Leston Havens, at 86; was noted psychiatrist, author

Beginning a chapter in his book “Making Contact: Uses of Language in Psychotherapy,’’ Dr. Leston Havens first quoted a passage in which writer Vladimir Nabokov describes a butterfly avoiding detection by imitating a leaf.

“All natural life abounds in versions of the chameleon,’’ Dr. Havens wrote. “Even the most primitive creatures find ways to hide themselves for survival.’’

Humans, with an evolved sense of predators and prey, have “minds so skittish and protective that we can compare them with small fish,’’ he wrote. “They glide rapidly past us, quick to feel the movement of the water and changing color or shape at any hint of danger.’’

Psychiatrist, professor, and writer, Dr. Havens examined patients and the therapeutic process itself in a series of books and a career that spanned decades, as he taught and influenced succeeding generations of Harvard Medical School students.

Dr. Havens, who lived in Cambridge, died July 29 in hospice care at Belmont Manor in Belmont. He was 86 and had a series of small strokes before succumbing to multiple organ failure. [. . .]