Obituary: Dr Ludwig F Lowenstein

Birkbeck alumnus and visiting lecturer

Dr Ludwig Lowenstein was a qualified clinical and educational psychologist who also worked in the area of forensic psychology. He published widely in all three areas. He obtained his MA and PhD at Birkbeck, University of London in the 1960s, and later returned as a visiting lecturer.

Ludwig's family escaped Nazi Germany and settled in New York, where he attended Stuyvesant High School and New York University. He entered the US Army and served in the 82nd Airborne Division. Ludwig then travelled around the world, settling in Perth, Australia, where he received his BA degree from the University of Western Australia. After moving to the UK, he studied further and undertook his clinical training and diploma from the Institute of Psychiatry, Maudsley Hospital.

Over the years, Ludwig worked as a teacher, welfare officer, probation officer, and staff member at mental hospitals, child guidance clinics, and residential centres for troubled teenagers. He advised on the set up of centres in Poland and other parts of the world to help children who suffered from a variety of problems. He was made an honorary member of the Polish Medical Society, an honour that he shared with Louis Pasteur.

As a senior psychologist, he consulted at many agencies and institutions in the UK, the US, the Sudan, Switzerland and Poland. He was also a former Chief Educational Psychologist for Hampshire, and created a school and therapeutic community, Allington Manor, for troubled adolescents, which he ran for 20 years. He was twice elected to serve as a Director of the International Council of Psychologists, and was their President from 2011 to 2013. He was a Fellow of the College of Teachers and acted as a long-serving Chief examiner in Educational Psychology.

During his time as a senior psychologist, Ludwig became interested in parental alienation, acting as expert witness in over 50 legal cases. He wrote prolifically on this practice.