Harold Dearden

Short description: British psychiatrist and screenwriter

Harold Dearden

Born|

Bolton

Died| 6 July 1962(1962-07-06) (aged 79)

Hay-on-Wye

Occupation| Psychiatrist, screenwriter

Harold Dearden (13 December 1882 – 6 July 1962) was a British psychiatrist and screenwriter.

## Contents

* 1 Biography
* 2 Spiritualism
* 3 Publications
* 4 References
* 5 External links

## Biography

Dearden was born in Bolton, Lancashire. He was educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and London Hospital. He qualified as a physician in 1911.[1]

During World War I, he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was a medical officer for the 3rd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards. In 1916, he became honorary Captain. At the Battle of the Somme he was wounded, suffering from a lost eye and shell shock. He was later invalided out of the war.[1][2][3]

During World War II, Dearden worked as a psychiatrist and was principal interrogator at Camp 020.[3]

He wrote the play Interference (with Roland Pertwee). He also wrote the Two White Arms which became a successful film.[1] In 1943, he married Ann Verity Gibson Watt, they had four children.[2]

He died at his home in Hay-on-Wye from cerebral thrombosis.[1]

## Spiritualism

Dearden was skeptical of claims of psychical phenomena and spiritualism. In his book Devilish But True: The Doctor Looks at Spiritualism (1936), he compared cases of witchcraft to spiritualist mediums. He noted the similarity of hysterical behaviour and hallucinations.[4]

In 1927, he wrote an article How Spiritualists are Deluded.[5] Dearden attended séances and was a judge for a group formed by the Sunday Chronicle to investigate the materialization medium Harold Evans. During a séance Evans was exposed as a fraud. He was caught masquerading as a spirit, in a white nightshirt.[6]

## Publications

* Insanity: Prevention or Cure? (1922)
* The Moral Imbecile (1922)
* The Technique of Living (1924)
* The Doctor Looks at Life (1924)
* The Science of Happiness (1925)
* Exercise and the Will: With a Chapter on Obesity (1927)
* How Spiritualists are Deluded (1927)
* Medicine and Duty: The First World War Diary of Dr Harold Dearden (1928, 2014)
* Two White Arms: A Comedy-Farce in Three Acts (1928)
* The Mind of the Murderer (1930)
* Such Women are Dangerous (1933)
* The Fire Raisers: The Story of Leopold Harris and His Gang (1934)
* A Confessor of Women (1934)
* Queer People (1935)
* Devilish But True: The Doctor Looks at Spiritualism (1936)
* The Wind of Circumstance (1938)[7]
* Time and Chance (1940)[8]
* Creation's Heir (1947)
* Some Cases of Sir Bernard Spilsbury and Others: Death Under the Microscope (1948)

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Anonymous. (1962). Harold Dearden, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. The British Medical Journal 2 (5298): 197–198.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Dr. Harold Dearden - Psychiatrist at Camp 020". Giselle K. Jakobs, 2014.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 West, Nigel. (2009). The A to Z of British Intelligence. The Scarecrow Press. p. 139. ISBN 978-0-8108-6865-6
4. ↑ Anonymous. (1936). Notes on Books. The British Medical Journal 1 (3938): 1303.
5. ↑ Dearden, Harold. (April 9, 1927). How Spiritualists are Deluded. The Graphic. pp. 50–51.
6. ↑ Price, Harry. (1939). Fifty Years of Psychical Research: A Critical Survey. Longmans, Green and Co. p. 202
7. ↑ "The Wind of Circumstance". Kirkus Reviews.
8. ↑ "Time and Chance". The Spectator.

## External links

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