This article offers a review of John Conolly's book of 1847 concerning the construction and administration of asylums for the mentally ill, which gives detailed advice on the selection and management of staff and remarks on the role of the medical superintendent.

In 1978, William Alwyn Lishman's Organic Psychiatry: The Psychological Consequences of Cerebral Disorder was published, fostering the development of neuropsychiatry and leading to the recognition of Lishman as the father of neuropsychiatry. This article is a narrative account of his personal struggles, as well as conceptual dilemmas he dealt with while writing this book, and how through its four editions it has evolved to become an anchor for psychiatrists as they seek to develop understanding of the workings of the brain, and a beacon for them when they discuss clinical implications of diagnosis with patients and families.

John Bowlby's ‘Attachment and Loss’ trilogy set the scene for half a century of attachment research and theorising. This article picks out the key themes of his work – the attachment dynamic, the impact of trauma and life events, defensive exclusion, loss and bereavement, and internal working models – and points to their continuing relevance.

This is areview of an early and important textbook published by Sir William Norwood East.

Psychiatry in Dissent: Controversial Issues in Thought and Practice was published in 1976. In the book, Irish psychiatrist Anthony Clare (1942–2007) both defended and critiqued contemporary psychiatry. He demystified the field, analysed its problems and argued that psychiatry, for all its flaws, offered a reasoned and reasonable path forward. His arguments remain fiercely relevant today, sometimes eerily so.