Graduate School of Medicine, University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.
J Med Biogr. 2020 May;28(2):68-75. doi: 10.1177/0967772017733127. Epub 2017 Oct 26.
The Maudsley Hospital, reopened in January 1923, became the centre of British psychiatric research and achieved a world-wide reputation. At a time when women were rare in psychiatry, New Zealand-born Mary Barkas was the only woman (and psychoanalyst) among the first four psychiatrists appointed. This paper looks at her role in the early years at the Maudsley. The letters she wrote to her father, often on a daily basis, provide a unique insight to the earliest years of the hospital that was to have such an influence on British psychiatry. It is the only insider record we have of this crucial time. Barkas demonstrated her versatility in psychiatry and child psychiatry. She used psychoanalysis to treat her patients, receiving recognition from her colleagues. Her work in this field proved to be an exception as analysis was not practiced after she left the Maudsley. Her problem was the institutionalised prejudice against women in psychiatry, which caused her to leave. Her career was terminated at an early stage and her life took a puzzling turn after she returned to New Zealand in 1933. We can remember Mary Barkas as a forgotten psychiatric pioneer whose life and work deserves to be more widely known and recognised.
1923 年 1 月重新开放的莫兹利医院成为英国精神病学研究中心，并在全球范围内享有盛誉。在女性在精神病学中较为罕见的时期，新西兰出生的玛丽·巴卡丝 (Mary Barkas) 是前四位精神病学家中唯一的女性（也是精神分析学家）。本文探讨了她在莫兹利早期的角色。她写给父亲的信件，往往是每天一封，为这家医院的早期历史提供了独特的见解，而这家医院对英国精神病学产生了如此深远的影响。这是我们唯一能了解这段关键时期的内部记录。巴卡丝在精神病学和儿童精神病学方面表现出了多方面的才能。她运用精神分析来治疗她的患者，获得了同事们的认可。她在这一领域的工作是一个例外，因为在她离开莫兹利后，就不再进行分析了。她离开的原因是，精神病学领域存在针对女性的制度化偏见。她的职业生涯在早期就结束了，1933 年回到新西兰后，她的生活也发生了令人费解的转折。我们可以记住玛丽·巴卡丝 (Mary Barkas) 是一位被遗忘的精神病学先驱，她的生活和工作值得更广泛地了解和认可。
