My friend Judith Brearley, who has died aged 85, was an influential figure in the landscape of Scottish social work and psychoanalytic thinking. Her life was defined by what she called a “providential” path – a sense of being in the right place at the right time in terms of professional opportunities.
Between 1970 and 1991, she taught in the social work department at Edinburgh University, first as a lecturer and from 1981 as senior lecturer. During her 21-year tenure, she inspired myriads of social work students, and in 2018 she received the university’s Nora Milne award for her lifelong service to social work.
