Sir Thomas Smith Clouston (April 22 1840–1915) was a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 psychiatrist

Psychiatrist

A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...

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Clouston was born in the Birsay

Birsay

Birsay is a parish in the north west corner of The Mainland of Orkney, Scotland. Almost all the land in the parish is devoted to agriculture: chiefly grassland used to rear beef cattle...

 parish of Orkney, and educated at Aberdeen Grammar School

Aberdeen Grammar School

Aberdeen Grammar School, known to students as The Grammar is a state secondary school in the City of Aberdeen, Scotland. It is one of twelve secondary schools run by the Aberdeen City Council educational department...

 and the University of Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

. Clouston qualified M.D.(Edinburgh) with a thesis on the nervous system

Nervous system

The nervous system is an organ system containing a network of specialized cells called neurons that coordinate the actions of an animal and transmit signals between different parts of its body. In most animals the nervous system consists of two parts, central and peripheral. The central nervous...

 of the lobster

Lobster

Clawed lobsters comprise a family of large marine crustaceans. Highly prized as seafood, lobsters are economically important, and are often one of the most profitable commodities in coastal areas they populate.Though several groups of crustaceans are known as lobsters, the clawed lobsters are most...

, supervised by John Goodsir

John Goodsir

John Goodsir was a Scottish anatomist, born at Anstruther, Fife. He was a pioneer in the study of the cell.- Life :Goodsir was trained in St Andrews and Edinburgh...

. His early interest in insanity

Insanity

Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others, though not all such acts are considered insanity...

 resulted in an apprenticeship with David Skae

David Skae

-Life:David Skae was born in Edinburgh on 5 July 1814. His parents were David Skae, an architect and builder, and Helen Lothian. Both parents died while David was a child, and he was educated by his maternal uncle, the Rev. William Lothian, at St. Andrews. At the age of fourteen Skae began his...

, the eminent Superintendent of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum. In 1863, Clouston was appointed superintendent of the Cumberland and Westmoreland Asylum (Garlands Hospital) in Carlisle; and in 1873, in succession to Skae, Superintendent of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum

Royal Edinburgh Hospital

The Royal Edinburgh Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is operated by the Primary and Community Division of NHS Lothian...

. In 1879, Clouston was appointed successor to Thomas Laycock

Thomas Laycock

Thomas Laycock was an English soldier, explorer, and later businessman, who served in North America during the War of 1812, but is most famous for being the first European to travel overland through the interior of Tasmania .-Early life:Thomas Laycock was the son of Thomas and Hannah Laycock...

 as Lecturer on Mental Diseases in the University of Edinburgh, a post which he held in conjunction with his position at the Royal Edinburgh Asylum. Clouston became a celebrated lecturer with an international reputation for his exposition of the psychiatric disorders of adolescence. Clouston published extensively, beginning with his remarkable Clinical Lectures on Mental Diseases (1883), followed, much later, by his more popular work Unsoundness of Mind (1911). Another book aimed at the general public was entitled Morals and The Brain; and he remained an unreconstructed believer in "masturbational insanity" and an uncompromising advocate of teetotalism in opposition to his contemporary, the psychiatrist James Crichton-Browne

James Crichton-Browne

Sir James Crichton-Browne MD FRS was a leading British psychiatrist famous for studies on the relationship of mental illness to neurological damage and for the development of public health policies in relation to mental health...

. In 1894 he opened the Craighouse extension to the asylum on Easter Craiglockhart

Craiglockhart

Craiglockhart is a suburb in the south west of Edinburgh, Scotland, lying between Colinton to the south, Morningside to the east Merchiston to the north east and Kingsknowe to the west...

 Hill, which was renamed the Thomas Clouston Clinic in 1972. The buildings now form part of Napier University

Napier University

Edinburgh Napier is one of the largest higher education institutions in Scotland with over 17,000 students, including nearly 5,000 international students, from more than 100 nations worldwide.-History:...

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Clouston retired in 1908 and was knighted in 1911. He is commemorated by a brass plaque on the eastern aspect of the North Transept of St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall. His son was the author Storer Clouston

Storer Clouston

Joseph Storer Clouston was an Orcadian author and historian.-Life and work:J S Clouston OBE, the son of psychiatrist Sir Thomas Clouston, was from an "old Orkney family", according to his obituary in The Scotsman...

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