Social fields, battle fields and Northfield: The legacy of the ‘Northfield Experiments’

Abstract

The ‘Northfield Experiments’ have an almost legendary status in the evolution of therapeutic communities. However their actual influence is nebulous and difficult to trace precisely, not least because which practices there were innovatory is unclear. This article begins to tease out those elements that were both novel and had subsequent impact on group therapy and in particular on therapeutic community practice. They included changes in staff functions from the traditional nursing role, the shift in the patient purpose from passive receiver of therapy to active participant in his own treatment and of others and the development of group work from individual treatment in the group setting to reviewing the here and now processes occurring in relationships. The history of one particular institution, the Ingrebourne Centre, offers some insights into this process. Whilst the names of Bion, Foulkes and Main have become well known one particular individual has been largely ignored in the UK: Harold Bridger. The latter, arguably the most inventive of all the Northfield participants, was subsequently better known in Europe and Australia for his analysis of the work of therapeutic communities and some of his most significant ideas are rehearsed here.