Sir Nicholas Hardwick Fairbairn (1933-1995)

William Ronald Dodds Fairbairn (1889-1964) was a pioneering psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He studied Philosophy from the University in 1911 and went on to work in the Psychology department. He served in the army during World War I and in 1915 he visited Craiglockhart, where W. H. R. Rivers was pioneering psychotherapeutic work with shell-shock victims. By the end of the war he had decided to become a psychotherapist. His work has recently started to attract considerable attention, particularly his sensitive studies of child abuse.

His library of about 400 books was presented to the Psychiatry Library by his son, Nicholas H. Fairbairn, QC, MP, and subsequently passed to Special Collections. The collection includes many key texts from the golden age of early 20th century psychiatry, some with annotations.