Dr Joseph Berke: archives

Joseph Berke

Date:: 1960s-2010s

Reference:: PP/BER

Archives and manuscripts

About this work

Description

This collection is currently uncatalogued. The following is a summary description that may change when the collection is catalogued.

Papers relating to Dr Joe Berke's career and professional activities as a psychotherapist and author. The archive includes manuscripts and typescripts for publications and lectures by Dr Berke; clinical and professional subject files and correspondence; papers relating to Arbours Centre and Housing Association; correspondence , papers and manuscripts relating to Mary Barnes; press cuttings and articles; audio visual material relating to Berke's work and the Arbours Centre, and files relating to Dr Berke's personal and professional memberships, collaborations and interests including Judaism and counter culture.

Publication/Creation

1960s-2010s

Physical description

72 boxes

Contributors

Joseph Berke

Acquisition note

Donated in November 2017 (Acc 2384) and March 2018 (Acc 2447) by Dr Joseph Berke. A further 25 boxes were donated in March 2022 (Acc 2656) by Berke's family. A final 29 boxes were transferred via Mulberry Bush Third Space (MB3) in March 2026 prior to the closure of the archive service.

Biographical note

Dr Joseph Berke (1939-2021) studied at Columbia College of Columbia University and graduated from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He moved to London in 1965 where Berke worked with R. D. Laing when the Philadelphia Association was set up, and was resident at Kingsley Hall, where he helped Mary Barnes, a nurse who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Barnes later became a famous artist, writer and mystic. A stage play based on the book that Berke and Barnes wrote together (Mary Barnes: Two Accounts of a Journey Through Madness) was adapted as a stage play by David Edgar. Berke collaborated on a number of projects with R. D. Laing including the Dialectics of Liberation international conference in London,15-30 July 1967. Berke was the principal organizer of the conference. Dr Berke died in January 2021.

Related material

Further papers are held at the Planned Environment Therapy Archives and Special Collections: Joe Berke papers and Arbours Association Archive.

Ownership note

Papers created and collated by Dr Joseph Berke in the course of his professional career, transferred to Wellcome. Papers in Acc 2384 were sent offsite for remedial treatment before being transferred to Wellcome.

Acc 2825 consists of records transferred from Mulberry Bush Third Space (MB3) in March 2026, prior to the closure of the archive service. Previously transferred by Joseph Berke to the Planned Environment Therapy Trust (PETT) between 1995 and 2003. Ownership transferred to the Mulberry Bush Organisation when the Planned Environment Therapy Trust (PETT) folded in 2018 and held by MB3 until its closure in 2026

Accruals note

Acc 2825: Records from Dr Joseph Berke's career and work, including material relating to Dialectics of Liberation, Fire magazine, Kingsley Hall, cannabis, Institute of Phenomenological Studies, with correspondence, audio visual materials, drafts and research for books by Berke, and other related materials.

Copyright note

Transferred to Wellcome, except in the case of publications.

Terms of use

This collection is currently uncatalogued and cannot be ordered online. Due to ongoing work to improve our collections management systems we are unable to facilitate access to uncatalogued material until 2027.