Hidden Histories of British Psychoanalysis: From Freud’s Death Bed to Laing’s Missing Tooth

About the author

Professor Brett Kahr has worked in the mental health profession for over forty years. A clinical registrant of both the British Psychoanalytic Council and the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy, he is Senior Fellow at the Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology in London and, also, Visiting Professor of Psychoanalysis and Mental Health at Regent’s University London.

Over the decades, Kahr has worked in the National Health Service and in private practice in Central London with both individuals and couples. He is currently Consultant Psychotherapist to The Balint Consultancy and, additionally, Consultant in Psychology at The Bowlby Centre. He also serves as Chair of the Scholars Committee of the British Psychoanalytic Council, as well as Senior Clinical Research Fellow in Psychotherapy and Mental Health at the Centre for Child Mental Health.

Professor Kahr is the Honorary Director of Research at Freud Museum London and, also, an Honorary Fellow of the museum. Over many years, he has enjoyed the privilege of a long-standing relationship with this institution, having served as Deputy Director of the International Campaign for the Freud Museum from 1986–1987 and, more recently, as Trustee of both Freud Museum London and of Freud Museum Publications from 2011–2020.

In addition to his clinical practice, Kahr has collaborated with the media in order to promote mental health knowledge. Formerly Resident Psychotherapist on BBC2, broadcasting about mental health issues to millions of listeners, he has appeared on over one thousand radio and television programmes. In recognition of his work in this field, he has become Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Media and Communication at Bournemouth University. The United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy recently awarded him an Honorary Fellowship for his contributions to public service.

Professor Kahr is the author of sixteen books and series editor of more than seventy-five additional titles on a wide range of subjects.

His solo-authored books cover a range of topics, including clinical investigations of extreme psychopathology and forensic mental health, such as his titles Bombs in the Consulting Room: Surviving Psychological Shrapnel and Dangerous Lunatics: Trauma, Criminality, and Forensic Psychotherapy. He has also written on Sex and the Psyche – a Waterstone’s Non-Fiction Bestseller and a chosen title in the Sunday Times Book Club – based on his study of the traumatic, unconscious roots of over 20,000 adult sexual fantasies, as well as Celebrity Mad: Why Otherwise Intelligent People Worship Fame. His historically orientated books include the very first biography of Donald Winnicott, entitled D. W. Winnicott: A Biographical Portrait, which received the Gradiva Award for Biography, as well as the popular titles, Life Lessons from Freud, Tea with Winnicott, and Coffee with Freud. Most recently, he has published Freud’s Pandemics: Surviving Global War, Spanish Flu, and the Nazis – the inaugural title in the new “Freud Museum London Series” of history books – exploring not only how Sigmund Freud navigated the tragedies of his own lifetime, but also how he would have handled the Covid-19 pandemic, and what lessons our world leaders might learn from those pioneering psychoanalytical concepts.

Kahr had the pleasure of working closely with Kate Pearce and Fernando Marques during their early careers at the old Karnac Books and is now delighted to have published his book How to Flourish as a Psychotherapist with Phoenix Publishing House.

In addition to his writing of books, Kahr also serves as Consulting Editor to The International Journal of Forensic Psychotherapy and, also, as Consultant Historian to the journal Attachment: New Directions in Psychotherapy and Relational Psychoanalysis, as well as Consultant to the Board of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis, the journal of Tavistock Relationships.