Background

Julian Leff was born on July 4, 1938, in London, United Kingdom. He is the son of Samuel, a doctor, and Vera Miriam Leff.

Education

Julian Leff graduated from the University of London, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in 1958 and a Doctor of Medicine in 1972.

Career

Julian Leff has spent his entire career in the field of medicine and psychiatry and is highly respected in international professional circles for his research. Since 1972, he is an honorary consulting physician at the Maudsley Hospital. From 1974 to 1989, he worked at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine as an honorary senior lecturer. Leff also served at the Social and Community Psychiatric Unit of the Medical Research Council. In 1974-1989 he held the position of an assistant director, then in 1989-1995, he was a director. In 1974 Leff started to work at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience as a clinical sub-dean until 1989, and since 1987, he is a professor of social and cultural psychiatry. Leff is also a director of the Team for the Assessment of Psychiatric Services with 1985.

Additionally, Julian Leff is a writer. The Unbalanced Mind is his discussion and assessment of the nature of psychiatric disorders. The book paints a relatively hopeful picture for those individuals who suffer from disorders such as schizophrenia and depression by making treatment more accessible and all-inclusive. Except for providing a clear picture of how's and why's of diagnosis and treatment, Leff examines what is at the root of psychiatric disorders.

The Unbalanced Mind is far from being Julian Leff's first book concerning psychiatry. In 1997 he edited Care in the Community: Illusion or Reality?, a compilation of professional essays based on an eleven-year study of the history of psychiatric care in the United Kingdom and the West. The study was implemented upon the closing of two British mental-health facilities, Friern and Claybury hospitals. Leff and his colleagues studied the resettlement of these patients, and Care in the Community addresses issues such as patient management and outcomes, staff training, and community attitudes. The book dispelled many myths concerning community care and offered essential guidelines for the ongoing development of community services.

Whereas The Unbalanced Mind examines the effect of environmental factors on psychiatric disorders, 1993's Principles of Social Psychiatry, which Leff co-edited with Dinesh Bhugra, assesses the social consequences of mental imbalances. The book is another compilation of essays by psychiatric experts, all but one of them from the United Kingdom. Julian Leff has also contributed more than two hundred articles in his field to magazines and scholarly journals. He has now substantially retired and spends a considerable amount of time developing his longstanding skills with the piano.

Achievements

• Julian Leff is well known as a writer, educator, and physician. He has published more than two hundred articles and currently the author and co-author of ten books, one of which won the Starkey Prize from the Royal Society of Medicine. In 1999 he became the first winner of the Burgholzli Prize for outstanding contributions to psychiatry.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Unbalanced Mind

    (Do defective genes give rise to defective thought? The re...)

    2001
  • Family Work for Schizophrenia

    (The relapse rate of schizophrenia can be substantially re...)

    1992
  • Advanced Family Work for Schizophrenia

    (This book is a companion volume to Family Work for Schizo...)

    2005
  • Care in the Community

    (This book explores the care of mentally ill patients, psy...)

    1997
  • Abnormalities in Parents of Schizophrenics 1975
  • Psychiatric Examination in Clinical Practice 1978
  • Expressed Emotion in Families 1985
  • Psychiatry Around the Globe 1988

Views

Psychiatrists through the ages have debated the roles of genetics and personal experience in the development of mental disorders. Freud claimed that although heredity predisposes some people to neuroses, it could not entirely account for all the symptoms his patients displayed. Today, many experts argue that advances in genetic research will prove that disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar depression attribute to Deoxyribonucleic Acid and the brain's biochemistry. Decades of research led Julian Leff to the conclusion that, in addition to genetics, mental imbalance influence by cultural, socioeconomic, and political factors. He argues that the severity of depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia can be lessened by supportive, uncritical relationships with partners and friends. In the same vein, emotional connections with family members influence the course of several psychiatric conditions. His research also suggests that early separation from parents is a possible contributor to schizophrenia.

Sitting at home in Hampstead, Leff had an idea that would change treatment for schizophrenia. He had been reading the report of a survey about symptoms of schizophrenia, which found that the aspect of auditory hallucinations patients found most distressing was the feelings of helplessness. Leff approached researchers in information technology and virtual reality at his former college, University College London, and using police identikit technology and voice modification software, together they worked with patients to create avatars for the voices they heard. Then, with Leff behind the screen, talking both in his own voice, as a therapist, and as the avatar, he began a dialogue with the patients. Leff remembers the first man he tried it with came to his next appointment, saying the voice had disappeared.

Quotations: "I am assuming that psychotherapy is a broad term that includes cognitive and behavioral therapies. It is obviously essential for all psychiatrists to have a working ability in psychotherapy, although which particular type should be a matter of personal choice."

Membership

• 

  Royal College of Psychiatry , United Kingdom

• Public Health Medicine , United Kingdom

• 

  Royal College of Physicians , United Kingdom

• National Schizophrenia Fellowship , United Kingdom

• 

  Schizophrenia: A National Emergency , United Kingdom

• 

  Richmond Fellowship , United Kingdom

Interests

• Squash, swimming, croquet, chess, piano
  
  Educator: Aubrey Julian Lewis

• Writers

  Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

Connections

Julian Leff married Joan Lillian Raphael on January 31, 1975. They have five children, Michael, Alex, Jessa, Jonty, and Adriel Leff.

Father:

Samuel Leff

Mother:

Vera Miriam Leff

Vera Miriam Leff's maiden name was Levy.

Wife:

Joan Lillian Raphael

Daughter:

Jessa Leff

Son:

Adriel Leff

Son:

Michael Leff

Son:

Alex Leff

Daughter:

Jonty Leff

colleague:

Dinesh Bhugra

Dinesh Bhugra is a professor of mental health and diversity at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London.