author
Forbes Winslow
1810–1874
A leading Victorian psychiatrist and medical writer, he became well known for bringing questions of mental illness into public debate through his books, lectures, and legal work.
1 Audiobook
The Anatomy of Suicide
by Forbes Winslow
About the author
Born in London in 1810, Forbes Benignus Winslow was a British physician who specialized in mental illness at a time when psychiatry was still taking shape as a modern field. He trained in medicine in London, Paris, and Padua, and went on to build a reputation as an authority on insanity in both medical and legal settings.
Winslow wrote widely for professional and general readers, helping bring difficult subjects such as suicide, criminal responsibility, and the treatment of mental illness before a broader Victorian audience. He also founded and edited the Journal of Psychological Medicine and Mental Pathology, reflecting his effort to give the study of the mind a stronger public and professional platform.
He died in 1874. Today he is remembered as a prominent, sometimes controversial voice in 19th-century psychiatry, and as the father of L. Forbes Winslow, who also became a well-known psychiatrist.