Dr Reginald Spencer Ellery (1897 - 1955), was a pioneer in the practice of psychiatry

Psychiatry

Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...

 in Melbourne, Australia. He was also noted as an autobiographer, memoirist, communist, and poet.

Under Dr J. K. Adey's supervision at Sunbury

Sunbury, Victoria

Sunbury is a regional city, located north-west of Melbourne's central business district, in the state of Victoria, Australia. Its Local Government Area is the City of Hume. At the 2006 Census, Sunbury had a population of 31,000...

, Ellery developed a greater understanding of psychiatry; together they were responsible in 1925 for the first successful application in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 of Wagner-Jauregg's malarial-fever treatment for general paralysis of the insane.

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

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 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

British Medical Association

The British Medical Association is the professional association and 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 headquarters are located in BMA House,...

.

Although he never became a party member, Ellery was attracted to communism. During the early 1940s he published several pamphlets and books which prescribed communism

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

 as a panacea

Panacea

In Greek mythology, Panacea was a goddess of healing. She was the daughter of Asclepius and Epione. Panacea and her five sisters each performed a facet of Apollo's art: Panacea was the goddess of cures, Iaso was the goddess of recuperation, Hygieia was the goddess of disease prevention, Aceso was...

for mental and social ills.

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