Ivor Browne: “visionary and radical” psychiatrist

bmj;384/mar20_15/q702/FAF1faIvor Browne, professor emeritus of psychiatry at University College Dublin, was best known for his theory that trauma is at the root of many psychiatric diagnoses. He transformed the public perception of mental illness in Ireland and oversaw the move away from packed hospital wards.Early life and careerBrowne was born in Dublin to Grace Darling (née Fitzmaurice), a Church of Ireland Protestant, and James Browne, a Catholic, who worked in a bank having served with the British navy during the first world war and taken part in the Battle of Jutland. Browne attended secondary school at Blackrock College, Dublin, then Potters College in Dún Laoghaire. As a teenager he had wanted to be a jazz musician and claimed he studied medicine only to please his parents.In 1947, on his second attempt, Browne passed the entrance exam to the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin and started his medical training—while playing…
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