Henry Victor Dicks (1900 – 12 July 1977) was a British psychiatrist. He drew on his wartime experiences, which included the medical care of

Rudolf Hess Rudolf Walter Richard Hess (Heß in German; 26 April 1894 – 17 August 1987) was a German politician and a leading member of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Appointed Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler in 1933, Hess held that position unt ...

, to develop views on

authoritarian personality The authoritarian personality is a personality type characterized by a disposition to treat authority figures with unquestioning obedience and respect. Conceptually, the term ''authoritarian personality'' originated from the writings of Erich Fro ...

and the collective psychopathology of authoritarian regimes.

Life

Henry Dicks was born at Pernau, in the

Governorate of Livonia The Governorate of Livonia, also known as the Livonia Governorate, was a Baltic governorate of the Russian Empire, now divided between Latvia and Estonia. Geography The shape of the province is a fairly rectangular in shape, with a maximum ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(now

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

) in 1900. His father was an English exporter and shipowner who also acted as British Vice-Counsul, and his mother came from an academic

Baltic German Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...

family. He was educated at Pernau,

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

and

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, and by the time the family returned to England after the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

he was able to speak English, Russian, and German fluently, as well as speaking some French. After serving as an interpreter with Military Intelligence with the British Expeditionary Force in North Russia, and then with the British Military Mission in South Russia and the Caucasus, he studied natural sciences at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

and medicine at

St Bartholomew's Hospital St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust. History Early history Barts was founded in 1123 by Rahere (died ...

. In 1928 he joined the recently founded

Tavistock Clinic The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is a specialist mental health trust based in north London. The Trust specialises in talking therapies. The education and training department caters for 2,000 students a year from the United Kin ...

, rising to become Assistant Medical Director there from 1934 to 1946, and publishing a psychiatric textbook in 1939. In 1941 he joined the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

as a Specialist Psychiatrist. Because of his ability to speak German, he was charged with medical care of

in May to June 1941. From 1942 to 1944 he advised Military Intelligence on German morale, from 1944 to 1945 he advised

SHAEF Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF; ) was the headquarters of the Commander of Allied forces in north west Europe, from late 1943 until the end of World War II. U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the commander in SHAEF th ...

on psychological warfare and from 1945 to 1946 he advised the Control Commission for Germany on

de-Nazification Denazification (german: link=yes, Entnazifizierung) was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of the Nazi ideology following the Second World War. It was carried out by removi ...

. In 1946 Dicks was appointed the first Nuffield Professor of Psychiatry at the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

, but returned to the Tavistock in 1948, and remained there until 1965 as Deputy Director and Consultant Psychiatrist in charge of the Marital Unit. From 1966 to 1970 he was a Senior Research Officer at the Centre for Research in Collective Psychopathology,

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

. His work in de-Nazification led to his writing a book entitled ''Licensed Mass Murder - a sociopsychological study of some SS killers''. This was contributed to the Centre for Research in Collective Psychopathology at

Sussex University , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

. In the late 1970s, he was the chair of the

Campaign Against Psychiatric Abuse Campaign Against Psychiatric Abuse was a group that was founded by Soviet dissident Viktor Fainberg in April 1975 and participated in the struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union from 1975 to 1988. The Campaign involv ...

. He participated with fellow campaigners in a 1976 protest outside the Soviet Embassy in London following the arrest of Vladimir Borisov. There he was quoted as saying - His papers are held at the

Wellcome Library The Wellcome Library is founded on the collection formed by Sir Henry Wellcome (1853–1936), whose personal wealth allowed him to create one of the most ambitious collections of the 20th century. Henry Wellcome's interest was the history of med ...

in London.Jennifer Haynes
Psychology, authoritarian regimes and modern marriage
24 November 2010

Works

* ''Clinical studies in psychopathology: a contribution to the aetiology of neurotic illness'', 1939 * ''The psychological foundations of the Wehrmacht'', 1944 * (with John R. Rees and others) ''The case of Rudolf Hess: problem in diagnosis and forensic psychiatry'', 1947 * ''Observations on contemporary Russian behavior'', 1952 * ''Mental health in the light of ancient wisdom'', 1959
Notes on the Russian national character
in C. E. Black, ed., ''The Transformation of Russian Society: Aspects of social change'', Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1960. * ''Marital tensions: clinical studies towards a psychological theory of interaction'', 1967 * ''Fifty years of the Tavistock Clinic'', 1970. With a foreword by Leslie Farrer. * ''Licensed mass murder: a socio-psychological study of some SS killers'', 1972

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dicks, Henry 1900 births 1977 deaths People from Pärnu People from Kreis Pernau English people of German descent British psychiatrists Royal Army Medical Corps officers Soviet psychiatric abuse whistleblowers Campaign Against Psychiatric Abuse 20th-century British medical doctors Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Academics of the University of Leeds British Army personnel of World War II