Hunter, Richard Alfred

Richard Alfred Hunter (né Hirschmann; 1923–1981) was a British physician. He was born in Germany and emigrated to England as a child. He practiced as a psychiatric consultant in a number of hospitals in and near London and gave lectures in England, the United States, and Canada. He is best known for his collaboration with his mother, fellow psychiatrist Ida Macalpine, on publications about the history of psychiatry. They initially espoused Freudian principles, but came to firmly believe that mental illnesses had physiological causes. Their most significant works were Three Hundred Years of Psychiatry (1963); George III and the Mad Business (1969), in which they argued that King George III's mental derangement was caused by porphyria and not mental illness; and Psychiatry for the Poor: 1851–1973.