pursue
psychoanalysis. He recommended him to Ernest
Jones who in turn recommended him to Freud for
analysis. Rivers became an Associate Member of
the British Psychoanalytical Society in 1919.
20
An extract from Ernest Joness typescript copy of
Freuds letter to him 13 May 1920.
21
An envelope addressed to John Rickman in Freuds
hand whilst Rickman was in Vienna. Horace Frink
was in analysis with Freud at the same time as
Rickman.  
22
Photograph of Freud ca. 1920
23
A letter from John Rickman to Ernest Jones 4
November 1920 from Vienna describing the course
of lectures arranged by Rank for the
psychoanalytic pupils who are foreigners.
24
The title-page of Freuds Die Frage der
Laienanalyse (1926) with Freuds handwritten
dedication to John Rickman, 19 September 1926.
25
Sketch of John Rickmans colleague and friend the
anthropologist Geza Roheim whom Rickman helped in
various ways.
26
A list of some of the books that Geza Roheim
asked John Rickman to purchase for him, 10
December 1920.  
27
A letter from Geza Roheim to John Rickman, 21
January 1921 thanking him help in obtaining books
for his research.  
28
A holiday postcard from Geza Roheim to John
Rickman.  
29
An extract from a letter from John Rickman to
Geza Roheim showing Rickman the editor at work.  
30
Return to London Life as a Psychoanalyst   In
1922 Rickman returned to London, to start his
practice and to take up an Honorary position in
St Thomass Hospital alongside Dr. W. Stoddart.
On October 4th 1922 along with James and Edward
Glover, he was elected to membership of the
British Society. Ernest Jones had already
launched the International Journal of
Psychoanalysis in 1920. Rickmans interest in law
as an undergraduate helped him to understand the
importance of setting up a legal Institution
within which to contain the activities and
structures of the British Psychoanalytical
Society that had come into being on February 20th
1919. In 1924 Rickman assisted Jones to found
the Institute of Psychoanalysis, and played a
prominent part in formulating the legal
constitution of the Institute and the Articles of
Association which determined the organisation of
the membership of the Institute. The
establishment of the Institute of Psychoanalysis
enabled the Society to own property and to
purchase the International Psychoanalytical
Press, which held the rights of publication in
the English language of many of Freuds earlier
works. This was soon followed by the setting up
of the International Psychoanalytical Library
with the Hogarth Press. Once the Institute was
set up the members were able to purchase a
building, which they needed in order to start a
Clinic, to house a Library and meeting rooms.
John Rickman analysed the first patient to be
seen in the Clinic on May 6th 1926, which date
was also Freuds 70th birthday! In addition to
his committee work Rickman was also busy at this
time on two projects that grew out of his time in
Vienna working with Freud a bibliography of all
papers published between 1893 and 1926 on
psychoanalysis, which he called The INDEX
PSYCHOANALYTICUS 1893 to 1926 (published by the
Hogarth Press in 1928) and his A Survey The
Development of the Psychoanalytical Theory of the
Psychoses 1904 1926 in four parts in the
British Journal of Medical Psychology
(1926-1927), of which he had become Assistant
Editor in 1925. He was active, too, in
engendering public awareness of psychoanalysis,
in teaching and in extensive correspondence with
colleagues. His correspondence with Geza Roheim,
an anthropologist and later a psychoanalyst from
Budapest, shows, for example, his warmth and care
in helping others. Over many years he edited the
papers of colleagues and, as in the case of
Roheim and Ferenczi, facilitated their
publication.
31
The title-page of John Rickmans Index
Psychoanalyticus 1893-1926 published by Leonard
and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press in 1928.
The Index contained 4,739 references assembled by
Rickman.  
32
An advertisement for a course of lectures on
Psycho-Analytic Contributions to Psychiatry given
by John Rickman in 1928 at the Institute of
Psycho-Analysis.  
33
Photograph of John Rickman and his wife Lydia
with their infant daughter Lucy.
34
Photograph of Sandor Ferenczi inscribed by
Ferenczi to Rickman 21 August 1926.
35
John Rickman in Budapest with Ferenczi   In 1928
Rickman decided to go to Hungary to have some
analysis with Ferenczi, as he felt that he still
needed help with certain problems, related
perhaps to past traumas, which were still causing
him distress. This decision was much to the
disappointment of Jones who had come to rely on
his support in administrative matters. While they
kept in touch through correspondence, in his
letters Jones kept asking when they could expect
his return. John Rickman returned to London
for the Oxford Congress of the International
Psychoanalytical Association in July 1929. On his
return to Budapest he received a letter from Miss
Mary Chadwick (dated 6/9/29), who was a nurse as
well as a psychoanalyst, expressing the
unhappiness among non-medical members, who were
not permitted to treat their patients in the
London Clinic of Psychoanalysis, as this right
was restricted to medically qualified members and
associate members. She expressed her concerns
about his health. I hope very much that things
have been going better with you, for I have felt
great sympathy with you in the difficult time you
must have been passing through. Remember me to
Ferenczi Letters were exchanged between Ernest
Jones and Rickman discussing possible changes in
the committee structure of the Board and Council
and Clinic. This resulted in Rickman writing a
very angry five page letter to Jones dated
19/9/29 from Baden-Baden, in which he summed up
all the administrative things that he felt were
going wrong in the British Society and spelt out
what the Society meant to him and what he had
done for it. Did he fear that its structure was
really disintegrating or is this what Rickman
feared would happen to the Society that he
loved without him in London to look after it?
It is clear that much of his intellectual and
emotional energy, as well as his money, had gone
into caring for it and planning its future. Could
his letter to Jones also express what he feared
was happening to his own psyche or inner world?
Rickmans money ran out abruptly when he was in
Budapest, where he was earning very little with
only one or two patients, paying for his own
analysis and living in an expensive hotel.
Towards the end of 1930, Rickman decided to
return to London, and they moved back into their
house in Kent Terrace. John saw patients in the
house, instead of renting a consulting room.
36
A letter from Mary Chadwick to John Rickman in
Budapest where he was in analysis with Ferenczi,
6 September 1929, setting out her disquiet about
the structure of the Institute and Clinic and the
position of lay analysts in relation to the
Clinic.  
37
Back in London and Impending War   When John
Rickman returned to London he was faced with the
changes that had taken place in the structure of
the Institute and the Society while he was away.
On June 23rd 1930, he tendered his resignation
from the Council and the Training Committee. By
1930 Rickman had removed himself from all major
Committees in the Society and Institute. In
October 1932 he did, however, agree to convene a
new Public Lectures Sub-Committee. This gave him
a new role in the Society. A little later
Rickman became the Editor of a small Book Series
called Psychoanalytical Epitomes Numbers 1 to
6. The first book which he edited was entitled A
General Selection from the Works of Sigmund Freud
(1937). The fourth book was Civilization, War and
Death selections from three works by Sigmund
Freud (1939), edited by John Rickman. When
Hitler was elected as Chancellor of Germany in
1933, it was clear to Rickman and his colleagues
that the lives of their Jewish colleagues would
soon be in danger, and they would certainly not
be permitted to work as psychoanalysts. Ernest
Jones wrote to Eitingon, the President of the
Berlin Society, to offer to help any of the
Jewish psychoanalysts who felt threatened, and he
invited them to come to London. The two analysts
who first accepted his invitation were Paula
Heimann and Kate Misch (Friedlander). In the
next two or three years the British Society
welcomed other analysts from Germany. By the
beginning of 1938 it was clear that Hitler would
invade Austria, which he did in March 1938. Now
the life and liberty of Freud, his family and
colleagues were in danger. Jones worked
untiringly to find new homes for them. Rickman
decided to visit Freud to see how he could help.
He was asked by the Board to collect information
concerning the younger members or Associates and
Candidates connected with the Vienna Society and
Institute. Rickman brought with him to freedom
the Hoffers, the Krises and the Bibrings who
stayed with him at his home at 11 Kent
Terrace. Jones was responsible for the
negotiations to receive the emigres in England,
and on June 6th 1938 Freud and his family and
friends arrived in England. This was followed by
the immigration of other psychoanalysts from
Austria or other parts of Europe.
38
The title-page of Psycho-Analytical Epitomes No.
1 A General Selection from the Works of Sigmund
Freud edited by John Rickman and published by
Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press
in 1937.  
39
A permit for John Rickmans trip to Vienna dated
18 April 1938. Rickman brought with him to
freedom the Hoffers, the Krises and the Bibrings
who stayed with him at his home at 11 Kent
Terrace.
40
An envelope addressed to John Rickman at 11 Kent
Terrace, in Freuds hand and post-marked 14 June
1938.
41
Photograph of the dinner held 8 March 1939 to
celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding a
Psychoanalytical Society in Britain, taken before
the start of the meal. Almost all the émigrés
who had settled or were in transit attended,
including the Hoffers, the Krises and the
Bibrings.
42
The seating-plan for the 1939 dinner. John
Rickman and Mrs Rickman are on table A.
43
Rickmans Work on the British Journal of Medical
Psychology and The Lancet   From 1922 to 1930
John Rickman was the Hon. Secretary of the
Medical Section of the British Psychological
Society, as well as being Assistant Editor of its
Journal from 1925 (until 1934). These two offices
he had carried on while he was in analysis with
Ferenczi in Budapest. In 1933 he took over being
Hon. Secretary again for one year, during which
period he put together in a form which he
published in the British Journal of Medical
Psychology, the Proceedings of the Medical
Section of the British Psychological Society from
the first meeting on May 14th 1919 to the end of
1933. The last event that he arranged as
secretary was a Symposium on December 13th1933
opened by Edward Glover and Maurice Ginsburg on
The Psychology of Peace and War. Rickman began
the discussion. In 1934 he was elected as the
next Chairman of the Medical Section and read his
paper On Quacks and Quackery. The following
year he became Editor of the Journal, continuing
until 1949. The Assistant Editor of The Lancet,
T. F. Fox, was a friend of John Rickman and also
a Quaker, and he was concerned how to help his
readers to understand and to think constructively
about the situation in Europe. He approached John
Rickman with the suggestion that he could
sometimes write The Lancets Editorials, as an
anonymous contributor, and comment on these
events. He could use his psychoanalytical and
clinical understanding to help his readers to
think about what they were experiencing, as
Rickman could put these events in a wider
context. Rickmans first editorial was The
cathartic function of General Elections in The
Lancet of November 11th 1935. Rickmans next
editorial for The Lancet was on February 21st
1936, entitled On feeling secure, and it is a
good example of the way he does not deny the
worrying political situation, but he uses his
clinical skill and his understanding of
aggressive impulses to demonstrate how human
beings can survive and deal with fears that
arise. He continued to write for The Lancet
until 1948, both anonymously and under his own
name. His pieces included A peace of
understanding published 2 September 1939, on the
eve of war and First Fruits of Peace published
5 May 1945.
44
The title-page of The Medical Section of the
British Psychological Society by John Rickman,
first published 1938.  
45
Photograph of Egbert Morland, editor of The
Lancet.
46
A letter from T.F. Fox of The Lancet 19 May 1944
asking John Rickman to contribute and looking
back to Rickmans contribution on the eve of war.
47
Photograph of T.F. Fox.
48
John Rickmans Lancet article A Peace of
Understanding published 2 September 1939.  
49
John Rickmans Lancet article First Fruits of
Peace published 5 May 1945.
50
The War Years (I)   Prior to the outbreak of war
John Rickman had been in the forefront of
organising contact with other professional
groups, attempting to engage their support and
understanding in the task of preparing them to
meet and deal with the problems that war would
confront them with as professionals. On the day
that Poland was invaded he joined the Emergency
Medical Service (EMS) as a psychiatrist at
Haymeads Emergency Hospital, Bishops Stortford.
When he started working at Haymeads EMS Hospital,
and was later transferred to Wharncliffe EMS
Hospital, he was working as a civilian
psychiatrist, even though his patients could
increasingly be military personnel. But it was
soon evident to him, that those psychiatrists who
shared his ways of thinking were mostly in the
RAMC. J.R. Rees, the Director of the Tavistock
Clinic, was appointed Consultant Psychiatrist to
the Army. He appointed a number of colleagues
who had worked with him at the Tavistock Clinic,
and others who had a psychodynamic approach to
psychiatry, as advisors to each of the army
Commands in Britain. They were referred to as
Command Psychiatrists. W. R. Bion, a former
tank Officer who had won the DSO in the First
World War, who had worked at the Tavistock Clinic
and was about to start his training as a
psychoanalyst, was appointed a Command
Psychiatrist to the Western Command. Ferguson
Roger was appointed Command Psychiatrist to
Scottish Command, and Ronald Hargreaves to
Northern Command. While he was at Haymeads,
Rickman was given the task of visiting the EMS
Hospitals in his area to discuss with them their
plans for the care and treatment of patients with
war neurosis. At this time he also heard that
Melanie Klein and Susan Isaacs had gone to
Cambridge, not far from Bishops Stortford. Susan
Isaacs had been officially asked to get together
a group of those concerned with the evacuation of
children in order to monitor its effect on the
children. In October 1939 she asked Rickman to
chair a meeting in Cambridge to which Susan had
invited 14 people including Melanie Klein, Donald
Winnicott, and John Bowlby. As soon as he
arrived at Haymeads Hospital, Rickman produced a
draft of his proposals of how to deal with
military patients who were referred to this
hospital. This was called The Haymeads
Memorandum. In this memorandum, dated September
6th 1939, Rickman formulated a new policy for
dealing with psychiatric patients from the
Services, in terms that made sense to medical
and lay personnel.
51
Photograph of John Rickman in uniform.
52
An extract from the carbon-copy of John
Rickmans minutes, dated 16 October 1939, of a
meeting held at Susan Isaacss flat in Cambridge
to discuss aspects of the problems of evacuating
children, together with photographs of some of
the participants Susan Isaacs, D.W. Winnicott,
John Bowlby and Melanie Klein.
53
Article from The Daily Mirror 22 February 1940 on
the childrens ward at Haymeads Hospital,
carefully preserved together with press
photographs by John Rickman.
54
Memorandum on Psycho-therapy Dept, Haymeads
Institution by John Rickman, 6 September 1939.  
55
The War Years (II)   In the memorandum Rickman
particularly emphasised that as a patient may
well have been traumatised by his war experiences
and feel rejected by his Unit he should be
actively helped to a life of work and
productiveness in order to restore his morale
and self respect, in addition to receiving help
with his neurotic anxieties. He recommended that
an Occupational Therapy Centre be set up
outside the Hospital, serving as a transition
between illness and normal life, to provide
meaningful activities so that the patients
energy was turned outwards to work and normal
life (not inwards to neurotic brooding) Rickman
took his plans with him to Wharncliffe EMS
Hospital near Sheffield when he was posted there
on August 23rd 1940. Here he got enthusiastic
backing and encouragement from Ronald Hargreaves,
the Command Psychiatrist, so that he was soon
able to develop the plans that he had begun
working on at Haymeads Hospital. He felt that in
addition to suffering a psychiatric breakdown,
the patients from the Services would have lost
their role in the Forces, and if that they had
felt strongly about the reasons for the war, they
would also feel useless and displaced. Hence he
devised a para-military Rehabilitation and
Training Centre offering para-military training
facilities alongside psychological care. The
fame of Rickmans work at Wharncliffe spread and
many people came to see it. One such person was
Wilfred Bion. In April 1942 Rickman joined the
RAMC and was subsequently posted as Major Rickman
to Northfield Military Hospital as Training
Officer for the Psychiatric Trainees. His task
was to help them to acquire some understanding of
psycho-dynamic ways of thinking, so that they
could understand and help their patients. After
Rickman had been at Northfield for 5 or 6 months,
Bion asked for a transfer to join him there so
that they could start working on the ideas that
they put together in the Wharncliffe Memorandum.
Towards the end of 1942, Bion was appointed in
charge of the Training Wing in Northfield
Hospital, with Rickman, who was already concerned
with the training of psychiatrists, to work with
him. Bion used his experience with leaderless
WOSB groups to run large leaderless groups,
during which he concentrated on confronting the
patients with their responsibility for
intra-group tensions rather than on the
individual persons reaction or emotional state.
The therapeutic task was clearly identified as
developing group membership skills, which would
enable the men to adapt to any community
afterwards.
56
John Rickmans handwritten calendar for The
Monday Discussions at Wharnecliffe Hospital, 26
August 1941.  
57
Letter from Bion to John Rickman, 9 January 1941,
thanking him for hospitality at Wharnecliffe
Hospital.
58
The War Years (III)   The experiment ended
suddenly. After only six weeks Bion and Rickman
were given 48 hours notice to leave Northfield
and to report to other postings Bion to No.7
War Officer Selection Board (WOSB), Winchester
and Rickman to No. 6 WOSB at Brockham Park in
Surrey not far from Dorking where he grew up.
They put together their report of the experiment,
which was published in The Lancet under the
title Intra-Group tensions in Therapy - their
study as the task of the group on November 27th
1943. When Major Rickman was posted to No. 6
WOSB his work changed and with it his role as a
psychiatrist. He was not so much a healer
concerned with mentally ill or stressed patients
but was called on to use his knowledge of people
and psychology to help his military colleagues to
select officers. In his previous positions in
the EMS and the army, he had been able to have
ideas, and obtain encouragement and even
authority to carry them out, but at No.6 WOSB he
was part of a core management group, each member
of which had a carefully defined role in the two
and a half day programme of activities that the
applicants followed. It was during this period
that the Shell film Unit came to No. 6 War Office
Selection Board to make a film of its activities.
The various Officers took the same roles in the
film that they did when they were working as a
regular WOSB. Thus John Rickman, the psychiatrist
took his usual role of Psychiatrist to the
Board. and Col. Newman was the President in the
film. Eventually, Rickman endured an impossible
work situation. On 13th July 1944, he wrote
officially to Ferguson Roger at the Research and
Training Centre which was responsible for
allocating WOSB psychiatrists to WOSBs. From
this letter it must have been clear that Rickman
was not well. He received a detailed reply to his
letter, on 5th August 1944 from the O.T.C. signed
by Jock Sutherland. Jock was glad that he was
getting his troubles properly attended to
described the arrangements that he had made to
relieve Rickman of much of the work that he
complained about, until he felt better. In the
event Rickman was invalided out of the Army to a
chorus of letters expressing thanks, admiration
and concern.
59
The front page of a pamphlet publication of Bion
and Rickmans Intra-Group Tensions in Therapy
Their Study as the Task of the Group, first
published in The Lancet 27 November 1943.    
60
A letter from Ronald Hargreaves to John
Rickman, 4 October 1943, congratulating him on
his and Bions paper Intra-Group Tensions in
Therapy.
61
Photograph of Wilfred Bion
62
Letter from Bion to Mrs Rickman, 1 February
1943, remarking on Rickmans departure from
Northfields.
63
Letter from Bion to John Rickman, 7 March 1943
wishing Rickman a good leave and time to
clarify some ideas.
64
Photograph of John Rickman and Mrs Rickman
with Melanie Klein on an unknown occasion.
65
Photograph of John Rickman in uniform.
66
A covering note from John Rickman sent with
his Memorandum on the Preparation for
Spontaneous Acting in a Documentary Film.
Rickman had performed in a film made by the Shell
Film Unit on the work of the War Office Selection
Board.
67
Photograph of John Rickman conducting an
interview.  
68
Photograph of John Rickman in uniform.
69
John Rickmans letter, 13 July 1944, to Lt
Colonel T. Ferguson-Rodger setting out the
pressure of work that he was under.
70
Letter from J.R. Rees to John Rickman, 5
September 1944, expressing concern about
Rickmans health.
71
Extract from John Rickmans Memorandum on the
Preparation for Spontaneous Acting in a
Documentary Film describing his interview
technique.  
72
Photograph of John Rickman in uniform
73
Letter from Bion to John Rickman, 7 December
1944, reflecting on Rickmans influence on his
own and others work.  
74
Photograph of John Rickman conducting an
interview.
75
Letter from Colonel Newman to John Rickman,
23 December 1944, expressing his appreciation.
76
Letter from J. E. Newcome to John Rickman, 1
January 1944 commenting on how much Rickman was
missed.
77
Letter from Clifford Scott to John Rickman, 7
February 1945, expressing his concern that
Rickman should settle to a suitable pace.  
78
Photograph of Clifford Scott.
79
An Invitation to Work at the Menninger
Clinic     On January 13th 1945, Brig. J.R. Rees
received the following cable from Robert P.
Knight of the Menninger Clinic, Topeka VERY
INTERESTED HAVING RICKMAN COME TOPEKA AS TRAINING
ANALYST AND RESEARCHER PROVIDED HE COULD STAY AT
LEAST A YEAR COULD OFFER DLRS 8000 SALARY FIRST
YEAR PLEASE CONVEY THIS TO HIM AND HAVE HIM CABLE
REPLY STATING WHEN HE COULD COME IF HE THINKS
FAVORABLY OF IDEA As Brig. J.R. Rees was away,
Brig. Sandiford sent the cable to John Rickman
with the comment, Sounds good to me! There
followed a series of cables across the Atlantic
in which Rickman attempted unsuccessfully to
secure transport for himself and his wife until
eventually he had to withdraw his acceptance. He
would clearly have liked to have joined the
Menninger, though he had to allay suspicions that
he was the leader of the Klein Section. In
so doing he clarified in a long letter to Knight
what it meant for him to be an Independent and
the fundamentals of psychoanalytic work Anyone
working on the basis of transference and
resistance and taking full cognisance of
infantile sexuality I am ready to call a
psychoanalytical colleague and work with him on
the basis of a vast common ground of discourse.
His letter shows that he was obviously not a
missionary for anyone elses point of view. He
was looking forward to the experience of teaching
in another context and from various comments that
he made he was hoping to meet some of the
American social scientists such as Kurt Lewin.
Rickman was particularly interested in Lewins
concept of Field Theory and the Influence of the
Social Field on the individual when used in
conjunction with Object Relations theory. The
Americans in their turn were interested in
Rickmans ideas. In April 1945, a Commission of
five American Psychiatrists, amongst them
Lawrence Kubie and Karl Menninger, were sent to
England to study psychiatric techniques and
programmes as developed in the British War
Department. They fell in love with England and
its people, and they were most impressed with the
work that had developed in the so-called
Northfield Experiments initiated by Bion and
Rickman in 1943. Karl Menninger asked Lieut. Col.
Ronald Hargreaves to obtain manuscripts from
those who had been working in Northfield Military
Hospital.
80
Letter from John Rickman to Brigadier Sandiford,
7 February 1945, thanking him for forwarding a
cable from the Menninger Clinic inviting Rickman
to work there and telling him that he has decided
to accept.  
81
Western Union Cablegram 13 January 1945 from
Robert Knight of the Menninger Clinic to J.R.
Rees expressing interest in Rickman going to the
Menninger as training analyst and researcher.
82
Letter from John Rickman to Robert Knight, 27
January 1945 recording his interest in going to
the Menninger and commenting on his health and
professional commitments.
83
Cable from John Rickman to Robert Knight, 3
February 1945, accepting the invitation to the
Menninger providing that transport is available.
84
Western Union Cablegram from Robert Knight to
John Rickman, 13 February 1945, expressing
pleasure at Rickmans acceptance.
85
Western Union Cablegram from Robert Knight to
John Rickman, 4 March 1945, asking whether it is
true that Rickman is leader of the Klein
faction in the Controversial Discussions.
86
Photograph of Melanie Klein who was Rickmans
third analyst.
87
Cable from John Rickman to Robert Knight, 5
March, 1945, clarifying that he is interested in
integration which depends on being undogmatic.
88
Western Union Cablegram from Frank Aydelotte
to John Rickman, 20 March 1945 regretting that no
help with transport available.
89
Cable from John Rickman to Robert Knight in which
Rickman withdraws from the proposed visit to the
Menninger.  
90
Letter from John Rickman to Robert Knight
explaining his withdrawal.
91
Activities of British Psychoanalysts During
the Second World War and the Influence of their
Inter Disciplinary Collaboration on the
Development of Psychoanalysis in Great
Britain During the year following the end of
hostilities in Europe, the psychological
fraternity gradually began to meet each other as
civilians and to discuss how they could use some
of the skills that enabled them to help their
army colleagues, to help 'Society' to understand
peace and its problems. A number of those who had
been responsible for designing and facilitating
the WOSBs, decided to set up alongside the
Tavistock Clinic, the Tavistock Institute of
Human Relations, among whom were John Rickman,
Jock Sutherland, Eric Trist, Tommy Wilson, Harold
Bridger and John Bowlby. There were others who
like Pearl King were members of the British
Psychological Society, and of its Medical Section
who decided to join the Social Psychology Section
of the BPS as an appropriate setting within which
they could discuss how they could work
together. After hostilities ended the Allies set
up a Control Commission responsible for dealing
with the state that Germany and her Allies were
in, and for rounding up those responsible for the
atrocities that had been committed during the
war. They also set up a German Personnel Research
Branch of the Control Commission. British
Psychiatrists and Social Scientists were asked to
take part in interviewing leading intellectuals
in order to select those who had not been damaged
by Nazi ideals and who could be invited to take
leading roles in re-claiming Germany and her
Allies. Rickman visited Berlin on 14th 15th
October 1946, describing his reasons as follows
"To find out whether among the leading members of
the German Psychoanalytical Society there might
be any who might be suitable as assistants to the
personnel of G.P.R.B." "To discuss what
influence, if any, twelve years of the Nazi
regime had on the personnel working in a special
branch of the psychological field, both in
respect of the development and enrichment of
theoretical concepts and in respect of the
capacity of co-operating with others in the same
field but using different methods." "To establish
contact again with German citizens engaged in the
same line of Scientific Research, in order to
ascertain whether there were ideas which might be
usefully imported into England".
92
Group photograph showing from left in a clockwise
direction Eric Trist, John Rickman, John Bowlby,
Ben Morris, ?, and Jock Sutherland outside the
Tavistock.
93
Further Collaborations   After the war pressure
was put on a number of international bodies to
facilitate the setting up of research into
factors that lead to wars between States or could
prevent them occurring. At the second meeting of
the UNESCO General Assembly in 1947 a study of
'Tensions Affecting International Understanding'
was proposed in order to encourage social
scientists to focus 'on an understanding of the
development and perpetuation of attitudes which
make for national aggression' Hadley Cantril
agreed to take responsibility for organising the
Conference, and in July 1948 he invited eight
international social scientists, including John
Rickman, to meet together in Paris. The
Proceedings were published in 1950 edited by
Cantril, under the title Tensions that cause
Wars. In his Introduction Cantril writes "The
day before the meeting, John Rickman suggested
'that we spend our first morning going around the
table with each man indicating briefly the story
of his life, the influences he thought had
determined his point of view and his interests,
together with an implicit evaluation of his own
qualifications for being a member of this
particular group.' We had a fascinating and
revealing three-hour session that first morning.
And it was a tremendous time saver. For we became
sufficiently acquainted so that in subsequent
discussions we had enough insight into the other
fellow to have a fair idea of why he was saying
the things he was". Rickman was very aware of
the need for appropriate institutions to offer
specialist services, and he himself supported the
development of three Institutions which he felt
had socio-psychological functions in the
community alongside the work done by the
Psychoanalytical Society (i) the Tavistock
Clinic (on whose newly constituted Council
Rickman agreed to serve) which provided
psychotherapy for children and adults, (ii) the
Cassel Hospital under Tom Main which was
developing the provision of psychoanalytic
therapy for in-patients (iii) the Tavistock
Institute of Human Relations whose members tried
to apply what they had learned from
psychoanalysis and from working together during
the war to helping sick institutions to become
healthy. They linked with Kurt Lewin's Research
Centre for Group Dynamics, in Cambridge, Mass. to
produce a journal, Human Relations. Close to
retirement as the editor of the British Journal
Rickman was an enthusiastic member of the
Editorial Board.
94
The title-page of Tensions that Cause Wars (1950)
, ed. Hadley Cantril. Urbana University of
Illinois Press.  
95
Front cover of the journal Human Relations A
Quarterly Journal of Studies towards the
Integration of the Social Sciences. Vol 1 Number
3 1948.
96
Photograph of Kurt Lewin headed the Research
Center for Group Dynamics at Ann Arbor, Michigan
which co-published Human Relations with the
Tavistock Institute of Human Relations. Rickman
drew significantly on Lewins work.
97
The Editorial Committee and Contents page of
Human Relations Vol 1 Number 3 1948. Amongst the
papers is Part II of Pearl Kings Task
Perception and Inter-personal Relations in
Industrial Training.
98
John Rickmans final editorial for the
British Journal of Medical Psychology (1949).
Rickman was Assistant Editor from 1925-1934 and
Editor from 1935-1949.
99
Photograph of John Rickman
100
The Editing of John Rickmans Papers   John
Rickman died suddenly on 1 July 1951. In 1957
Selected Contributions to Psycho-Analysis by John
Rickman appeared with an introductory memoir by
his long-time colleague Sylvia Payne. Its
editor, Clifford Scott announced in his
Editorial Note This volume contains Dr.
Rickman's published papers on psycho-analysis.
Students of social psychology will be glad to
learn that another volume is in preparation which
will include his unpublished papers and most of
his papers on applied psychoanalysis. The second
volume is to be published by Tavistock
Publications under the editorship of Miss Pearl
King and Mr. Masud Khan, who have also assisted
with the present volume. The original work of
selecting papers for the present volume was
carried out by Dr. Clifford Scott and subsequent
editorial work has been done by Mrs. Rickman,
Mrs. Baruch (Lucy Rickman), and by Dr. J. D.
Sutherland.   No Ordinary Psychoanalyst The
Exceptional Contributions of John Rickman
compiled and edited by Pearl King is that second
volume. It is first and foremost a tribute to
John Rickman but in its own way it is also
secondarily a tribute to the Archives of the
British Psychoanalytical Society on which Miss
King has drawn, not only for its contents but for
her biographical introduction. Rickmans
letters, housed in the Archives, have provided
the basic material of that biography. Without the
meticulous cataloguing of Rickmans papers and
the retrieval system of the Archives database it
would have been difficult to pull together No
Ordinary Psychoanalyst as Pearl King has so
effectively done. This is in no way to diminish
her achievement for it was she who as the first
Honorary Archivist of the British Society
developed the Archives as they are today, put in
place the database and persuaded enthusiastic
colleagues to help with the massive task of
cataloguing at a level of detail which is a joy
for users of the Archives. In this way this
second volume of Rickmans papers is a tribute to
Pearl King, too. Without her own work as
Honorary Archivist her task would have been
immeasurably more difficult.
101
Dust cover of John Rickman (1957) Selected
Contributions to Psycho-Analysis, ed. Clifford
Scott. London Hogarth Press and the Institute of
Psycho-Analysis. Sylvia Payne provided a
Foreword.
102
Pearl Kings foreword to the reissue of John
Rickman (1957) Selected Contributions to
Psycho-Analysis A Note from the Editor of No
Ordinary Psychoanalyst The Exceptional
Contributions of John Rickman. A Note from the
Editor of No Ordinary Psychoanalyst the
Exceptional Contributions of John Rickman Pearl
King John Rickman was probably one of the
most experienced editors I was ever likely to
meet. He was insistent that writers should not
only concentrate on the people or events that
they were reporting, but that they should also
describe the context in which they functioned and
their relationship to other sources of relevant
knowledge. He emphasized, too, that they should
realize that as the observer they were also part
of the picture. In this spirit let
me sketch in the context of how I come to writing
a preface to this most welcome re-issue of Dr
Rickmans Selected Contributions to
Psychoanalysis. At the 42nd Congress of the
International Psychoanalytical Association in
Nice, I was presented by colleagues with a
Festschrift entitled Within Time and Beyond Time
(published by Karnac Books) to mark my 80th
Birthday. After I had returned to London from
France, I was approached by Oliver Rathbone of
Karnac Books, who offered me a contract for an
edition of unpublished papers by Dr. John
Rickman. He had been encouraged to do so by a
friend of mine who knew that continued
103
I had been engaged over a number of years in
compiling and editing Rickmans papers. (My
colleague Masud Khan had helped with the original
selection of papers. I then did most of the
editorial work on the papers, helped by an
occasional consultation with Masud.) As well as
completing this editorial task, I would be
expected to accompany it with a scholarly
contribution on the life and works of John
Rickman. In considering whether or not I could
take on this task at my age, I knew that in
addition to information that I had collected
about John Rickman, the Archives of the British
Society had a collection of 700 letters
between him and other people, together with much
information of his work on the main committees of
the Society and Institute, some of which was
accessible on our computerized retrieval system.
I also knew that Rickmans daughter, Mrs Lucy
Rickman Baruch and her analyst husband were still
in good health and that they would help me with
information about her father. After some
thought and discussion I agreed to accept this
offer, and went on to discuss the relation of
this new book to the collection of Rickmans
papers, published in 1957, entitled Selected
Contributions to Psychoanalysis, but which had
been unobtainable for some years. Karnac agreed
that they would reprint Selected Contributions to
Psychoanalysis at the same time with the
publication of the collection of Rickmans
unpublished papers edited by me. Hence the copy
you hold in your hand today. The wide variety
of topics included in both books indicates
Rickmans extensive range of interests and his
inter-disciplinary contacts. The reader may, as
it were, listen-in to Rickmans attempts to
understand and throw light on problems met with
by many different professional groups including
Psychoanalysts, Psychologists, Anthropologists,
General Practitioners, the War Office Selection
Boards, Teachers and followers of various
religions including the Shamans and the Quakers,
whose teachings were part of John Rickmans
background. Looked at in this way, the two
volumes provide an important context for each
other. continued
104
  Having completed the research work that I
had to do in the archives and elsewhere in order
to rediscover John Rickman for myself, I
realised that if I had learnt anything from John
Rickman, he would have expected me to describe
not only what he did during his life, but also to
give equal value to the various contexts within
which he lived and worked. This I have also
tried to do, in my Introduction to his papers in
my book, No Ordinary Psychoanalyst, under the
title of The Rediscovery of John Rickman and his
Work. In the course of this Introduction, the
reader may also rediscover John Rickman, as I had
to do, as they consider John Rickmans life
events and their influence on his writing and
thinking. It therefore stands, as it were, as
an Introduction for the two volumes taken as a
whole.   Pearl King. (July 2003)
105
Photograph of Sylvia Payne who contributed the
Obituary for John Rickman to the International
Journal of Psycho-Analysis.
106
Photograph of Masud Khan who initially worked
with Pearl King on Rickmans papers.
107
Photograph of Pearl King taken in 1985 at the
Hamburg Congress.