Obituary: Professor Ivor Browne, FRCPI FRCPsych MSc (Harv.) DPM.

Abstract

Professor William Ivory (Ivor) Browne, consultant psychiatrist, who died on 24 January 2024, was a remarkable figure in the history of medicine in Ireland and had substantial influence on psychiatric practice and Irish society. Born in Dublin in 1929, Browne trained in England, Ireland, and the US. He was chief psychiatrist at St Brendan's Hospital, Grangegorman, Dublin from 1965 to 1994 and professor of psychiatry at University College Dublin from 1967 to 1994. Browne pioneered novel and, at times, unorthodox treatments at St Brendan's. Along with Dr Dermot Walsh, he led the dismantling of the old institution and the development of community mental health services during the 1970s and 1980s. He established the Irish Foundation for Human Development (1968-1979) and, in 1983, was appointed chairman of the group of European experts set up by the European Economic Community for reform of Greek psychiatry. After retirement in 1994, Browne practiced psychotherapy and pursued interests in stress management, living system theory, and how the brain processes trauma. For a doctor with senior positions in healthcare and academia, Browne was remarkably iconoclastic, unorthodox, and unafraid. Browne leaves many legacies. Most of all, Browne is strongly associated with the end of the era of the large 'mental hospital' at Grangegorman, a gargantuan task which he and others worked hard to achieve. This is his most profound legacy and, perhaps, the least tangible: the additional liberty enjoyed by thousands of people who avoided institutionalisation as a result of reforms which Browne came to represent.