Anthony Storr

Anthony Storr (18 May 1920 – 17 March 2001)

Career In 1974, Storr moved from private practice to a teaching appointment at the Warneford Hospital in Oxford, until his retirement in 1984.

Personal Storr was, as one of his obituarists observed, "no stranger to suffering at formative stages of his life."

Distinctions Emeritus Fellow of Green College (1984) Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (1990) Honorary FRCPsych (1993)

In chapter 3 of the book Storr writes: Although music is sometimes referred to as a universal language, this is an entirely misleading description. The difficulty of appreciating music from different periods of history or from different cultures is a powerful argument in favour of the view that the various types of music are predominantly cultural artefacts rather than based on natural phenomena.

In his final book Feet of Clay; Saints, Sinners, and Madmen: The Power and Charisma of Gurus (1996) Storr tracks typical patterns, often involving psychotic disorders that shape the development of the guru. He challenges Jesus' mental health by implying that there are psychological similarities between crazy "messiahs" such as Jim Jones, David Koresh, and respected religious leaders, including Jesus.

Publications The Integrity of the Personality (1961) Sexual Deviation (1964) Human Aggression (1968) Human Destructiveness (1972) The Dynamics of Creation (1972) Jung (1973) The Essential Jung (1983) The School of Genius (1988) Solitude: A Return to the Self (1988) — paperback retitling of The School of Genius Freud (1989) (Past Masters) The Art of Psychotherapy (1979, 1980) Churchill's Black Dog, Kafka's Mice, and Other Phenomena of the Human Mind (1990) Human Destructiveness: The Roots of Genocide and Human Cruelty (1991) – fully revised edition of Human Destructiveness Music and the Mind (1992) Feet of Clay; Saints, Sinners, and Madmen: A Study of Gurus (1996) The Essential Jung: Selected Writings (1998) – another edition of The Essential Jung Freud: A Very Short Introduction (2001) – another edition of Freud (1989)