The history of the Tavistock Institute

Abstract

The history of the Tavistock Institute overlaps with that of the Tavistock Clinic as many of the staff from the Clinic worked on new, large-scale army psychiatry and social reconstruction projects during the World War II, and it was because of this work that the Institute was created. Working with colleagues in the Royal Army Medical Corps and the British Army, they were responsible for innovations such as the War Office Selection Board (WOSB) and Civil Resettlement Units. The Human Resources Centre and the Centre for Applied Social Research were established in the 1950s, and in 1963 the Institute of Operational Research was established in conjunction with the British Operational Research Society. The Institute was founded by a group of key figures from the Tavistock Clinic and British Army psychiatry, including Elliott Jaques, Henry Dicks, Leonard Browne, Ronald Hargreaves, John Rawlings, Mary Luff, Harold Bridger and Wilfred Bion, with Tommy Wilson as chair.