which resolved his dilemma, indicating that medicine was to be his first priority. In this, he retraced a journey of Freud himself, who also had a significant dream there.

During six years at the Maudsley, he wrote an MD thesis on obsessional symptoms in schizophrenia and also completed a full psychoanalytical training. He was in independent practice as an analyst while still a senior registrar. At the same time, he produced a striking head of Henry Maudsley, which was placed in a prominent position in the hospital. This training was followed by a consultant appointment at the Portman Clinic, where he specialised in problems of delinquency and sexual deviation. Subsequently, he was appointed to the Camden Clinic, which was later amalgamated with the West End Hospital for Nervous Diseases and the Paddington Hospital to form the Paddington Clinic and Day Hospital. Ismond became medical chairman of the combined unit and held that post for 13 years. In 1964, his edited book *The Pathology of Treatment of Sexual Deviation* was published and was to go into two further editions, the later one appearing just before his death.

This considerable workload, together with a busy analytical practice, did not result in any slackening of his rate of artistic productions. He produced and presented to the Royal Society of Medicine a bronze head of John Hunter, an abstract carving in marble on the theme of human love, and a work in stainless steel representing Civilization. Two more psychiatrists commemorated by sculpted heads were Erwin Stengel and Henry Rey, and at other hospitals there were portraits of Dorothy Stuart-Russell and Dame Betty Patterson. In addition to sculpture in a variety of materials, Ismond was prolific in producing pictures, etchings, lithographs, drawings, and cartoons, though many were never seen publicly. In 1974, a major exhibition of his work was held at the Camden Arts Centre under the title of "Genesis: the process of creativity", with 113 items. The illustrated catalogue, with extensive comments by Ismond on his work, concludes, "creativity and the adaptation necessary for healthy survival depend on very complex cycles and levels within the personality and the life of the artist and society. The process of integration of the earliest experiences in the mind together with the creative potential of the unconscious being made manifest by the artist, reveals insights and provides good experiences for ego growth for us all". His work was acknowledged by the Fellowship of the Society of Portrait Sculptors.

He was also active in the media, particularly in relation to the borderland between art and psychiatry. He wrote papers for the Tate Gallery on the psychology of Richard Dadd and Otto Dix,

and spoke there on the work of Constable. He took part in *Lifeline* with David Stafford-Clark, and in a *Horizon* programme on sex education. He played a major part in the production of a programme on Freud's Rat Man case, which won a special award, and both wrote and presented for television a programme on dreams (*Fantasies of the Night*).

However, Ismond's most important sculptural work was the Holocaust Triptych, in which he both returned to his religious roots and reached out to a universal level of expression. This consists of three abstract figures: the first depicts Christ as a Jew, who would himself have been a victim of the Holocaust; the second is a symbol of Nazi atrocity, and the third represents the need for universal religious tolerance and reconciliation. It was completed in 1992 and exhibited in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral, London (see photo). However, its permanent home was to be, most appropriately, in the recently restored Kreuzkirche in Berlin, though Ismond did not live to be present at its dedication. His final creative act was to design an altar, in steel and marble, which will stand near the Triptych. The ceremony of dedication was performed by Bishop Wolfgang Huber on the German Protestant Church's Day of Repentance in the presence of the President of the Brandenburg Government, the Mayor of Berlin, and a packed congregation. It was accompanied by an orchestra composed entirely of German doctors and a choir singing in both German and Hebrew. There could not have been a more fitting commemoration of the passing of a unique man. Some years ago, he had said, "If we can't survive, we must create things that will. It is a sort of immortality".

A man with such gifts might have been forgiven for being well aware of them, but that was not so. Ismond was warm, generous, hospitable, deeply humane, and always ready to praise others; he had a remarkable gift for friendship. In 1991, he presented re-worked copies of the heads of Henry Maudsley and Erwin Stengel to the College.

Ismond married Ruth Abramowitz in 1963; she is a talented actress who has worked particularly in South Africa. He is survived by her and by their son and daughter.

HUGH FREEMAN

**Norman Boyce Le Couteur, formerly Consultant Psychiatrist, Broadmoor Hospital**

Boyce was born in Melbourne, Australia, his mother being a teacher and his father a school inspector. Scholarships brought him to Melbourne University to study medicine but characteristically a year later he volunteered for the
services and was selected to serve in the Australian Special Forces. However, a badly broken leg led to 2 years in hospital and his being invalidated out.

He resumed his medical studies qualifying in 1949 and then spent 10 years in country practice in Port Fairy. In 1960 he came to England to study at Moorfields but the discovery in his own eyes of diabetic retinopathy turned him to psychiatry, a speciality which had long interested him. After working at Hellingly Hospital for 2 years a chance visit to Broadmoor revealed to him the fascination of forensic psychiatry and in 1963 he went there, first as senior registrar, then as consultant.

At the start of his Broadmoor career the hospital, originally built for 500, was home to some 900 patients. However, ECT and the new antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs were as effective in Broadmoor as elsewhere and many patients, no longer dangerous, could be safely discharged. Boyce played a full part in this exodus.

Improvements came slowly but steadily - Boyce was well aware of the dangers of advancing too

fast and not being able to hold the ground taken - and the regime became increasingly humane, relaxed and individualised. Though he did publish, his achievements were essentially clinical rather than academic.

His early career and wide range of interests complemented his clinical skills. In his younger days he was a pianist, an intrepid motorcyclist and a skilled craftsman. It was a motor cycle accident that led to his retirement in 1987 though he continued to sit on Mental Health Review Tribunals. From this vantage point he could clearly see the inadequacies of community care and became a staunch ally of Marjorie Wallace in her campaign to improve matters.

He died, aged 72, on 17 December 1995 after a long illness. Boyce is survived by his wife, Pam, a retired dental surgeon and their daughters Ann, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Newcastle, and Sally a GP in Melbourne.

DAVID TIDMARSH