Dr Theophilus (Theo) Bulkeley Hyslop

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

MRCPE (1863-12 February 1933) was a British physician specialising in mental health and overseeing, in various medical capacities, the notorious

Bethlem Royal Hospital Bethlem Royal Hospital, also known as St Mary Bethlehem, Bethlehem Hospital and Bedlam, is a psychiatric hospital in London. Its famous history has inspired several horror books, films and TV series, most notably '' Bedlam'', a 1946 film with ...

in London (commonly known as Bedlam) from 1888 to 1911. He was an exponent of eugenics. He was also interested in the use of

hypnotism Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...

in treating mental illness.

Life

When Hyslop was two his father, William Hyslop, purchased Stretton House, an asylum for men in

Church Stretton Church Stretton is a market town in Shropshire, England, south of Shrewsbury and north of Ludlow. The population in 2011 was 4,671.

. Hyslop underwent medical training graduating from the University of Edinburgh graduating with an MB CM in 1886 before gaining his doctorate (MD). Whilst at university he competed in athletics, coming second in the Scottish pole vault championship in 1884. In 1888 he joined the

, a large asylum in London. He also lectured in psychological medicine at St Marys Hospital in London and at the School of Medicine for Women. He retired in 1911. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1908. His proposers were Sir Arthur Mitchell, James Crichton-Browne, Sir German Sims Woodhead and Sir Thomas Clouston. Hyslop was famously critical of the art of his contemporary, Roger Fry, stating that it stemmed from insanity.A Roger Fry Reader, by Roger Fry He was Chairman of the Society for the Study of Inebriety and the Chelsea Medical Society. He excelled as an after-dinner speaker and was President of the Omar Khayyam Club. He was a keen athlete, pole jumping, and played

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

, tennis and golf. He composed music, sculpted and painted, exhibiting three times at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

.British Medical Journal: obituary 25 February 1933 He developed

anxiety attacks Panic attacks are sudden periods of intense fear and discomfort that may include palpitations, sweating, chest pain or chest discomfort, shortness of breath, trembling, dizziness, numbness, confusion, or a feeling of impending doom or of losing ...

which materialised as a tic in the face and shoulders as a result of the Zeppelin raids on London during World War I. He died on 12 February 1933.

Publications

He made several contributions to

Daniel Hack Tuke Daniel Hack Tuke (19 April 18275 March 1895) was an English physician and expert on mental illness. Family Tuke came from a long line of Quakers from York who were interested in mental illness and concerned with those afflicted. His great-gr ...

's ''Dictionary of Psychological Medicine'' (1892) *''Laputa'' (1895) *''Mental Physiology, especially in relation to Mental Disorders'' (1895) *''Laputa Revisited'' (1905) *''Post-Illusionism and the Art of the Insane'' (1911) *''The Borderland: Some of the Problems of Insanity'' (1924) *''The Great Abnormals'' (1925) *''Insanity and the Law'' (BMJ 1926)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hyslop, Theophilus Bulkeley 1863 births 1933 deaths 19th-century British medical doctors 20th-century British medical doctors Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh People from Inverness British psychiatrists