Psychiatric Bulletin (2006) 30: 157. doi: 10.1192/pb.30.4.157
© 2006 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Psychiatric Bulletin (2006) 30: 157
© 2006 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Elisabeth Shoenberg
Formerly Consultant Psychiatrist, Claybury Hospital and the Medical Research Council Social Unit, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
John Pippard and
Peter Shoenberg
Dr Shoenberg was born on 25 September 1916. She was the youngest of the
five children of Sir Isaac and Lady Shoenberg and enjoyed a happy childhood
with three older brothers. She was a very gifted child who spent many hours in
the print room of the British Museum studying Japanese prints. Her love of
painting lasted throughout her life. At Newnham College, Cambridge, she read
English and later archaeology and anthropology, intending to become an
anthropologist. However, as she wrote in 1984 in a letter from the Australian
outback where she was studying depression in the aboriginal population, she
realised that she could not bear to be with people who lived in squalor with
malnutrition and illiteracy without wanting to do something about it. As a
result she switched to medicine.
She qualified in 1947 from King’s College London and the West London
School of Medicine and, after a short time in general practice, started to
practise psychiatry at Fulbourn Hospital with Dr David Clark. She was then
senior registrar at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and Goodmayes Hospital. In
1958 she was appointed consultant psychiatrist at Claybury Hospital. The
Adventure in Psychiatry by Denis Martin (1968) described changes that
were already happening to varying degrees at Claybury: moving from the culture
and ethos of a traditional mental hospital to a therapeutic community. This
was essentially achieved at Claybury in three of the four general admission
wards, the in-patient unit for patients with psychoneurosis and personality
disorder, the psychogeriatric admission unit and some rehabilitation and
long-stay wards. The impact of these changes is still relevant today and is
well documented in the book of essays A Hospital Looks at Itself
(1972), written by approximately 40 members of the staff and patients of
Claybury Hospital and edited by Dr
Shoenberg.
She found time throughout her life to travel widely, which gave scope for
her abiding interest in all sorts of people and her considerable literary
ability, as well as her capacity for friendship, her remarkable sense of
humour and skill as a cartoonist. She visited many countries and had a
particular love for Pakistan, the Pacific and Australia. On a year’s
sabbatical leave she went, with the support of the World Health Organization,
to India to the National Institute for Mental Health and Neurosciences, to
help in developing the psychiatric services, then the poor relation of the
neurosciences.
In retirement, apart from her frequent travels, she retained a lively
interest in all aspects of life and was active in the University of the Third
Age. She visited with the Health Advisory Service and served on Mental Health
Act review tribunals. She was a member of the Newnham College Associates. She
kept in touch with many friends throughout the world and made each of us feel
special. She retained her lively sense of humour to the end of her life. She
never married. Dr Shoenberg died on 6 October 2005, following a fall at her
home.
