Psychiatrist in the Chair The Official Biography of Anthony Clare

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They claim it was his ‘single greatest contribution to psychiatry’ and it became an instant classic. In it, Clare argued that it was unhelpful to conceptualise normality and madness as dichotomous, and better to see them as points on a continuum. Over four decades later, the authors declare that it still merits and rewards close reading. And so to In the Psychiatrist’s Chair, which ran on BBC Radio 4 from 1982 to 2001. Among Clare's other books were Depression and How to Survive It (1993, co-written with the comedian Spike Milligan), and On Men: masculinity in crisis (2000). He said about men that "there's nothing more irresponsible than the untethered man". He regarded his own parenting skills as "good enough", but said that his "family had to put up with quite a lot". He spent years working hard to gain his professional credentials and said that he consoled himself, when he looked at his eldest children, that they had survived "despite" him rather than because of him. This finding accords precisely with the fi ndings in 2013 of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing and with research begun in Oxford, Ohio in the 1970s, among the local inhabitants then aged 50 and over. The key task, Clare argued, was not revealing the repressed and the forgotten, but processing and understanding what was already known The intimacy of the discussions undoubtedly heightened the emotional temperature in the small BBC studios where they were recorded.

A few years ago, I wrote an account of the life of the Duke of Edinburgh. Prince Philip does not like talking about himself. It is as simple as that. His youngest son, Prince Edward, summed it up when he said to me: ‘My father, plain and simply, is very modest about himself and doesn’t believe in talking about himself. Throughout Savile refuses to allow Dr Clare through his facade; denying having any emotions, using patter and concocted stories to distract from awkward questions. Clare decided on medicine as a career when he was teenager recovering from an accident in hospital. It seemed to him to be interesting work. Later, as a doctor, he was seeing patients in general wards who were clearly distressed and depressed, and the doctors didn't know what to make of them: "This was during the 1960s of course, a time when psychiatry had become a very interesting branch of medicine. I had read RD Laing's remarkable book The Divided Self, and that was a great influence on me." Somehow, Clare created a space where even the introverted were willing to speak about their personal lives to an audience of millions on national radio. Building a model railway, breeding horses, singing in a choir, going to grand opera, playing bridge or golf or bowls or Scrabble, ballroom dancing, stamp collecting, cooking, gardening, studying Wittgenstein, spotting UFOs… it doesn’t matter what it is: cultivate a passion. 

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After six years he returned to Dublin as medical director of St Joseph's hospital and professor of clinical psychiatry at Trinity College, often returning to London for a day to lecture, advise, or serve on committees. When the Royal Society wanted a strong chairman for a 1993 media training seminar on chronic fatigue syndrome, Clare was the person they chose, for his authority, courtesy and courage. He was chairman of the Prince of Wales's advisory group on disability from 1989 to 1997. Psychiatrist in the Chair - The Official Biography of Anthony Clare - by Brendan Kelly and Muiris Houston - documents a fascinating life in psychiatry and a prominent media profile, cut short with Clare's untimely death at 64 in 2007. After the prize-giving, tea was served in the school dining room and there, carved into the wood panelling above the fireplace, was the famous line from one of the Odes of Horace: ‘ Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero’. It translates, more or less, as: ‘Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future.’ The programme started in 1982, when Clare felt that the time had come for a new series, on the basis that the public was now more knowledgeable about psychology, relationships, emotions and human behaviour. Greater openness about people’s inner lives meant that – in effect – the unconscious had shrunk since the time of Freud.

Much attention now focuses on his BBC Radio 4 series, In the Psychiatrist’s Chair, but he was also making his name as a writer. He had begun his writing career with the school newspaper at Gonzaga in Dublin and continued to write at UCD. By the mid-seventies, he was a regular contributor to medical journals. Listen: Brendan Kelly and Muiris Houston talk Psychiatrist in the Chair on the Brendan O'Connor Show Despite that, it makes a valuable addition to our knowledge of and understanding of a fascinating and complex man, who according to Psychiatrist Anthony Mann, ‘made a vast contribution to promoting psychiatry in an intelligent and articulate way’ and who is missed to this day. Clare interviews John Hume for an episode of his RTÉ TV series Irish in MindThe research shows that people who are best protected against certain physical diseases – cancer and heart disease, for example – in addition to doing all the other things they should do, are likely to be part of a community of some kind, are likely to be socially involved. The photographs taken of the Queen at Royal Ascot as her horse won the Gold Cup showed a picture of pure happiness.

In Africa, we say that a person is a person through other persons. That’s why God gave Adam that delectable creature, Eve.’ Think of the Garden of Eden and be a leaf on a tree.  I can't really believe in a God that can suddenly and haphazardly intervene during one moment of history, causing air crashes, genocide and famine. [3]But my parents taught me something useful that I have tried to pass on to my two boys. Whatever you are doing, be aware of it and stay involved. Elfin and nimble, Clare had seemingly boundless energy. Professor Peter White, of the Royal London Hospital, said: "I once heard Tony Clare give a keynote lecture in Sydney three hours after he had flown in from London. The airline had lost his slides and notes and jet lag had set in. Yet his audience were spellbound by a speech in which he used his Irish charm, humour and passion to remind us that so long as we truly listened and put the patient first, all would be well in psychiatry." He first dabbled with show business while still at school, earning five shillings a week as drummer to a female pianist at the Leeds Mecca. During the second world war, he hoped to join the RAF, but instead found himself sent down the coalmines under the Emergency Powers Act – a Bevin boy.

Elfin and nimble, Clare had seemingly boundless energy. Professor Peter White of the Royal London Hospital said: "I once heard Tony Clare give a keynote lecture in Sydney three hours after he had flown in from London. The airline had lost his slides and notes and jet lag had set in. Yet his audience were spellbound by a speech in which he used his Irish charm, humour and passion to remind us that so long as we truly listened and put the patient first, all would be well in psychiatry."

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In the course of talking to Clare, Bob Monkhouse dissolved in tears after admitting that his mother had not spoken to him for 20 years; Paddy Ashdown wept when talking about the death of his father; Esther Rantzen admitted to him that she has always been insecure about her appearance; and Cecil Parkinson lamented the unhappiness he had caused others. a b c "Psychiatrist Anthony Clare dies". BBC News 24. 30 October 2007. Archived from the original on 31 October 2007 . Retrieved 30 October 2007.