Born in Karlseruhe in 1898, S. H. Foulkes studied medicine in Heidelberg and Munich after the First World War, eventually qualifying in Frankfurt in 1923. During the course of his studies his growing interest in psychology brought him into contact with the writings of Sigmund Freud, and the desire to become a psychoanalyst led him, in 1928 to Vienna where he secured a training analysis under Helene Deutsch. At the same time he undertook psychiatric training at the University Clinic. By 1930 he had joined the Frankfurt Psychoanalytic Institute and commenced working in private practice. As it became clearer, however, that the rise of Hitler would prove the death-knell for psychoanalysis in Germany, Foulkes and his family suddenly left the country for Geneva in April 1933 and shortly thereafter, at the invitation of Ernest Jones, settled in London. The outbreak of the Second World War, and a temporary removal to Exeter, led him into a deeper involvement with the concept and practice of Group Analysis and Group-Analytic Society, and was sill actively involved with teaching, lecturing and participation in group seminars when he died in July 1976.

The collection of Foulkes' papers, which includes some unpublished material and some published in English for the first time, comprises not only the later Group-Analytic writings but also those from the first part of his career as a psychoanalyst. Among the latter, the paper 'On Introjections' is of particular interest and importance.