Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1969-2001 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
62 items
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Mervin Glasser was born in 1928 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He read psychology at the University of Witwatersrand. He then went to England to pursue a career as a psychoanalyst. He graduated from Westminster Hospital Medical School in 1958 and qualified as an Associate Member at the London Institute of Psychoanalysis in 1963.
He was Chairman of the Portman Clinic, London from 1971 until 1994. The Clinic is a National Health Service psychotherapy clinic for people with criminal and sexual behaviour problems. In this position he forged links with the Institute of Psychiatry's forensic department, the Tavistock Clinic and the Home Office; with academia, particularly the London School of Economics; with London hospitals, the police, the prison service and the Inner London Probation Service.
He is well known for his writing and teaching on the origins of delinquency and perversion He lectured internationally and in many hospitals and centres in Britain, including regular lecures at the Anna Freud Centre in London. He was also a training analyst at the Institute of Psychoanalysis and became Director of the Clinic upon his retirement from the Portman.
Following the release of Nelson Mandela from jail, he became the first chairman of the South African Psychoanalytic Trust; and he contributed a vivid paper to its first international psychoanalytic conference in Cape Town in 1998.
Mervin Glasser died in 2000.
Repository
Content and structure area
Scope and content
The collection comrpises mostly clinical material including patient notes arising from Mervin Glasser's work as a psychoanalyst at the Portman Clinic. It also includes papers relating to his involvement with various professional bodies, documents relating to papers and conferences, research notes and a small amount of correspondence.
Accruals
It is possible that there will be further accruals to this collection.
System of arrangement
The material is arranged into 6 series:
P38-1 - Portman Clinic
P38-2 - Patient notes
P38-3 - Papers, conferences and talks
P38-4 - Professional bodies and appointments
P38-5 - Notes
P38-6 - Correspondence
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
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Language of material
- English
- French
- Italian
- Swedish
Script of material
- Latin
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
The collection catalogue is published online.
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Publication note
No known publications based on this material.
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Language(s)
- English
Script(s)
- Latin
Sources
'Glasser, M. (1994). Violence: a psychoanalytical research project. J. Forensic Psychiat., 5:311-320'
Glasser, M. (1998) On violence: a preliminary communication. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 79, 887–902.