Obituary: W. CLIFFORD M. SCOTT (1903-1997)

The working life of Clifford Scott as a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, spans the period from the 20s to his death from pneumonia on 19 January 1997. He was born on 11 March 1903 in a small Ontario town, where his father was a Presbyterian minister. His keen intelligence was apparent from the start as it was throughout his life and he showed

a particular aptitude for science. However, his father encouraged him to study medicine, since, according to Scott, his father knew how one could make a living as a doctor but did not know how one could make a living as a scientist.

His interest in science led him to take two years out of his medical training at the University of Toronto to obtain a new degree, a Bachelor of Science in Medicine, which almost led him to leave medicine to work in the field of genetics. However, he returned to his medical studies and gained some experience in psychiatry in Toronto, which was followed by psychiatric training in New York, and later in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins Hospital where Adolf Meyer was professor. There, and later in Boston, he met psychoanalysts such as Paul Schilder and became enthused about analytic ideas, which led him to the realisation that he wanted and needed analytic training. A grant helped him to reach London in 1931, where he was accepted by the British Psycho-Analytical Society for training and assigned by Ernest Jones to Melanie Klein for analysis. He was her first candidate to qualify and met the requirement for adult and child analytic work.

On qualification he said he did not have the courage to go into private practice at that time and so developed his interests in working psychoanalytically with psychiatric patients in the Maudsley Hospital and later at the Cassel Hospital. His published works from that time were concerned with analytic approaches to manic depressive disorders, schizophrenia and the body image. He left the hospital posts to practise and tea