Peter Eric Samuel Lomas (1923 – 2010) was an English psychotherapist and writer, "one of the most independent-minded and quietly influential psychotherapists in Britain". In 1974 he helped found what later became the Guild of Psychotherapists, and he later helped establish the Cambridge Society for Psychotherapy (also known as 'the Outfit').

Life

Peter Lomas was born on 27 February 1923 in

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

, and grew up there. He studied medicine at

Manchester University The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

, working at

Manchester Royal Infirmary Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) is a large NHS teaching hospital in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, England. Founded by Charles White in 1752 as part of the voluntary hospital movement of the 18th century, it is now a major regional and nati ...

's neurological unit before working as a GP. Moving into psychiatry, he worked with families at the

Cassell Hospital The Cassel Hospital is a psychiatric facility in a Grade II listed building at 1 Ham Common, Richmond, Ham in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is run by the West London NHS Trust. History The hospital The hospital was founded ...

therapeutic community Therapeutic community is a participative, group-based approach to long-term mental illness, personality disorders and drug addiction. The approach was usually residential, with the clients and therapists living together, but increasingly resident ...

. In 1954 he married his wife, Diana. Lomas trained as a psychoanalyst under

Charles Rycroft Charles Frederick Rycroft (; 9 September 1914 – 24 May 1998) was a British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He studied medicine at University College London, and worked briefly as a psychiatrist for the Maudsley Hospital. For most of his caree ...

at the Institute of Psychoanalysis, but became increasingly skeptical about the orthodox approach to training psychotherapists. Along with Camilla Bosanquet, Ben Churchill, John Heaton and Joe Redfearn in 1974, he helped to establish what later became the Guild of Psychotherapists. In 1980 he moved to

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, where he helped to establish 'the Outfit' (later more formally known as the Cambridge Society for Psychotherapy), a non-hierarchical psychotherapeutic training organization based on students' collective learning and evaluation. A ''

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

'' to Lomas, ''Committed Uncertainty in Psychotherapy'', was published for his 75th birthday. He died on 12 January 2010. Later that year the Cambridge Society for Psychotherapy organized a conference in his memory, 'The Legacy of Peter Lomas'. Papers from the conference were published in an issue of the ''European Journal of Psychotherapy and Counselling''.

Works

* (ed.) ''The Predicament of the Family''. 1967. * ''True and False Experience''. 1973. * ''The Case for a Personal Psychotherapy''. 1981. * ''The Limits of Interpretation''. 1987. * ''Cultivating Intuition''. 1993. * ''Personal Disorder and Family Life''. 1997. * ''Doing Good?: Psychotherapy Out of its Depth''. 1999.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lomas, Peter 1923 births 2010 deaths People from Stockport Alumni of the University of Manchester 20th-century English medical doctors English psychotherapists Psychology writers