The sculptor Ismond Rosen was a distinguished psychoanalyst and consultant psychiatrist who became a fellow to both the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Society of Portrait Sculptors. He presented this 1947 white marble carving to the Royal Society of Medicine in 1987, where it can now be seen framed by a window on the south façade. The stillness of its simple curves symbolises the importance of early attachments as a template for all subsequent relationships. In Dr Rosen's own words, ‘The two heads relate above and fuse below in a manner expressive of human loving, both in its earliest mother–child relationship and in adult sexual congress.’

Text by Dr Alexandra Pitman. Image courtesy of the Royal Society of Medicine.