Richard was born in Leeds on 2 April 1943. His father, a dentist, died when Richard was only 10 months old, and he was brought up in Leeds with his elder brother by his mother, an academic. When he was 10 years old, his mother remarried and the family expanded to include his stepfather's three children. Richard was very much true to his Yorkshire roots and a lifelong supporter of Leeds United football club.

He qualified at the London Hospital, where his father and brother had studied before him, also gaining a degree in physiology and a prize in surgery. He started his psychiatry training at the Royal Free Hospital and in 1970 moved to the Maudsley Hospital.

At the age of 20, whilst a medical student, he developed a lymphoma which was treated with surgery and radiotherapy, but with his very positive view of life, he shook this off and continued his training with vigour, becoming very interested in psychoanalytic understanding, particularly in the area of psychosis, and to this end was stimulated by one of his teachers at the Maudsley, Dr Henry Rey.

In 1978 he took up a consultant psychiatrist post at the Claybury Hospital, Essex, by which time he had completed his psychoanalytic training. At that time he was in the unique position of being a catchment area consultant psychiatrist and practising psychoanalyst, and he brought these psychoanalytic skills and understanding to deploy them in furthering the understanding of psychotic states. The combination of his personal warmth, energy, humour and clinical skills resulted in him welding together a very loyal clinical team and his unit was renowned for being able to manage the most disturbed patients. In 1996, Claybury was closed and Richard and his ward moved to St Ann's Hospital in Tottenham, East London, with many of his team members following him to the new location.

Throughout, Richard combined his National Health Service (NHS) work with a private practice. He was a workaholic, working long hours but still had the energy and vitality to be very involved with his family.

The unique combination of skills and experience in psychiatry and psychoanalysis led to the development of very creative ideas with seminal papers on psychosis, introducing the understanding of the psychotic wavelength, and papers on puerperal and manic depressive states. Richard both spoke and wrote in a vivid, engaging way and this led to him being recognised as a very talented teacher, and attachments to his unit by former trainees and honoraries were always sought after.

His energy and creative ideas led him to develop initiatives through the Psychotherapy Faculty of the Royal College of Psychiatrists of which he was an executive member and as Chair of the General Psychiatric Section of the Association of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy of which he was a founding member. He was also active in the psychoanalytic world becoming Chair of the NHS Liaison Committee of the British Psychoanalytic Society and organised several successful conferences.

In the 1990s he developed thyroid cancer which was successfully treated, and again his positiveness came through as he overcame this and continued his work and his life with full vigour.

In addition, he was the Psychiatrist for the Disability Living Allowance Award Board and his contribution over many years was recognised by receiving the award of the OBE in 2003.

In 2007, he developed a further cancer, but again, managed to return to work after retiring from his in-patient unit and was energetically developing an assertive outreach team when he was taken suddenly ill and died on 28 July 2008 at the age of 65.

Richard was a very committed family man, very involved with his children and had a strong relationship with his wife, with a large network of friends and family.

He is survived by his wife Lynne, his son Matthew, his daughter Hannah and daughter-in-law Michaela.