THE  SHIRLEY  TRUCKLE  ESSAY  PRIZE

Welcome to the second year of this competition. There will now be many students who never had the opportunity to meet Shirley Truckle who was a Founder of the Birmingham School of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, and its Director for 27 years. Other respected professionals based at The Tavistock and in Birmingham were hugely involved, but there is no doubt that without Shirley’s vision, enthusiasm, redoubtable energy and sheer bloody-mindedness the initiative would not have survived the obstacles in its way.

Shirley wanted to make psychoanalytic psychotherapy training available to anyone who had the passion and capacity to make use of it, and to ensure that lack of finance should not be an inhibiting factor. She particularly welcomed those whom she called ‘second chance learners’: those who had not had the opportunity to achieve particular academic qualifications, or who, because of their enthusiasm for psychoanalytic thinking, wanted to leave a well-established career to retrain. She also wanted to make psychoanalytic  therapy available to the most damaged and deprived children who had little or no access to a service locally, and to make the thinking available to a range of professionals who worked with such children. 

Shirley died on 2 May 2019. In her honor we are delighted that two anonymous donors have given money to establish an essay competition in her name to celebrate her vision and her legacy. This money has been supplemented by the Trustees of BTPP. 

This is the second year of what we hope will be annual prizes of £250 for outstanding pieces of writing. There are two categories, one for new or established graduates of the school, writing about a piece of work they have undertaken, and one for students completing the M7 course who want to write about work or observations that they feel reflect what they have learned at BTPP. It is not limited to clinical work, although this of course is welcome, but can show how psychoanalytic ideas can be useful in other settings, such as education or care settings, or how outreach work and consultative work with other professionals can help understanding within the networks around a child or family.

Papers submitted for qualification or for the M7 can be used but should be edited to show the writer’s journey into BTPP and the impact that their training has had on their work. Judges will be looking particularly to see how the child or family is brought to life on the page; how the writer struggles to meet the child where they are and make the therapy accessible to them, perhaps in innovative and imaginative ways; how vividly the writer creates the full feel of how it is to be in the midst of the struggle, holding in mind the child’s environment and experience whilst exploring their inner world; and showing how the chance to develop their own thinking in a different way, through their experience at BTPP, impacts upon the writer and the child. The work needs to show an awareness of psychodynamic theories, but direct links to theory are not necessary. A successful essay should be a really good read in the sense that it brings to life the spark in the child and the development of the therapeutic relationship in clinical work, or demonstrates how psychoanalytic thought can shift understanding within the professional network.

Winning entrants may be invited to present their work at a BTPP Study Day. It may also be that in the course of time the competition will generate a body of work that we could consider for publication, although this will be subject to necessary permissions being obtained, and entrants should be aware that future refinement may be required to bring work to publishable quality.

Essays should be between 5,000 and 8,000 words long. A short biographical introduction should be attached detailing the writer’s introduction to and journey through BTPP: this will be detached from the essay before it is sent to the judges to preserve anonymity. Mentoring can be made available to anyone who is thinking of submitting a piece of work. Submissions should be made by 17 January 2025 and winners will be announced during that Spring Term so that winning essays can be presented on subsequent study days.

There is a particular Shirley Truckle/BTPP brand. People should know about it and celebrate it.