Robin Skynner

Robin Skynner (16 August 1922 in Cornwall–24 September 2000 in Islington, London)[1] was a psychiatric pioneer and innovator in treating mental illness.

As a young man during World War II, Skynner was a Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot who flew the Mosquito twin-engined fighter bomber, and the destruction he had to take part in drew him to psychiatry.

Trained in group analysis and working as child psychiatrist and family therapist, he employed group-analytic principles in that therapeutic modality.

The destruction and slaughter he had to participate in adversely affected him, an experience that, for a variety of complex reasons, drew him to psychiatry as an eventual vocation.

After demobilisation from RAF service, Skynner enrolled as a student at University College Hospital and qualified MB, BS (Lond) in 1952.

Skynner subsequently worked with adults and children of an unusually wide range of socio-economic status, from the poorest districts of the East End of London to private practice.