Mervin Glasser

Mervin Glasser died very suddenly on 9 November 2000, aged 71, following cardiac problems.

Born in Johannesburg in 1928, Mervin came to London in 1952 intent on becoming a psychoanalyst. He studied medicine at the Westminster Hospital Medical School, graduating in 1958, and qualified as a psychoanalyst in 1963. Later, he was to become a training analyst. After his retirement from the NHS in 1993 he served as Director of the London Clinic of Psychoanalysis for 5 years. Until his death he remained a sought-after teacher and clinician. He was probably the most prolific internationally known writer in his field that this country has produced in his generation. He was responsible for several theories, most notably the ‘core complex’.

After having worked with Anna Freud and having been involved in setting up the Brent Consultant Centre (now Johnson House), for the psychoanalytic treatment of adolescents, Mervin was appointed to the Portman Clinic in 1971 and for much of his time served as Chairman.

Mervin lived for psychoanalysis and with this devotion went a painstaking belief in careful research. For many years he ran a violence workshop — a clinical setting in which to discuss violent cases, but with a research component. After his retirement Mervin wrote this up in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis. He called it ‘On violence. A preliminary communication’, thus characteristically challenging the rest of us to continue the work. Whoever had the courage to commit themselves long term to this workshop learned a depth to working that could not be imagined and which I personally value in terms of proving that something can often be there all along but it might take many hours of labour to find it. Some fell by the wayside, unable either to bear the level of expectation about detail or to trust that the time spent would yield results. Whether there were differences of opinion or clashes of personalities, Mervin had an extraordinary sense of humour and his warmth and sense of fun often made up for everything.

Mervin was passionate about other things in life apart from his work. He loved his family, his garden, which was always full of exotic flowering plants — perhaps an attempt to keep in touch with his native South Africa — the arts and football.