My friend, mentor and analyst, Julian David, who has died aged 88, was a psychoanalyst in the UK and in South Africa, where he worked with Sir Laurens van der Post to set up a Jungian training institute for medical professionals at the end of apartheid.
Julian was born in London to Phylis (nee Neeley) and Aubrey David, a naval officer. The couple had seven children of their own and and fostered children from a Catholic orphanage in London. They also took in refugees and ex-prisoners right up to the end of their lives.
From Ampleforth college, North Yorkshire, Julian went to Oxford University, gaining a history degree in 1959. After that he lived at a Benedictine monastery in London for a while and then taught religion and history at Dartington Hall school (1960-73). Driven by an interest in Jung, dreams and the unconscious, in 1977 he went to Zurich to train in psychoanalysis at the CG Jung Institute.
Following his graduation in 1982 he practised in London for 15 years and co-founded the Independent Group of Analytical Psychologists, a training institute. He also spent periods in Devon and South Africa, eventually consolidating his practice in those two places.
In London through friends and colleagues he met Laurens van der Post, who invited him to help set up a training institute in Cape Town towards the end of apartheid, introducing medical professionals to Jungian psychology. When it opened, he taught at the South African Association of Jungian Analysts full time from 1989 to 1995. He then returned to the UK and continued to see private patients, teach, write and lecture in both the UK and South Africa.
In 2006 he became chairman of the CG Jung Club in London and editor of its journal, Harvest. He gave open lectures in a number of countries and published many articles and books, including Interweaving Symbols in African Fairy Tales (1990). In A Brief History of God (2021), Julian examines the history of patriarchal religion and its devastating effect on western culture, women and nature.
Julian was a loving analyst and teacher, and shared his knowledge of the language of dreams, myth and fairytale during wonderful retreats at his home. He continued to see clients and train analysts in both Devon and South Africa until the end of his life. He remained at his home in Devon and loved architecture, art galleries, opera, theatre and classical concerts.
In 1961 Julian married Yasmin Wishart, the daughter of Laurie Lee, who as a painter exhibited as Yasmin David; she died in 2009. He is survived by their children, Esther, Gabriel and Clio, and seven grandchildren.
