Nicoll, (Henry) Maurice (Dunlap)(1884-1953)

Prominent British physician and psychologist who became a leading exponent of the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff and his most prominent pupil, P. D. Ouspensky. Nicoll was born in 1884. He was educated at Aldenham School and Caius College, Cambridge University, going on to study medicine at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, and Zürich (B.A., M.B., B.C., Cambridge; M.R.C.S., London). He was medical officer to Empire Hospital for injuries to the nervous system, a lecturer in medical psychology at Birmingham University, England, and a member of the British Psycho Medical Society. He became a member of the editorial staff of Journal of Neurology and Psychopathy. During World War I he served in Gallipoli in 1915 and Mesopotamia in 1916.

After his study in Zürich, Nicoll emerged as an early Jungian psychotherapist. In 1923 he spent a year with Gurdjieff and later spent several years with Ouspensky. In his mature life he founded his own groups based upon his understanding of his teachers' ideas, and ultimately became known as one of the most perceptive of their interpreters. The problems of traveling and meeting with his groups during World War II spurred his putting his insights on paper, a practice he continued until his death on August 30, 1953.

Sources:

Driscoll, J. Walter. Gurdjieff: An Annotated Bibliography. New York: Garland Publishing, 1985.

Nicoll, Maurice. Dream Psychology. Oxford: Henry Frowde, 1917.

——. Living Time and the Integration of Life. London: Vincent Stuart, 1952.

——. The Mark (On the Symbolism of Various Passages from the Bible). London: Watkins, 1954.

——. The New Man: An Interpretation of Some Parables and Miracles of Christ. London: Start & Richard, 1950.

——. Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of G. I. Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspensky. 5 vols. London: Vincent Stuart, 1954, 1964, 1966.