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Dear Sir:
It was with great interest that I read the ‘Personal recollections and impressions of Harry Guntrip’, which appeared in a recent issue of the Journal (1996, Vol. 77, p. 763), written by Ronald Markillie, an erstwhile colleague now retired this past 14 years.
When I joined the staff of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Leeds in 1972 it was pleasing to note the interest in psychopathology demonstrated by the academic staff, particularly Professor Max Hamilton, no doubt a tradition of previous professors such as Henry Dick and George Hargreaves. Although he had retired many years earlier, Harry Guntrip continued to provide teaching to postgraduate students in the Department and his contribution was generally welcomed by the academic staff. It was not long before Harry came knocking on my door on those days when he attended to give his lectures.
Our weekly meetings always began with Harry offering some comments about service issues and the need to widen the scope of the education and training of mental health professionals. It often surprised me how informed he was of current issues appearing in the scientific journals. He was an avid reader and expressed concern about what he perceived as the superficiality of behaviour therapy which was dominating professional publications of the time. Harry saw symptoms as representing personal adaptations to cope with inner distress and worried what might happen if these maladaptive adjustments were removed without providing alternative ways of dealing with personal unconscious conflicts. The publications of Hans Eysenck and his cohorts loomed large in Harry’s conversation and I had to point out to him that I was not an apologist for the behaviourist movement.
He took this in good part and it proved to be a turning point in our relationship. He began to pay more attention to me as an individual and was very curious about my experiences when working at the Tavistock Clinic in the mid 1950s at a time of heightene