Profile

Dr. Wittkower was born (of British parentage) and bred in Berlin, Germany, where he obtained his medical degree. In 1931 he became Privatdozent at the University of Berlin; he taught psychosomatic medicine. He began his psychoanalytic training in Germany and completed it in England where, as a refugee from Nazi Germany, he carried out research at the Central Pathological Laboratory, Maudsley Hospital, London. In 1935 he joined the Tavistock Clinic as Researchfellow in psychosomatic medicine. During World War II, as Major, RAMC, he engaged in various research projects at the War Office. After the war, he resumed psychosomatic research and rejoined the Tavistock Clinic. In 1951 he accepted a teaching position at McGill University in Montreal, advancing in due course to a full professorship. In research he has concerned himself with the application of psychoanalytic theory to psychosomatic medicine and transcultural psychiatry.

He is one of the founders of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society and became its President in 1966. He has been President of various other learned societies such as the American Academy of Psychoanalysis. He has traveled extensively and has received honors from psychiatric societies in many parts of the world. He is on the Advisory or Editorial Board of various journals and is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal Transcultural Psychiatric Research Review as well as being the author of seven books and over 200 book contributions and scientific articles.