Aubrey Lewis

Sir Aubrey Julian Lewis (8 November 1900 – 21 January 1975), was a British-Australian psychiatrist. He was the first Professor of Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, London (now part of King's College London), and is credited with being a driving force behind the flowering of British psychiatry after World War II as well as raising the profile of the profession worldwide.

Early life Aubrey Julian Lewis was born on 8 November 1900 in Adelaide, the only child of Jewish parents George Solomon Lewis (died 23 May 1931), an English accountant known only as George Lewis, and his South Australian-born wife Rachel "Ré" Lewis (née Isaacs), a sister of Levi Isaacs, prominent member of Adelaide's Jewish community. Ré and Levi were among six children who were brought out to South Australia from Newcastle upon Tyne by their parents Solomon Isaacs (c. 1830 – 30 August 1913) and his wife Pauline (c. 1830 – 14 July 1923) aboard the ship Sophia around 1865

George Lewis married Ré Isaacs, elocution teacher and Adelaide Synagogue's longtime Sabbath School teacher, at the Synagogue on 16 August 1899.

Lewis was educated at Christian Brothers College, Wakefield Street, Adelaide, where he proved to be a gifted pupil. He studied medicine at the University of Adelaide and graduated with distinction in 1923 (M.B., B.S.).

Career Lewis worked at the Royal Adelaide Hospital for two years while undertaking physical anthropological research on Aboriginal Australians, in 1925 making detailed observations of twenty-six aborigines to record colour of hair, eyes and skin, ear formation, eyebrow ridges and what he termed 'personality characteristics'. In 1926 he accepted a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship in psychological medicine. This brought him to the Phipps Clinic under the mentorship of Adolf Meyer, whom he respected and admired greatly, and whose work he praised in lectures such as the Adolf Meyer Lecture in 1960. This was the start of two years postgraduate study performed in the US and thence on to Germany. Lewis then moved to the United Kingdom and joined the staff of the Maudsley Hospital London in 1928. In 1931, he received his M.D. from the University of Adelaide and in 1936 he became Clinical Director of the Maudsley Hospital. In his chapter, Lewis advocated state measures to limit genetic transmission by "many tramps, criminals, swindlers, irresponsibles and chronic dependants, agitators, hysterics - a large part of the social problem group."

Institute of Psychiatry In 1946, the Maudsley Hospital's medical school was re-designated the Institute of Psychiatry under the auspices of the University of London and Lewis was appointed to the inaugural Chair of Psychiatry at the institute. He held this post until his retirement in 1966. It has been said that the flowering of British psychiatry after World War II can be attributed to three factors: a long humanitarian tradition; the National Health Service and Aubrey Lewis. Honorary fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (1972)

Personal life Lewis had an austere appearance, captured in Ruskin Spear's official portrait of 1966. But to those who knew him his high standards of personal and professional integrity went with a warm, kindly, humorous disposition which earned him the affection of colleagues and friends.

Publications The State of Psychiatry; Inquiries in Psychiatry (London, 1967) The Later Papers of Sir Aubrey Lewis (Oxford, 1977)