Obituary Notices

Alan Edwards died on 15 April 1993. It was not altogether unexpected, for secondaries developed after an operation for a carcinoma of the prostate. I for one had hoped that the rather favourable prognosis for that disease might have led to a cure, but it was not to be.

There are so many reasons why his loss will mean so much to so many, both inside his family and the Society and outside it. That is not only because he was such a lovable man.

He qualified as an analytical psychologist in 1953 and served the Society as Treasurer, Director of the C. G. Jung Clinic, and as training analyst and supervisor, in which positions he was much sought after. His unique contribution was his knowledge and experience in psychiatry combined with a devotion to analytical psychology. I would like to interpolate here that among his accomplishments he was a high-class swimmer and, I think, swam for England. It is one of my regrets that I never saw him swim; it would have been, I am sure, an aesthetic experience.

After qualifying in medicine exceptionally early (he started his medical education when he was 16) he went on to take higher degrees (MRCP 1938, MD 1946, and elected FRCPsych in 1971) so he was well recognized as a good physician and psychiatrist.

During the war he was rejected from service in the RAF, to which he applied, because he had contracted tuberculosis, so he continued his psychiatric work in several mental hospitals until he was appointed, in 1947, with consultant status, to Napsbury Mental Hospital. There his creative work truly began. As head of the male side he started to find out how much the principles of analytical psychology could be applied. I do not know much about this period but I once attended a group session there; it was most exciting and I admired his skill in managing psychotic patients, especially one in a state of mania who threatened to disrupt the group.

One of his aims was to start a unit at a general hospital, run on the idea of