Psychiatric gadfly: in search of Reginald Ellery

Abstract

Ellery pioneered malariotherapy and psychoanalysis, mixed with leading intellectuals, including Max Harris, John and Sunday Reed, was a member of the Communist Party, wrote poetry and published widely on a wide range of topics. Ellery was talented, innovative, driven and highly energetic, managing a range of activities aside from his work without difficulty. While his writing talent was questioned by some, there is no doubting his influence on painters such as Albert Tucker and Sidney Nolan and his standing in the intellectual life of Melbourne. Ellery was uncompromising in his public stand on issues such as communism and psychoanalysis, but by the end of his life he was deeply disillusioned. Ellery's autobiography, The Cow Jumped Over the Moon, confirms the impression of a restless and creative mind reluctant to be constrained by conventional orthodoxy, the most eminent Australian psychiatrist of his time. His diverse achievements and talent, now largely forgotten, deserve recognition from a profession that is rapidly losing its links with the historical past.

A radical psychiatrist and the law: the forensic career of Reg Ellery

“…These centred on improving the lot of patients, the use of modern treatment approaches and liberal approaches to crime. 1 Although he was often pilloried for this, his predictions have become part of the accepted knowledge. His support for the Soviet Union was another matter.…”

“…In his early years, he had come narrowly close to legal sanction on several occasions: he was the subject of a Royal Commission inquiring into allegations of cruelty and misconduct which could have ruined his career (but was fully exonerated), as well as facing prosecution for operating an illegal private mental hospital. 1 Where the law was concerned, Ellery had an agenda: his belief that crime arose from psychological and social factors, driven by unconscious conflict. An early supporter of communism, he went public with his views after he visited the Soviet Union in 1937.…”

“…In his early years, he had come narrowly close to legal sanction on several occasions: he was the subject of a Royal Commission inquiring into allegations of cruelty and misconduct which could have ruined his career (but was fully exonerated), as well as facing prosecution for operating an illegal private mental hospital. 1…”

Publish or perish: Dr Victor Webster and cardiazol treatment in Western Australia, 1937–1938

“…There is a small body of published research on the introduction of convulsive therapies in Australian psychiatric hospitals before the electrical convulsive therapy era. [1][2][3][4] The chronology established by Mitchell and Sengoz indicates that Ellery and Lear were the first to publish a study detailing the use of cardiazol in Australia, in April 1938. Most early Australian publications came from clinicians working on the eastern seaboard of Australia, and these earliest findings were all published in the Medical Journal of Australia.…”

The first Australian painting of schizophrenia by Ivor Francis

“…He was subjected to a Royal Commission of Inquiry into his work at Kew Asylum – from which he was exonerated – and made his name as a pioneer of new treatments and an activist for patient rights. 11 He was more than a psychiatrist, however, and forged strong links with leading painters and intellectuals in the Melbourne scene, notably Albert Tucker and Sidney Nolan. Always of a radical disposition, Ellery was an enthusiast for modernism, psychoanalysis and communism and expressed these tenets in his writing.…”