Isabel Menzies Lyth (1917-2008)

1950s-2000s

5 transfer boxes

These papers were received in August 2009 from Ann Scott, Menzies Lyth's literary executor; further accrual received May 2015; more material may be forthcoming

Isabel Menzies was born in Dysart, Fife, in 1917, fourth child of a minister of the Church of Scotland. Graduating with first class honours from St Andrews University, she obtained war-work with the War Office Selection Board, and later joined the army's civil resettlement department helping former prisoners of war. Working with other psychologists and psychoanalysts, she was involved in the new developments in individual and group work stimulated by the War, which resulted in the foundation of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in 1946. She trained and practised as a psychoanalyst, marrying a fellow-analyst, Oliver Lyth (died 1981) in 1975. She was particularly noted for her work in the application of psychoanalysis to everyday and to the understanding of groups and institutions, and her work on the dynamics of the nursing situation and the problem of nurse wastage was highly influential though controversial.

Obituaries can be found in The Guardian and The Times, and The Scotsman

Ann Scott, literary executor

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