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