title: "Against all hushing up and stamping down": the Medico-Psychological Clinic of London and the novelist May Sinclair.
abstract: May Sinclair (1863-1946) was one of the first modern novelists to appropriate psychoanalytic theories in her works. She was an early reader of the new psychoanalytic techniques but, rather than embracing its theories wholeheartedly and unquestioningly, she synthesized those that appealed to her own psychology of womanhood. Moreover, Sinclair's position was a unique one. As well as a highly acclaimed novelist with a respected public voice, she was closely associated with the setting up of one of the first psychotherapeutic centres in Britain, the Medico-Psychological Clinic of London. In this paper, I argue that the eclectic psychoanalytic situations in which Sinclair places her literary heroines mirror the eclectic and potentially feminist endeavours of the medico-Psychological Clinic. I draw upon archival material, hitherto unexamined by literary critics and medical historians, to reflect upon the turbulent lifespan of the Clinic and the attempts to curtail its controversial practices.
authors.affiliation: Univ. of Durham, UK.
authors.forename: Philippa
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Martindale
mesh_terms: D006268:Health Facilities / Q000266:history; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D008131:London / Q000208:ethnology; D011572:Psychoanalysis / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D012933:Social Identification; D013812:Therapeutics / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology; D016387:Women's Health / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history; D014933:Women's Rights / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D014931:Women, Working / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology