Dinora Pines Lewison (30 December 1918 – 26 February 2002), known by her maiden name Dinora Pines, was a Ukrainian born, British

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

and

psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk th ...

, who had specific interests in women's psychology and

psychosomatic illness Somatic symptom disorder, also known as somatoform disorder or somatization disorder, is chronic somatization. One or more chronic physical symptoms coincide with excessive and maladaptive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors connected to those sympt ...

Life

Pines was born in

Lutsk Lutsk (, ; see #Names and etymology, below for other names) is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Volyn Oblast and the administrative center of Lutsk Raion within the oblast. Lutsk has a populati ...

, now in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, in 1918. Her family moved to

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

and her father, Noé Pines, who was an ophthalmic surgeon, was given a medal by the King of Belgium after a successful operation on his eyes. Shortly thereafter her father moved to London as he believed, erroneously, that his qualifications would be accepted there without further retraining. This not being the case he requalified, but not speaking English sufficiently well, he took the exams in Latin. Needing to feed his family and bring them to London he did not go on to take the higher Ophthalmic surgery exams and decided to practice as a General Practitioner, setting up his surgery in the East End of London. Dinora Pines attended

City of London School for Girls The City of London School for Girls (CLSG) is a private school adjacent to the Barbican Centre, part of the Barbican Estate, in the City of London. It is the partner school of the all-boys City of London School and the City of London Freemen's ...

and went on to take a degree in Modern Languages at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. Qualified in four languages she went to the Sorbonne but returned to England as war broke out. Between 1940 and 1945 she retrained as a physician and as a student was evacuated to Exeter. During the war she lost family members in the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

in Europe. Pines married Anthony Lewison in 1946 and had two sons. She practiced as a General Practitioner and also ran dermatology clinics at the

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson hospital The Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Obstetric Hospital and its predecessor organisations provided health care to women in central London from the mid-Victorian era. It was named after Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, one of Britain's first female phys ...

and the

South London Hospital for Women and Children South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sun ...

Finding that her patients responded better to talking than to any medicaments prescribed for their skin conditions led her to experiment with an emotional approach to reducing skin problems. She met Hilda Abraham and this led her to an interest in psychology. She enrolled at the Hampstead Child Therapy Course and Clinic in 1959 and she became a qualified

in 1965. She then went into private practice. She was a foundational member of the Brent Adolescent Centre set up by Moe and Egle Laufer and became chair of the B Group at the Institute of Psychoanalysis. She had interests in women's psychology and

. Pines was able to donate material to

Karl Abraham Karl Abraham (; 3 May 1877 – 25 December 1925) was an influential German psychoanalyst, and a collaborator of Sigmund Freud, who called him his 'best pupil'. Life Abraham was born in Bremen, Germany. His parents were Nathan Abraham, a Jewish ...

's biography. He had analysed his daughter, Hilda, when she was six noting details of her reaction to enemas and masturbation. Hilda, who remained a long-standing friend of Dinora Pines, died in 1971 and as the analysis had been passed to Pines she was able to add it to the record of Karl Abraham's work in 1974. Although she wrote extensively on subjects relating to the inner psychology of women Dinora Pines was also a pioneer in the psychoanalytic treatment of first and second generation survivors of the Holocaust. She was a highly regarded clinician and a well respected training analyst. Her archives are deposited at the Institute of Psychoanalysis London.

Selected works

* * * * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pines, Dinora 1918 births 2002 deaths People from Lutsk 20th-century British medical doctors British psychoanalysts British women medical doctors 20th-century British women medical doctors 20th-century British women writers British medical writers People educated at the City of London School for Girls Jewish British scientists