Arthur Guirdham (1905–1992) was an English physician, psychiatrist, novelist, and writer on the Cathar sect, alternative medicine, ESP and reincarnation.

[2] While pursuing a career in psychiatry, Guirdham was also a tireless writer, supported by the nearly full-time secretarial and editing assistance of his wife Mary.

His book The Theory of Disease (1957), mentioned in Brian Inglis' History of Medicine,[3] offered an early alternative perspective on mental illness and personality, including some ideas later taken up by the anti-psychiatry movement.

"[7]Brian Inglis who was supportive of some of Guirdham's ideas wrote that a negative aspect of his writing was that he tended "to make sweeping assertions unsupported by evidence".

[8] Psychologist Robert A. Baker listed Guirdham and Carl Wickland as early psychiatrists who preferred to "ignore the science and embrace the supernatural".