Bertram Mandelbrote Archive

Skip to menu
Skip to content

Reference number	MANDELBROTE
Level of description	Collection
Date(s)	Creation: 1945-1992
Extent and medium	4 boxes (approx)
Category	Personal Papers
Scope and content	┆Personal papers of Doctor Bertram Mandelbrote consisting of a small collection of materials relating to Coney Hill and Horton Hospitals in Gloucester and to Littlemore Hospital in Oxford.
History	Doctor Bertram Mandelbrote was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1925 to Lithuanian parents. His father, Harry Mandelbrote was professor of history at the University of Cape Town. Mandelbrote trained in medicine at Groote Schuur hospital, Cape Town until, in 1946 he won a Rhodes scholarship to Merton College, Oxford. He worked in hospitals in London and Montreal before taking a post at Warlingham Park psychiatric hospital in Surrey. It was here, under the guidance of TP Rees that he was first introduced to therapeutic community methods. Moving to Coney Hill and Horton Road Hospitals, Gloucester to take up the post of physician superintendent Mandelbrote built on his experience with TP Rees to implement rapid changes at the traditional hospitals. He reclassified patients according to their disabilities, relocating them to new mixed-sex wards. Barriers between staff and patients were broken down through regular joint meetings. Nurses were empowered and given more responsibilities; uniforms were abandoned. Within six months of his arrival, Mandelbrote achieved his aim of unlocking all doors in the wards, attracting great attention, especially from the US. In 1959 he returned to Oxford as physician superintendent at Littlemore Hospital. He immediately encountered the institutional problems he had come across at Gloucester. This time aided by the staff he brought with him, he set about applying similar solutions. However, those resistant to his methods prevented institution-wide adoption of his practices, leading to a division of the hospital into ‘A’ and ‘B’ sides. Mandelbrote’s ‘A’ side included the pioneering Phoenix Unit which, with the help of Ben Pomryn from Henderson Hospital, became a full therapeutic community. To support patients after they left the Phoenix Unit, Mandelbrote recruited a 'league of friends' who together established the largest network of group homes and hostels in the country. Further new ventures followed. The Ashhurst Clinic was established as a day community for people with neurotic and personality problems, and the Isis Centre, a self-referral counselling service, was established in central Oxford. In 1970, the Ley Clinic opened in Littlemore to treat drug addicts with Mandelbrote appointed as consultant. Taking inspirations from the US and pioneering clinics in London and Portsmouth, he introduced the "concept house" model. This was a tightly structured self-help system originally derived from the Synanon commune in 1960s California. Mandelbrote also worked with Peter Agulnik to establish the Ley Community alongside the clinic. The Community was a charitable foundation providing a residential therapeutic community and recovery programme for men and women with drug and alcohol dependency. Mandelbrote passed away on 25 November 2010. He was survived by his wife, Kathie and sons Giles and Scott.
Name of creator(s)	Bertram Mandelbrote
Access status	OPEN
Language	ENG