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Bob Gosling, who died aged 79, was in his day one of the most influential psychiatrists in the country — being both a psychotherapist and a psychoanalyst to many professional colleagues and their spouses, and an inspiration to generations of colleagues and students at the Tavistock Clinic.
Gosling led the Tavistock Clinic from 1968 to 1979, and during this period crafted the strategic vision that has been implemented since then. He was the first and foremost of the new generation of psychiatric staff who shaped the Clinic, following the retirement of Jock Sutherland as chairman. His style was a much more facilitating and participatory one than Sutherland's had been, and led to a flowering of creativity in the institution. His emphasis was determinedly on valuing the contributions of all members of staff and of all disciplines equally. In this he followed the ideals of the Clinic's founders, in creating a truly multidisciplinary organisation with taproots in a variety of professions, ideals and theories.
Born in Birmingham, Gosling became a medical student there, and obtained a BSc in physiology. He then gained a Rockefeller scholarship to do his clinical training in the US, at Cornell. After obtaining his MD there, and qualifying on his return to the UK, he worked as a locum general practitioner before starting his psychiatric training at the Maudsley Hospital as registrar to Professor Sir Aubrey Lewis.
He then became a senior registrar in the Adult Department of the Tavistock Clinic, acting for several years as assistant to the psychoanalyst Michael Balint, who was pioneering training for general practitioners. Gosling qualified as a member of the British Psycho-Analytical Society in 1958, and became a consultant at the Tavistock Clinic.
Bob was much beloved by his patients and colleagues for his warmth, tolerance and deep understanding of the vicissitudes of the human condition. He himself acknowledged that his own suffering and experience as a patient, of which he ha