Frank James Fish (26 May 1917 – 13 June 1968) was the first

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial psych ...

at the

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

, and prior to that a senior lecturer in psychiatry at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

. His publications helped bring the German tradition of descriptive psychopathology to the attention of English-speaking psychiatrists.

Early life

He passed the London General School Examination in 1933 and in 1935 obtained the science qualification necessary for him to enrol at the

London Hospital Medical College Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, commonly known as Barts or BL, is a medical school, medical and dental school in London, England. The school is part of Queen Mary University of London, a constituent college of the federal Un ...

that October. He qualified with the

Conjoint {{Unreferenced, date=December 2009 The conjoint was a basic medical qualification in the United Kingdom administered by the United Examining Board. It is now no longer awarded. The Conjoint Board was superseded in 1994 by the United Examining Board ...

diploma (LRCP London, MRCS England) in 1939. After resident posts in medicine and surgery he joined the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...

and served during the Second World War in North Africa, where he was taken prisoner at the fall of

Tobruk Tobruk or Tobruck (; grc, Ἀντίπυργος, ''Antipyrgos''; la, Antipyrgus; it, Tobruch; ar, طبرق, Tubruq ''Ṭubruq''; also transliterated as ''Tobruch'' and ''Tubruk'') is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near th ...

. In 1943, he managed to escape from captivity in Italy and after what his BMJ obituarist calls "a period of considerable hardship and excitement" he reached the allied lines. He was demobilised in 1946 with the rank of captain.

Postgraduate training

He passed the University of London's examinations for the degrees of

Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United K ...

(MB BS) in 1946 and in 1948 those for

Membership of the Royal College of Physicians Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

of London (MRCP) Having taken up psychiatry in 1951, he obtained a Diploma in Psychological Medicine (DPM) in 1952. He was a trainee in the university department in Newcastle-upon-Tyne before moving to the professorial unit of the

Maudsley Hospital The Maudsley Hospital is a British psychiatric hospital in south London. The Maudsley is the largest mental health training institution in the UK. It is part of South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and works in partnership with the In ...

in London where he came under the influence of Sir Aubrey Lewis. Taking an interest in the continental schools of psychiatry, he worked with

Karl Leonhard Karl Leonhard (21 March 1904 – 23 April 1988) was a German psychiatrist who was a student and collaborator of Karl Kleist, who himself stood in the tradition of Carl Wernicke. With Kleist, he created a complex classification of psychotic illnesse ...

in East Germany and Christian Astrup in Norway. Fish was appointed assistant psychiatrist at the Carlton Hayes Hospital, Narborough, in 1954 and consultant psychiatrist at St. Nicholas Hospital, Gosforth, in 1955.

Academic Work

Fish moved to the University of Edinburgh as a senior lecturer in psychological medicine in 1956, and became a member of the Royal College of Physicians there (MRCPE) in 1964. That year he became the first professor of psychiatry at the University of Liverpool. He set up professorial units of psychiatry at Rainhill Hospital and Walton Hospital, Liverpool. Apart from undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and research, and writing several textbooks, his main contribution has been to bring German descriptive psychopathology to the attention of English-speaking psychiatrists, in particular the works of

Carl Wernicke Carl (or Karl) Wernicke (; ; 15 May 1848 – 15 June 1905) was a German physician, anatomist, psychiatrist and neuropathologist. He is known for his influential research into the pathological effects of specific forms of encephalopathy and also t ...

Karl Kleist Karl Kleist (born 31 January 1879 in Mulhouse, Alsace, died 26 December 1960) was a German neurology, neurologist and psychiatry, psychiatrist who made notable advances in descriptive psychopathology and neuropsychology. Kleist coined the terms un ...

and

, which stand apart from the Anglo-American tradition dominated earlier by psychoanalysis and now by the

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (DSM; latest edition: DSM-5-TR, published in March 2022) is a publication by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for the classification of mental disorders using a common langua ...

of the

American Psychiatric Association The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are involve ...

. This serves to balance the earlier uncritical acceptance of psychoanalytic theory. His ''Clinical Psychopathology: Signs and Symptoms in Psychiatry''Sameer Jauhaur'
recommended reading
Retrieved 20 January 2012. became a classic for postgraduate students. Despite championing Wernicke, Kleist and Leonhard, Fish wrote that

Emil Kraepelin Emil Wilhelm Georg Magnus Kraepelin (; ; 15 February 1856 – 7 October 1926) was a German psychiatrist. H. J. Eysenck's ''Encyclopedia of Psychology'' identifies him as the founder of modern scientific psychiatry, psychopharmacology and psychi ...

was "probably the most outstanding psychiatrist who ever lived." However, he said the general orientation of his "Outline of Psychiatry" was " neo-Meyerian:" i.e., "that in any given case, all the factors which may possibly be relevant should be considered and the appropriate measures, based on empirical knowledge, psychoanalytic theory, sociology, or common sense, should be applied."

Publications

*Schizophrenia Bristol: John Wright (1962) *Fish's Schizophrenia (2nd ed by Max Hamilton) Bristol: John Wright (1976) *An Outline of Psychiatry Bristol: John Wright (1964) *Fish's Outline of Psychiatry (4th ed by Max Hamilton) (1984) *Clinical Psychiatry for the Layman Bristol: John Wright (1963) *Clinical Psychopathology Bristol: John Wright (1967) *Fish's Clinical Psychopathology (2nd ed by Max Hamilton) Bristol: John Wright (1985) *Fish's Clinical Psychopathology (3rd ed by Patricia Casey & Brendan Kelly) London: Gaskell (2007) *Fish's Clinical Psychopathology (4th ed by Casey & Kelly) Cambridge Uni Press: 2019

References

External links

scholar.google
- links of publishments {{Authority control British psychiatrists People associated with the University of Liverpool 1917 births 1968 deaths