Millais Culpin

Born in Ware, Hertfordshire, in 1874, he spent part of his early life in England before going to Australia, where he worked in a variety of jobs and eventually studied medicine. He later returned to London, trained as a surgeon, and built a career that moved from surgery and tropical medicine toward psychology and psychotherapy.

He is remembered as an early pioneer in linking medicine with what was then called dynamic psychology. During and after the First World War, he wrote about war neuroses and shell shock, and he also worked on industrial psychology, including studies of fatigue, temperament, and stress in working life. His books helped make psychological ideas more accessible to general readers as well as medical audiences.

Culpin died in St Albans in 1952. Sources consulted agree that his career was unusually wide-ranging, combining medicine, psychiatry, teaching, and research, which gives his writing a thoughtful, grounded quality.