Psychiatric Bulletin (2005) 29: 198. doi: 10.1192/pb.29.5.198
© 2005 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Psychiatric Bulletin (2005) 29: 198
© 2005 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Dennis Geoffrey Brown
Formerly Consultant Psychotherapist at St Georges Hospital, London
Malcolm Pines
Dr Brown died on 19 September 2004. He had a distinguished career in
psychiatry and obtained a distinction in the DPM in 1969 and an MD from Leeds
in 1970. Dennis had been a research assistant at the Academic Department of
Psychiatry at the Middlesex Hospital for 3 years under Dennis Hill where his
research was on psychological aspects of skin disorders. He decided to train
as a psychoanalyst and qualified as an Associate Member of the British
Psycho-Analytic Society in 1972; in 1971 he became a Founder Member of the
Royal College of Psychiatrists and FRCPsych in 1978. In 1982 he became FRCP
(Edin).
Dennis joined the Cassel Hospital as a medical assistant in 1966 at a time
when it was a stimulating training ground for psychoanalytic psychotherapists
under the direction of Tom Main. This experience of therapeutic community
influenced him in turning towards group analysis, the school of S. H. Foulkes,
famous through his work at Northfield Hospital during the Second World War.
Group analysis became his principal field of work in both hospital and private
practice and he contributed many important publications in this area. He was a
much loved and admired teacher and training analyst at the Institute of Group
Analysis.
After his work at the Cassel Hospital, Dennis held Consultant
Psychotherapist posts at St Marys and St Georges Hospitals, was
a recognised teacher, University of London examiner and external examiner for
Leeds University Postgraduate Diploma in Psychotherapy. He was President of
the Group Analytic Society London from 1983 to 1988 and took a leading role in
the new field of transcultural group analysis to which he contributed several
papers.
Dennis and Jonathan Pedder, his colleague at St Marys Hospital,
co-authored the very successful Introduction to Psychotherapy, now in
its third edition. With his friend and colleague at St Georges
Hospital, the late Louis Zinkin, he co-edited The Psyche and the Social
World, a significant addition to group-analytic literature.
Dennis had a delightful personality: warm, witty, sensitive and cultured.
With his wife Dorothy, who had co-authored a cookery book, they created an
ambiance of hospitality and good cheer, particularly welcoming to colleagues
from abroad.
Dennis struggled valiantly against the spread of cancer. He died peacefully
in a hospice. Fortunately a collection of his papers will appear in the near
future under the title Resonance and Reciprocity (Routledge).