# James Anthony (psychoanalyst)

Elwyn James Anthony (born on 21 January 1916; died on 10 December 2014) was a British psychoanalyst. He is best known for his work on resilience and invulnerability risk in children with parents who suffer from mental illness. He studied in London, where he began a distinguished career as a child psychotherapist and psychiatrist. He studied child development under Jean Piaget and, after leaving the Maudsley Hospital, occupied the Ittleson Chair of Child Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He later became Director of Psychotherapy at Chestnut Lodge, where he developed a group psychotherapy program for adolescent inpatients. Anthony and S. H. Foulkes founded the field of group psychotherapy. He authored 320 research articles and 18 books, many of which were translated into multiple languages.
He was President of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), President of the International Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions, the Association for Child Analysis, and the World Association of Infant Psychiatry.
Anthony was recruited in England in 1958 to hold the world’s first endowed chair in Child Psychiatry, the Blanche F. Ittleson Professorship at Washington University in St. Louis where he conducted most of his longitudinal research. His work in St. Louis at the Edison Child Study Center included many grants from foundations and the NIMH. His collaboration with Foulkes, who became his training analyst, began at Northfield Military Hospital, and in the 1950s he became a founder member of the Group Analytic Society.
Anthony was born in Calcutta, India, and educated by Jesuits in Darjeeling, India, from the age of four, before immigrating to England for medical training. He was a protégé and collaborator with Jean Piaget, Anna Freud, Erik Erikson, John Bowlby, and Sir Aubrey Lewis who, throughout his early career, introduced Anthony to international and cultural aspects of child development.
He attended medical school at King's College London during the Second World War, including delivering babies during the bombings of London. His first assignment as an officer was to work at Northfield Military Hospital with S.H. Foulkes, dealing with "shell shocked soldiers" where they started rudimentary group psychotherapy. Later, he was transferred to Hong Kong as chief medical officer for Southeast Asia and was charged with setting up day-care centers for Japanese children who survived the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When he returned home from the war, he continued his psychiatric and child psychiatric training at the Maudsley Hospital and received the Gold Medal award from the University of London. He was later a member of the Royal College of Psychiatry and his multiple lectureships included a standing appointment at the London School of Economics.
He was a senior lecturer at the Hampstead Clinic and received a Nuffield Fellowship to study with Jean Piaget. At the same time, his collaboration with S.H. Foulkes on Groups led them to co-author "Group Psychotherapy: the Psychoanalytic Approach" considered to this day as the bible of group psychotherapy with many reprintings.
During his presidency of the International Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions, he organized study groups comprising colleagues from diverse cultural backgrounds to explore child development and childhood disorders. He led this initiative, overseeing its implementation and obtaining funding for its success. This work laid the foundation for several of his publications. Acknowledging his impact and expertise, two of these books feature introductions authored by Anthony.
As the president of AACAP, he continued his commitment to international collaboration, with both a joint meeting in Mexico, and leading two large groups to China on the brink of its opening to the West. He collaborated with future AACAP Presidents and co-led other trips including to the USSR. As a result of this trip, for the first time ever, the USSR sent 8 of its researchers to participate in the AACAP’s annual meeting.
Anthony also formed a study group to mentor, nurture, and support young researchers in the beginning of their careers. He was also responsible for the first of what would later be known as the Presidential Interview at the AACAP Annual Meeting when he interviewed Joan and Erik Erikson. His appointment to the Work Group on Consumer Issues led to the development of AACAP’s Facts for Families, which have been translated into multiple languages. Also during Anthony’s AACAP Presidency, a successful offer was made to purchase our (AACAP’s) current headquarters.
He maintained a private practice until the age of 90. He was a member of the British, St. Louis, Chicago, and Washington DC Psychoanalytic Societies.
He was married to Ethel Frances until her death in 1983. They have four children, eleven grandchildren, and ten great grandchildren. Then he married Virginia Quinn Anthony, former executive director of AACAP and lived with her for 30 years. Anthony died on December 10, 2014, aged 98.