Alexander Polycleitos Cawadias

Alexander Polycleitos Cawadias (3 or 20 May 1884 – 20 November 1971) was a Greek physician who worked mainly in England. He was an advocate of neo-Hippocratism, holistic medicine, and homeopathy. He argued in his book Hermaphroditos the Human Intersex that human gender was a continuum and intersexuality a normal phenomenon. He denied there was such a thing as a true hermaphrodite and saw all humans as somewhere between male and female.

Early life and family Alexander Polycleitos Cawadias was born in Athens on 3 His father was the archaeologist, professor Panagiotis Kavvadias (1848–1928), who was one of the founding members of the modern Academy of Athens. He received his basic education at the local gymnasium and later studied philosophy at Montpellier University and Paris, following which, in 1901, he took his baccalaureate at the University of Paris. The resurgence in neo-Hippocratism in Britain in the interwar period has been seen as a reaction to the growing systematisation and professionalism of medicine which some physicians saw as reductionist and failing to treat the whole person. Cawadias was also a committed homeopath, claiming to use the therapy on up to 80% of his patients in the 1930s, and attempting to integrate "scientific homeopathy" with mainstream medicine for which his neo-Hippocratism served as a vehicle.

Cawadias was known for his intelligence and sparking conversation.

In 1943 he argued in his book Hermaphroditos the Human Intersex that human gender was a continuum with no absolute male or female, and that intersexuality was a normal phenomenon. He denied there was such a thing as a true hermaphrodite, describing it as the "non-existent third sex".

According to a patient's memoirs, around 1955 Cawadias diagnosed George Turtle as a "hermaphrodite" with "dominant female characteristics".

Later life In 1962, at the age of 78, Cawadias returned to Athens where he wrote and lectured. He died on 20 November 1971.

Selected publications Diseases of the Intestines. Baillière & Co., London, 1927. The Modern Therapeutics of Internal Diseases: An Introduction to Medical Practice. Baillière & Co., London, 1931. Hermaphroditos the Human Intersex. Heinemann Medical Books, 1943. Clinical Endocrinology and Constitutional Medicine. Frederick Muller, London, 1947. "Theophile de Bordeu: An Eighteenth Century Pioneer in Endocrinology", Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, Vol. 93, 1 February 1950, pp. 93–98.

Correspondence "Neo-hippocratism". Letter to British Medical Journal, 7 November 1931, p. 869.