Fonds P37 - Alexis Brook collection

Alexis Brook was born in 1920 in London. His parents were Russians who had emigrated for political reasons. He was educated at St Paul's School and decided to become a doctor. He went first to Cambridge and then underwent his clinical training at the Middlesex Hospital. He qualified in 1943.

Work with the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War II led him to choose psychiatry as a career. He noted that illness rates were lower if morale amongst troops was high. Thereafter, the recurring theme of his career was the relationship between mental and physical health.

He trained as a psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital and at the Napsbury Hospital near St. Albans. He then became Consultant Psychiatrist at the Cassell Hospital and this led him to specialise in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. He ran seminars for GPs and sat in on GPs surgeries each week. This work demonstrated the contribution that psychotherapy might make to other medical and health professionals' areas of work.

In 1971 he became a Consultant at the Tavistock Clinic. He was later Chair of the professional committee, establishing the Tavistock Foundation to raise extra funds for training and research projects, and setting up the annual public lecture series. During his time at the Tavistock he developed ideas in the area of occupational health, working to identify the factors that contributed to high levels of stress in the individual.

In 1985 he retired from NHS work and became a consultant psychotherapist at St Mark’s Hospital, Harrow, showing the contribution a psychotherapist could make to disorders of the gut.

From 1992 Brook worked in the field of psychosomatic opthalmology. He determined that psychotherapeutic intervention could make a significant difference to the treatment of certain eye disorders. This research led to the development of the Mind's Eye Clinic and the Eye and the Mind Society.

Alexis Brook died in 2007 at the age of 87.