Henry Havelock Ellis [ needs IPA ] 2 February β 8 July was an English physician, eugenicist , writer, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in , and also published works on a variety of sexual practices and inclinations, as well as on transgender psychology.
He developed the notions of narcissism and autoeroticism , later adopted by psychoanalysis. Ellis was among the pioneering investigators of psychedelic drugs and the author of one of the first written reports to the public about an experience with mescaline , which he conducted on himself in He supported eugenics and served as one of 16 vice-presidents of the Eugenics Society from to He had four sisters, none of whom married.
His father was a sea captain and an Anglican, [ 2 ] while his mother was the daughter of a sea captain who had many other relatives that lived on or near the sea. When he was seven his father took him on one of his voyages, during which they called at Sydney , Australia ; Callao , Peru ; and Antwerp , Belgium. After his return, Ellis attended the French and German College near Wimbledon , and afterward attended a school in Mitcham. In April , Ellis sailed on his father's ship for Australia; soon after his arrival in Sydney, he obtained a position as a master at a private school.
After the discovery of his lack of training, he was fired and became a tutor for a family living a few miles from Carcoar, New South Wales. He spent a year there and then obtained a position as a master at a grammar school in Grafton, New South Wales. The headmaster had died and Ellis carried on at the school for that year, but was unsuccessful. At the end of the year, he returned to Sydney and, after three months' training, was given charge of two government part-time elementary schools, one at Sparkes Creek, near Scone, New South Wales , and the other at Junction Creek.
He lived at the school house on Sparkes Creek for a year. He wrote in his autobiography, "In Australia, I gained health of body, I attained peace of soul, my life task was revealed to me, I was able to decide on a professional vocation, I became an artist in literature; these five points covered the whole activity of my life in the world.
