Published Papers
2025 - 'English Landscape: an archetypal perspective on the ex-boarder'
I have contributed a chapter to a new book 'The Un-Making of Them: Clinical Reflections on Boarding School Syndrome', edited by Nick Duffell and published by Routledge in April 2025.
The editor introduces my chapter as:
‘…a fascinatingly detailed case study of Jungian psychoanalysis with one ex-boarder patient……. Not an ex-boarder herself, McLaren allows her patient to get under her skin; over time, she creatively allows the deep-seated issues to emerge and reveal themselves. The therapy appears haunted by the shadowy presence of a fox. This wily, secretive survivor is featured in many English myths and legends, rooted in landscape; here he becomes a totem animal for the ex-boarder ‘strategic survival personality’. After much hunting for her patient’s fox, McLaren finds her way, inspired by Donald Kalsched: ‘In trauma work ... we must learn to speak a soulful language, because it is uniquely the human soul that is threatened with annihilation by early trauma in a child’s life.’
A comprehensive review of this book was published in 2026 in the professional journal 'Psychodynamic Practice'. The author, Fowler-Watt, writes,
'Overall I found this book to be a highly poignant and timely reminder of just what a client may be hiding when they come to therapy. Sally McLaren refers to the story of a child in the ancient state of Sparta hiding a fox under his coat, with it gnawing away at him until he dies.The child has been taught to be brave and strong and would rather suffer than be exposed. She mentions a client who appears 'confident, articulate and self-assured, like many ex-boarders'. What you can't see is 'the fox and his gnawing, leaving him with a profound sense of inadequacy and despair'.
2014 – ‘Birds, Beasts and Babies – Notes from an infant observation’
My paper won the Roszika Parker prize in 2013 and was published in the British Journal of Psychotherapy in October 2014. This prize focuses on a critical engagement with questions of creativity.
The judges comment:
'The title of this paper might suggest that this was going to be a straightforward account of an infant observation. In fact it is a most moving meditation on a two year relationship with the infant Max and his mother and family. Trying to describe what the author has done with her observation is to trample upon the author's poetic imagination, such as her description of the three birds that make their appearance at different times in the narrative. But what seems certain is that the author has handled most thoughtfully and sensitively the way she has imagined Max's inner world developing.'
2021 – ‘'The Winnowing Way - Infant Observation with Soul in Mind'
This paper was published in Harvest the journal of the C.G. Jung Club London, in 2021.
The editor writes:
'Sally McLaren’s experience of Jungian infant observation awakens the archetypes of the divine child, mother, rebirth, and life after death. We hear echoes of Jung’s statement that when we see a child, we may feel that we have unfinished business. Her reflections on the infant bring her into dialogue with her grandmother’s writings and the birth and death artwork of Bill Viola. Earliest memories and earliest remembered dreams carry numinous power that brims with fatefulness. Recovering the innocence of babies as we age and becoming as little children as we die promise to open the gates to the world of the ancestors and their unanswered questions.'
I have presented my papers for professional organisations on several occasions and two recordings are available from West Midlands Institute of Psychotherapy.
If you would like to read any of my papers please do email me to request a copy.
Illustration
English Landscape: an archetypal perspective on the ex-boarder. A picture of a fox provides a focus for my paper. This is English Landscape by Andrew Waddington.
References
McLaren, S. (2014) Birds, Beasts and Babies - Notes from an Infant Observation. British Journal of Psychotherapy, 30 (4): 462-474.
McLaren, S. (2021) The Winnowing Way - Infant Observation with Soul in Mind. Harvest, C.G. Jung Club London, pp. 89 - 107.
McLaren, S. (2025) Eglish Landscape - An archetypal perspective on the ex-boarder. In: Duffell, N. (ed.) The Un-Making of Them - Clinical Reflections on Boarding School Syndrome, pp.91 - 103. Abingdon: Routledge.
Fowler-Watt, S. (2026) 'Book Review: The Un-Making of Them, edited by Nick Duffell'. Psychodynamic Practice, 32 (1): 108-112.