ABSTRACT
In the autumn of 1975 I was asked to address the American Psychiatric Association at its annual meeting, with the specific request that the lecture be devoted to Sir Aubrey Lewis, who died a few months earlier that year. Since on such occasions an invited speaker is usually entitled to choose his own topic I was moved to question the reasons for so pointed a suggestion, especially as I knew that while Sir Aubrey’s reputation in the USA had always been high among knowledgeable observers of the British scene, to most American psychiatrists his work had been largely unknown and in some centres it had been blatantly misunderstood. His status there was epitomized in the American Psychiatric Dictionary, where he is included as almost the only twentieth-century British figure in the following exiguous entry:
Lewis, Sir Aubrey (1900–1975) Australian-born psychiatrist who joined the staff of the Maudsley Hospital (London) in 1928; Professor of Psychiatry at the associated Institute of Psychiatry, which under his direction became an international center for teaching and research. 1
