The President of The British
Psychoanalytical Society
David Bell
David Bell, the President of the British
Psychoanalytic Society, is a Fellow of the Institute and a Training Analyst.
He is a Consultant Psychiatrist in psychotherapy in the Adult Dept of the
Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust where he is director of Fitzjohns Unit, a
specialist unit for serious/complex psychological disorders, and he is also
Programme Director of Postgraduate Medical Training. David Bell is also Honorary
Senior Lecturer at University College London. He teaches Freud and the history
of psychoanalytic concepts at the British Psychoanalytic Society and at the
Tavistock Clinic. He writes and lectures on a variety of subjects including the
history and development of psychoanalytic concepts, psychosis, personality
disorder, suicide and trauma. Before being elected as President of the Society,
Dr Bell was chair of the Scientific Committee. Throughout his professional
career he has been deeply involved in the relation between psychoanalysis and
other disciplines such as literature, philosophy , culture and socio-political
issues and has for the last ten years co-chaired a study group on philosophy and
psychoanalysis. He is a leading psychiatric expert in asylum/human rights.
He is the contributing editor of two books: Reason and Passion and
Psychoanalysis and Culture: a Kleinian Perspective. He is also the author of
a short book Paranoia.
Past Presidents of the British
Psychoanalytical Society
| 1913-1944 | Dr Ernest Jones |
| 1944-1947 | Dr Sylvia M Payne |
| 1947-1950 | Dr John Rickman |
| 1950-1953 | Dr William H Gillespie |
| 1953-1954 | Dr W Clifford M Scott |
| 1954-1956 | Dr Sylvia M Payne |
| 1956-1959 | Dr Donald W Winnicott |
| 1959-1962 | Dr Willi Hoffer |
| 1962-1965 | Dr Wilfred R Bion |
| 1965-1968 | Dr Donald W Winnicott |
| 1968-1970 | Dr Michael Balint |
| 1971-1972 | Dr William H Gillespie |
| 1972-1974 | Dr Walter G Joffe |
| 1974-1977 | Dr Adam Limentani |
| 1977-1980 | Dr Hanna Segal |
| 1980-1981 | Dr John Klauber |
| 1981-1982 | Dr Hanna Segal (acting) |
| 1982-1984 | Miss Pearl H M King |
| 1984-1987 | Dr Moses Laufer |
| 1987-1990 | Dr Eric Brenman |
| 1990-1993 | Mrs Anne-Marie Sandler |
| 1993-1996 | Dr Brendan Mac Carthy |
| 1996-1999 | Mrs Irma Brenman Pick |
| 1999-2002 | Mr Don Campbell |
| 2002-2004 | Dr Ron Britton |
| 2004-2006 | Ms Julia Fabricius |
| 2006-2008 | Dr Roger Kennedy |
| 2008-2010 | Mr Michael Brearley |