F. P. Muller—(1883–1973)

Dr F. P. Muller died on 26 October 1973 in Leyden, the Netherlands. During the last years of his long and active life he was unable to participate actively in the corporate life of the Dutch Psychoanalytic Society. Those who had known him personally, in speaking of him recall especially the great importance of his work as a psychiatrist, teacher and publicist during the first half of this century, in relation to the improvement of psychoanalytic knowledge in the mental health field. As one of the generation following that of Sigmund Freud himself, he was a witness to that period during which psycho-analytic influences on scientific thinking and therapeutic skills were still in their infancy. He, himself, contributed to the development of psychoanalytic thought, in theory and practice.

Muller was born on 25 April 1883, in Groningen, and studied medicine at Leyden University where he graduated as an M.D. in 1910.

In 1919 he published his medical thesis, 'Denken, Streven en Werkelijkheid' ('Thought, Volition and Reality'), the fruit of years of clinical experience in collaboration with Professor G. Jelgersma. Dr Muller was for several years assistant-in-chief of Professor Jelgersma at the Leyden University Psychiatric In-Patient Department. It was of special importance that during that period Professor Jelgersma was the first professor of clinical psychiatry in the world who was also a convinced adherent of psycho-analysis and a personal follower of Sigmund Freud. During his lifetime Professor Jelgersma propagated the teachings of psychoanalysis and educated his students in the same spirit; an important centre of psychoanalytic activity and learning developed in this way. The late Dr Muller participated wholeheartedly in these activities, and through the presentation and publication of a great many addresses and papers forged an important link with the Dutch psychiatric world at large.

In 1920 he became the leading psychiatrist of Leyden. From 1922 to 1958 (with