Reconstructing the eclectic psychiatry of Thomas Ferguson Rodger

Abstract

This article provides an introduction to the approach of the Scottish psychiatrist Thomas Ferguson Rodger (1907-78), as reconstructed from his archive. Rodger's contribution has been largely neglected within the history of Scottish psychiatry. This paper amends this neglect through situating Rodger's eclecticism in relation to both the biopsychosocial approach of his mentors, Adolf Meyer and David Henderson, and psychiatry's de-institutionalization in the 1950s and 1960s. It is posited that Rodger's eclecticism was a considered response to the pressures of this transitional phase to balance physical, psychological and social approaches, and a critical acknowledgement of the instability of contemporary psychiatric therapeutics. More psychodynamic than his predecessors, the importance of social relations for Rodger led him to acknowledge psychiatry's limitations.

A ‘commonsense’ psychoanalysis: Listening to the psychosocial dreamer in interwar Glasgow psychiatry

“…Responding to Sarah Marks' call to explore 'how' different forms of psychotherapy have evolved in contrasting cultures, regions and historical times (Marks, 2017b: 4), largely echoed in editorials by Loewenthal (2018) and Shamdasani (2018), this article excavates the development of Rodger's NHS psychotherapeutic values. Furthermore, although Rodger's significance to Scottish psychoanalysis has been signalled by Davidson (2009), Beveridge (2011), Miller (2012) and Phelan (2017), this research comprehensively elucidates the environmental and social leanings of his psychodynamic practice. Scrutinising the illuminating fourth dream book alongside lecture material, it unearths a subterranean and hybrid history at the intersection of psychoanalysis and a 'commonsense' psychotherapy.…”

“…For example, in one lecture, he apparently traversed Freud, Klein and Karl Abraham in his analytically-inflected psychiatric case histories without comment. 7 Rodger held no one theory as eternal truth, but rather employed psychoanalysis instrumentally and hermeneutically to reveal the hidden depths and dynamics of case material, anticipating his post-war 'eclectic' approach (Phelan, 2017;87). While admittedly this bricoleur's approach of drawing on different theoretical models might not have worked for some practitioners, Rodger apparently found a lack of dogmatism useful throughout his career.…”