Robin Skynner’s Followers (18)

Robin Skynner

Born

in Charlestown, St Austell, Cornwall, The United Kingdom

July 16, 1922

Died

September 01, 2000

Genre

Psychology, Health, Mind & Body

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Robin Skynner was a Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot who flew the Mosquito twin-engined bomber, and was also a psychiatric pioneer and innovator in the field of treating mental illness. Trained in Group Analysis and working as a child psychiatrist, and a family therapist, he employed group-analytic principles in that therapeutic modality. He was a gifted teacher and practitioner of psychotherapy with individuals, groups, families, couples and institutions. He was also a prolific writer.

Robin Skynner will be remembered for his prolific writing; he authored One Flesh: Separate Persons, Principles of Family and Marital Psychotherapy (1976), Explorations with Families: Group-Analysis and Family Therapy (1987), Institutes and How to Survive Them: Men Robin Skynner was a Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot who flew the Mosquito twin-engined bomber, and was also a psychiatric pioneer and innovator in the field of treating mental illness. Trained in Group Analysis and working as a child psychiatrist, and a family therapist, he employed group-analytic principles in that therapeutic modality. He was a gifted teacher and practitioner of psychotherapy with individuals, groups, families, couples and institutions. He was also a prolific writer.

Robin Skynner will be remembered for his prolific writing; he authored One Flesh: Separate Persons, Principles of Family and Marital Psychotherapy (1976), Explorations with Families: Group-Analysis and Family Therapy (1987), Institutes and How to Survive Them: Mental Health Training and Consultation (1989), Family Matters (1995), Families and How to Survive Them (1975), and Life and How to Survive It.

He was educated at St Austell County School and at Blundell's School, after which, at the age of 18, he volunteered for the Royal Air Force (RAF), and was selected as a prospective bomber pilot. He was adversely affected by the shared destruction and slaughter he was obliged to carry out, an experience that, for a variety of complex reasons, drew him to psychiatry as an eventual vocation.

To this end, after demobilisation from RAF service, he enrolled as a student at University College Hospital and qualified MB, BS (Lond) in 1952. He then began his psychiatric training, and in 1957, he passed the Diploma of Psychological Medicine. In 1971, he was elected MRCPsych, proceeding FRCPsych in 1976. He was successively the Director of the Woodberry Down Child Guidance Unit, Physician-in Charge of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children, Senior Tutor in Psychotherapy at the Institute of Psychiatry and Honorary Associate Consultant at the Maudsley Hospital.

Dr Foulkes, a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, was one of the founders of group analysis in Britain, a group approach developed out of Foulkes's treatment of war victims in Northfield Hospital, Birmingham. Foulkes was a pioneer, and quickly attracted the attention of others keen to change the way mental health patients were dealt with. Skynner was intrigued by Foulkes, and by the early stages of the Therapeutic community movement, which was beginning to gather strength. He became Foulkes's pupil and later his patient in a group; Robin Skynner would readily admit he needed treatment himself. In 1959, Skynner, together with fellow disciples of Dr Foulkes, founded the Group Analytic Practice, which specialises in group, family and marital therapy. A logical development was the emergence of the Institute of Group Analysis for the specific purpose of giving training in group therapy. However, it was Skynner himself who in 1977 founded the Institute of Family Therapy and chaired it for the next 2 years.

He subsequently worked with adults and children of an unusually wide range of socio-economic status, from the poorest districts of the East End of London to private practice. His chief interest was the practice and teaching of psychotherapy, with individuals, groups, families, couples and institutions. The important posts he successfully filled were senior tutor (psychotherapy) at the Institute of Psychiatry, honorary assistant consultant psychiatrist at Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospital and physician in charge of the Department of Psychiatry at Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children, London. He was a founder of the Group-Analytic Practice and of the Institute of Group-Analysis, and a founder and first chairman of the Institute of Family Therapy, London. ...more

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Robin Skynner’s books

Average rating: 3.99 · 1,705 ratings · 151 reviews · 11 distinct works • Similar authors

	Families and How To Survive Them by Robin Skynner, John Cleese 3.93 avg rating — 1,372 ratings — published 1983 — 55 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Life and How To Survive It by Robin Skynner, John Cleese 4.12 avg rating — 437 ratings — published 1993 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Żyć w rodzinie i przetrwać by Robin Skynner, John Cleese 4.27 avg rating — 15 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Family Matters 4.25 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 1995 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	One Flesh, Separate Persons by Robin Skynner, A.C.R. Skynner really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1976 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Therapy with Couples: A Behavioural-Systems Approach to Couple Relationship and Sexual Problems by Michael Crowe, Robin Skynner (Editor), Jane Ridley (Editor) 3.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1991 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Żyć w rodzinie i przetrwać by Robin Skynner, John Cleese it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Living with the Legacy of Abuse: How to Make Your Relationship Work When Your Partner Is a Survivor of Childhood Sexual Abuse by Beverly Engels, Robin Skynner, Valerie Sinason it was ok 2.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Kako pre 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Royal Families and How to Survive 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Robin Skynner (?)

“If people can't control their own emotions, then they have to start trying to control other people's behavior.”
― Robin Skynner

56 likes

“The healthier people are, the more they are willing to admit to their limitations and so the more open they are to the possibility of improvement.”
― Robin Skynner, Life and How to Survive It

tags: psychology

18 likes

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Robin Skynner’s Followers (18)

Robin Skynner

Combine EditionsRobin Skynner’s books

Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
Robin Skynner’s books