The Continual Inner Search

This book reconstructs the story of Roy Coupland Winn 1890-1963, Australia&apos;s first fulltime practising psychoanalyst, of whom it was said that he was &apos;dedicated to the continual inner search to understand himself and others&apos;.<br /> <br />From a background of privilege, he volunteered in 1915 and cut his teeth as a military medic on Gallipoli. On the Western Front he gained a Military Cross, lost his foot and was left wondering if he wasn&apos;t losing his mind too. In recuperation, he first encountered psychoanalysis – as a patient. He also wrote Men May Rise, a novel he said was &apos;rather more biographical than customary&apos;. The author has provided a superb chart of her grandfather&apos;s war and early post-war years from it, showing how he had already embarked on the inner search.<br /> <br />Back in Sydney, the new psychoanalysis was widely mistrusted in medical circles, but he lived his own life, professional and private, according to his own code, &apos;seemingly unswayed by the prevailing moral climate or conventional social niceties&apos;. Witty, self-mocking, insightful and inventive, the kindness and tolerance others saw in him is perhaps best expressed in these lines he once wrote:<br /><i>Most satisfying hope of human race</i><br /><i>Immortal history in a baby&apos;s face. </i>