Isaac Marks

{{BLP sources|date=August 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Isaac Meyer Marks''' (born 1935 in [[Cape Town]], [[South Africa]]) is a British-South African psychiatrist. He trained in medicine in South Africa, qualifying in 1956. His training as a psychiatrist began in 1960 at the [[University of London]] (at the [[Bethlem Royal Hospital|Bethlem]]-[[Maudsley Hospital]]) and was completed in 1963.{{cn|date=August 2025}} In 1971, he was a founder Member of the [[Royal College of Psychiatrists]], and in 1976 he was elected a Fellow.{{cn|date=August 2025}}

Between 1964 and 2000, he conducted clinical research at the [[Institute of Psychiatry]],<ref>Portrait of Isaac Marks unveiled Annabel Ferriman BMJ 2003;326:784, {{doi|10.1136/bmj.326.7393.784/a}}</ref> [[University of London]], and the Bethlem-Maudsley Hospital. He collaborated with the Chief Nursing Officer there, [[Eileen Skellern]], to develop an innovative course for nurses in behavioural psychotherapy, which started in 1973.<ref>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/61786 David H. Russell, ‘Skellern, (Flora) Eileen (1923–1980)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004]</ref> He became Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at the Institute in 1968, and Professor of Experimental Psychopathology in 1978. In 2000, he became Professor Emeritus.{{cn|date=August 2025}}

From 2000-2003, he ran a computer-aided self-help clinic at [[Imperial College]], London, where he was a visiting professor. He is now also honorary professor at the [[Vrije Universiteit|Free University of Amsterdam]].{{cn|date=August 2025}}

Marks' research included the treatment of [[anxiety]], [[phobia|phobic]], [[OCD|obsessive-compulsive]] and [[sexual dysfunction|sexual]] disorders; interactions between drugs and [[behavioral psychotherapy]]; development of a nurse behavioral psychotherapist training program (in relation to which he coined the term 'barefoot therapist', modelled on [[Mao Zedong]]'s term [[Barefoot doctors|Barefoot Doctor]]); community care of serious mental illness; health care and cost-effectiveness evaluation; and electroshock [[conversion therapy]].<ref>{{Cite journal|doi = 10.1177/003591576806100827|title = Treatment of Sexual Deviations|year = 1968|last1 = Bancroft|first1 = John|last2 = Marks|first2 = Isaac|journal = Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine|volume = 61|issue = 8|pages = 796–799| pmid=5673410 | s2cid=191676757 |doi-access = free|pmc = 1902433}}</ref> He has developed computer aids both to evaluate treatment outcome and for self-help - matters which continue to be a central interest.

He was also instrumental in the creation of the self-help organisation Triumph Over Phobia and was a founding member of the [[BABCP]].{{cn|date=August 2025}} He is married to [[Shula Marks]].

==Writings== *Living with Fear: Understanding and Coping with Anxiety (1978) {{ISBN|0-07-040396-1}} *Cure and Care of Neuroses (1988) {{ISBN|0-88048-162-5}} *The Practice of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy (foreword) (1991) {{ISBN|0-521-41741-4}} *Hands-on Help: Computer-aided Psychotherapy (2007) {{ISBN|978-1-84169-679-9}} *Fears, Phobias, and Rituals: Panic, Anxiety, and Their Disorders (1987) {{ISBN|0-19-503927-0}}

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marks, Issac}} [[Category:1935 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:British psychiatrists]] [[Category:British Jews]] [[Category:British self-help writers]] [[Category:Alumni of the University of London]] [[Category:Writers from Cape Town]] [[Category:South African emigrants to the United Kingdom]] [[Category:South African Jews]] [[Category:Fellows of the Royal College of Psychiatrists]] [[Category:Academics of the University of London]] [[Category:Obsessive–compulsive disorder researchers]] [[Category:Academics of Imperial College London]] [[Category:South African psychiatrists]] [[Category:20th-century British non-fiction writers]] [[Category:21st-century British non-fiction writers]]