Thomas Main

Thomas Main (1911–1990) was a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who coined the term therapeutic community.

Born Thomas Forrest Main, he studied medicine at Durham University before becoming superintendent at Gateshead Mental Hospital. During the Second World War he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as an adviser in psychiatry, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel. After the war he went to Cassel Hospital where he worked for the next thirty years.