Eric Wittkower

Eric David Wittkower (April 4, 1899 – January 6, 1983) was a German-born British-Canadian psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and psychosomatic researcher. He is regarded as a major figure in postwar psychiatry and a pioneer in the development of transcultural psychiatry.

Early life and education Wittkower was born in Berlin, Germany on April 4, 1899, the son of Louis Israel Wittkower and Bertha Blume Katz. He studied medicine at the University of Berlin, where he trained in internal medicine before later specialising in psychiatry and psychoanalysis.

After approximately two decades in Britain, Wittkower emigrated to Canada in 1951, where he joined McGill University in Montreal. There, he became a professor of psychiatry and played a central role in shaping psychiatric research and education.

He is widely regarded as a pioneer of transcultural psychology. His work conceptualised culture as an environmental factor influencing the manifestation of illness, proposing that mental disorders may present differently across cultural contexts. The couple had children.

Death He died on January 6, 1983, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.