Reginald Spencer Ellery

Dr Reginald Spencer Ellery (1897 - 1955), was a pioneer in the practice of psychiatry in Melbourne, Australia. He was also noted as an autobiographer, memoirist, communist, and poet.

Under Dr 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 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 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.

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 as a panacea 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 link

 * http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A140102b.htm