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 tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...

at the

University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...

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

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

. 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 The London Hospital Medical College was a medical school, medical and later dental school based at the London Hospital (later Royal London Hospital) in Whitechapel, London. Founded in 1785, it was the first purpose-built medical college in Englan ...

that October. He qualified with the

Conjoint 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 The Conjoint Board was superseded in 1994 by the United Examining Board, which lost its permission to hol ...

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) was a specialist corps in the British Army which provided medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. On 15 November 2024, the corps was amalgamated with the Royal Army De ...

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

Tobruk Tobruk ( ; ; ) is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near the border with Egypt. It is the capital of the Butnan District (formerly Tobruk District) and has a population of 120,000 (2011 est.)."Tobruk" (history), ''Encyclop� ...

. 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 A Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (; MBBS, also abbreviated as BM BS, MB ChB, MB BCh, or MB BChir) is a medical degree granted by medical schools or universities in countries that adhere to the United Kingdom's higher education tradi ...

(MB BS) in 1946 and in 1948 those for

Membership of the Royal College of Physicians Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom (MRCP(UK)) is a postgraduate medical diploma in the United Kingdom (UK). The examinations are run by the Federation of the Medical Royal Colleges – the Royal College of Phys ...

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 I ...

in London where he came under the influence of Sir

Aubrey Lewis Sir Aubrey Julian Lewis (8 November 1900 – 21 January 1975), was a British-Australian psychiatrist. He was the first Professor of Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, London (now part of King's College London), and is credited with bei ...

. Taking an interest in the continental schools of psychiatry, he worked with Karl Leonhard 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 ...

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

and Karl Leonhard, 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 com ...

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 39,200 members who are in ...

. 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 psychiatric ...

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