Aubrey Lewis: The Making of a Psychiatrist

Extract

Earlier this year I was invited by the American Psychiatric Association to deliver a public lecture on the contributions of Sir Aubrey Lewis to psychiatry, with particular reference to his work in its historical perspective (Shepherd, 1977). By a happy chance the lecture in question is linked with the name of Adolf Meyer, an eponymous association which facilitated the exposition of the principal theme of my address. It was, I believe, Manfred Bleuler who first drew attention to the similarities between Adolf Meyer and Aubrey Lewis despite profound differences in their temperament and background (Bleuler, 1966). In retrospect it is now apparent that Lewis was Meyer's natural successor, both men standing out as the representative psychiatrist of his generation in the mainstream of psychiatry, each owing his pre-eminence as much to what he stood for as to what he achieved. This was the argument which I did my best to elaborate, drawing for the purpose on the sources and development of Sir Aubrey's ideas, on his manifold achievements and on the various legacies which he has bestowed to his own successors. And, since I was addressing a largely North American audience to whom he was a somewhat remote figure, I attempted to introduce my subject with a few words about the origins and character of the man himself.