Anthony Ryle

Anthony Ryle (1927 to 2016) was an English medical doctor who became one of the main figures in British psychotherapy as the originator of cognitive analytic therapy. Born in Brighton, he qualified in medicine in 1949 after studying at Oxford and University College Hospital, then worked as a general practitioner in North London and later directed the University of Sussex health service. While in general practice he saw that many patients came with psychological distress, which he confirmed through epidemiological studies, and this led him to psychotherapy. He went on to develop a time limited therapy that could be offered within the National Health Service, and from 1983 to 1992 he worked as a consultant psychotherapist at St Thomas' Hospital in London. His books include Cognitive Analytic Therapy: Active Participation in Change, published in 1990, and he wrote critically about Kleinian and object relations theory in the British Journal of Medical Psychology.