Nagy Bishay was born in 1936 in Cairo, Egypt, the eldest son of a lawyer. He decidedto pursue a medical career and after his medical training in Cairo, he joined the armyas a general practitioner and soon pursued his interest in psychological medicine andgained its diploma. He practised psychiatry in 1965 in different military hospitals, wasparticularly interested in military psychiatry during the 1967 war, and wrote his MDthesis on the study of hysterical fits among young adult males under the stress ofmilitary service.

He came to England in 1975, seeking to further his experience and training and inpursuit of improving his therapeutic skills. He trained as a senior registrar in psychiatryin the West Midlands Regional Health Authority and took up his post as consultantpsychiatrist at the North Manchester General Hospital in 1980. He had an initial interestin psychoanalysis and group analytic psychotherapy, then was introduced to cognitivetherapy in 1982, a tool he continued to develop and use with passion for theremainder of his years.