Havelock Ellis

Havelock Ellis (February 2, 1859-July 8, 1939) was a British doctor, sexual psychologist and social reformer.

Related Topics:
February 2 - 1859 - July 8 - 1939 - British

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He studied medicine at St Thomas' Hospital, although never had a regular medical practice; he joined The Fellowship of the New Life in 1883, meeting other social reformers Edward Carpenter and George Bernard Shaw. In 1891, when still a virgin, Ellis married Edith Lees. He was interested in sexual liberation and wrote the seven volume Studies in the Psychology of Sex between 1897 and 1928. Until 1935 this work was only legally available to the medical profession.

Related Topics:
St Thomas' Hospital - The Fellowship of the New Life - 1883 - Edward Carpenter - George Bernard Shaw - Edith Lees - 1897 - 1928 - 1935

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His Sexual Inversion, the first English medical text book on homosexuality, co-authored with John Addington Symonds, described the sexual relations of homosexual men, something that Ellis did not consider to be a disease or a crime. A bookseller was prosecuted in 1897 for stocking it. Other psychologically important concepts developed by Ellis include auto-erotism and narcissism, both of which were later taken on by Sigmund Freud.

Related Topics:
Homosexuality - John Addington Symonds - 1897 - Auto-erotism - Narcissism - Sigmund Freud

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The sexologist and writer Havelock Ellis "looked like a tripartite cross between Tolstoy, Rasputin, and Bernard Shaw; was one of the many semi-pagan ideological nudists that England produced at the end of the nineteenth century; and never achieved full sexual arousal until his second wife urinated on him in his late middle age."

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