Reginald Spencer Ellery (1897–1955), was a pioneer in the practice of

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial psych ...

Melbourne, Australia Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metropol ...

. He was also noted as an autobiographer, memoirist, communist, and poet. Under J. K. Adey's supervision at Sunbury, Ellery developed a greater understanding of psychiatry; together they were responsible in 1925 for the first successful application in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Wagner-Jauregg Julius Wagner-Jauregg (; 7 March 1857 – 27 September 1940) was an Austrian physician, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1927, and is the first psychiatrist to have done so. His Nobel award was "for his discovery of the therapeu ...

's malarial-fever treatment for

general paralysis of the insane General paresis, also known as general paralysis of the insane (GPI), paralytic dementia, or syphilitic paresis is a severe neuropsychiatric disorder, classified as an organic mental disorder and is caused by late-stage syphilis and the chro ...

. A member of the British Psychological Society, from 1938 Ellery allied himself with a group of progressive psychiatrists led by Dr Paul Dane. In establishing the Melbourne Institute for Psycho-Analysis in October 1940, the group encountered opposition from both the Federal government and the local branch of the

British Medical Association The British Medical Association (BMA) is a registered trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom. The association does not regulate or certify doctors, a responsibility which lies with the General Medical Council. The association's headquar ...

. Although he never became a party member, Ellery was attracted to

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

. During the early 1940s he published several pamphlets and books which prescribed communism as a

panacea In Greek mythology, Panacea (Greek ''Πανάκεια'', Panakeia), a goddess of universal remedy, was the daughter of Asclepius and Epione. Panacea and her four sisters each performed a facet of Apollo's art: * Panacea (the goddess of universal ...

for mental and social ills. From the start of his career when he reluctantly became a medical officer at

Kew Asylum Kew Lunatic Asylum is a decommissioned psychiatric hospital located between Princess Street and Yarra Boulevard in Kew, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Operational from 1871 to 1988, Kew was one of the largest asylums ever built in Australia. ...

in 1923, Ellery had a progressive and provocative approach to his career. The following year, he became the subject of a Royal Commission into claims of misconduct and cruelty to patients, from which he was exonerated. When he went to Sunbury Asylum, he introduced

malariotherapy The malaria therapy (or malaria inoculation, and sometimes malariotherapy) is a medical procedure of treating diseases using artificial injection of malaria parasites. It is a type of pyrotherapy (or pyretotherapy) by which high fever is induced to ...

, the first successful treatment, into Australia in 1925. He later had a leading role in the biological therapies, such as insulin coma and convulsive therapy. Throughout his career, he continued to lobby for the rights of psychiatric patients, socialised medicine and for a more progressive understanding of the psychological nature of crime. In regard to the latter, he went public a number of times to say that he considered all judges biased. He was involved in a number of criminal cases as a specialist psychiatric witness, most notably that of Arnold Sodeman. Despite Ellery's finding that he was not guilty due to insanity, Sodeman was hanged. Ellery associated with members of the Heide set, influencing artists such as

Sidney Nolan Sir Sidney Robert Nolan (22 April 191728 November 1992) was one of Australia's leading artists of the 20th century. Working in a wide variety of mediums, his oeuvre is among the most diverse and prolific in all of modern art. He is best known ...

and Albert Tucker. He wrote articles for the

Angry Penguins ''Angry Penguins'' was an art and literary journal founded in 1940 by surrealist poet Max Harris, at the age of 18. Originally based in Adelaide, the journal moved to Melbourne in 1942 once Harris joined the Heide Circle, a group of avant-garde p ...

journal and spoke for the defence of Max Harris at the Ern Malley pornography trial.

Works

* The Cow Jumped Over the Moon (1956), (autobiography) * Psychological Aspects of Modern Warfare (1945), published by John Reed and Max Harris. * Eyes Left! - Book-pamphlet on the Soviet Union and the Post-War World. *Schizophrenia, The Cinderella of Psychiatry. - Re-publication of a successful discussion of a major illness.

External links

* http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A140102b.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellery, Reginald Spencer 1897 births 1955 deaths Australian psychiatrists Writers from Melbourne Psychiatrists from Melbourne