Arthur Manfred Shenkin

Arthur Manfred Shenkin (Born Glasgow, March I, 1915. Died Glasgow, January 25, 2002, aged 86) was a consultant psychiatrist and Zionist.

He was the son of Barnet Shenkin one of the leading Zionists in Glasgow in the first half of the twentieth century and Freda Shenkin, also an active Zionist. His siblings were Louis Shenkin, Leonard Shenkin (b 1919), Percy Shenkin (b 1922, Glasgow, Scotland, Death: October 27, 2001 (80) Glasgow, Scotland)) and Flora Shenkin (b 1924 d 2017 at 94)

He married into one of the leading Glasgow Zionist families the Links family wedding Lillian Shenkin (nee Links) in Cathcart, Glasgow in 1943.

Obituary:

Arthur Shenkin, who died on 25 January 2002, was a pioneer in bringing psychiatry into general hospitals in post-war Glasgow, at a time of much hostility from other hospital doctors to psychiatrists and their patients. A tall man, with a commanding presence, his nature was warm and gentle. With his charm, and great reserves of patience and tolerance, he could calm the most disturbed patients and — much more difficult — awkward colleagues on medical committees.

Born on 1 March 1915 in Glasgow, the son of Latvian Jewish immigrants, he spoke in a medley of three languages in his pre-school years, and always regarded this as a formative influence. He was educated at Hutchesons' Grammar School and Glasgow University where he graduated MBChB in 1942 and elected FRCP (Glasgow) in 1971. In his student days his fierce commitment to socialism and Zionism, and his involvement in the politics of the 1930s, competed with his medical studies. When he qualified in 1942 he served in the Royal Air Force at home and in India, latterly in psychiatry.

Demobilised in 1946, he joined the staff of the Southern General Hospital, where he found the psychiatric wards of the former Poor Law Hospital housing some 130 chronically ill patients. In a short time he reorganised the unit, created active treatment wards and opened the first out-patient clinic in the area. The unit thrived to such an extent that, after the NHS was created in 1948, it was chosen to house the new University Department by Glasgow's first Professor of Psychological Medicine, T. Ferguson Rodger.

In his 28 years at the Southern, Arthur bore a heavy clinical load, played a full part in teaching and, in what for others would have been leisure time, developed a large private practice. He was interested in the psychological problems of the physically ill and developed services for them in the expanding general hospital. Twenty years later the rest of psychiatry caught up with him and named his activities ‘liaison psychiatry’. In the 1950s he began to instruct ministers in pastoral psychology, another innovation, which developed over the years into a regular undergraduate course in the Faculty of Theology. He was rightly proud of his respected status there. Before he retired in 1976 he had helped to secure the Walton Conference Suite for the hospital and had chaired many of its committees.

Retirement for him meant continuing work until the century ended. He became a tutor in psychotherapy at Dykebar Hospital, Paisley, continued his private practice and expanded his medico-legal work. He was in demand as an expert witness in the courts until his late 70s. He lectured extensively and was president of the Glasgow Royal Philosophical Society from 1996 to 1998. He was a man of wide interests and a great and combative talker, with a fund of stories and proverbs that he deployed effectively both in company and the consulting room. He was an authority on the prophet Hosea, and over many years wrote and rewrote an epic poem in Scots on the theme of the Creation, in which God featured as a woman. This amusing and original work was acclaimed by the many learned societies to which he delivered excerpts.

He remained a socialist throughout his life, and never lost his loyalty to the cause of Israel. Through all these years he was sustained by, and devoted to, his wife Lillian, also a full-time doctor, and his three daughters. He took pride in his growing band of talented grandchildren, and lived to see one of them a consultant physician. In old age he recovered completely from a fractured neck of femur and major surgery on an aortic aneurysm. He died full of years, clear-minded to the end, after a life well-lived.

Jewish Chrionicle obituary:

RENOWNED psychiatrist Dr Arthur Shenkin was also a university lecturer, poet, philosopher, Jewish scho-lar and expert on the prophet Hosea. One of the five children of Latvian immigrant parents, he was educated at Hutchesons' Grammar School and Glasgow University, where he developed his keen life-long interest in politics, socialism and Zionism. Qualifying in 1942, he served the remainder of the Second World War with the RAF in India, where he started his specialisation in psychiatry. He was senior psychiatrist in 1946 when he was demobilised, and returned to Glasgow's Southern General Hospital. Appointed the hospital's consultant psychiatrist in 1953, he revolutionised the care of the 130 chronically ill patients from the old PoorLaw Hospital, who had been left in wards with little treatment. Dr Shenkin initiated active treatment programmes, with a pioneering out-patient clinic, discharging those who could go home and finding suitable accommodation for the rest. Although medical opinion at the time was hostile to the idea, he firmly believed that mental illness should be treated in general hospitals alongside other illnesses. In the 1970s, the field of psychiatry finally caught up with him, under the label of "liaison psychiatry." In the 1950s he began teaching psychology to ministers in their pastoral role. This became the basis of his appointment as the first Jewish member of Glasgow University's Faculty of Divinity. In his pastoral psychology course, students were introduced to bereavement counselling, relationship counselling and an exploration of the link between man and God. In addition to his heavy clinical and teaching workload, he also developed a thriving private practice. After retiring from the National Health Service in 1976, he continued teaching, lecturing and appearing in law courts as an expert witness in medical cases. At home, he gave his grand children wide-ranging lectures on current affairs at Friday-night meals. With an impressive command of Latin, Greek and Yiddish, he set up a Jewish study group that met for over 50 years. He and his friends prided themselves on studying the whole Tanach, not just Torah. He became a world-renowned expert on the prophet Hosea and lectured on the subject at Glasgow and Tel Aviv Universities. He also lectured on the book of Ecclesiastes and the writings of Martin Buber. From 1996 to 1998 he was president of the Royal Philosophical Society ofGlasgow, one of many learned societies to which he would declaim his allegorical Scots-language epic poem on the creation of the world. A central feature of his revolutionary poem, revised over many drafts, was its treatment of God as female. He is survived by Lillian, his wife of 50 years and herself a doctor; three daughters, Ethne, Judith and Jennifer; and nine grandchildren.

Affiliations

• 1965 - Glasgow Jewish Board of Guardians - Hon medical officer.

See also

• Shenkin family | Samuel Lazarus