40 Facts About Havelock Ellis

Havelock Ellis developed the notions of narcissism and autoeroticism, later adopted by psychoanalysis.

Havelock Ellis supported eugenics and served as one of 16 vice-presidents of the Eugenics Society from 1909 to 1912.

Havelock Ellis, son of Edward Peppen Havelock Ellis and Susannah Mary Wheatley, was born in Croydon, Surrey.

Havelock Ellis's father was a sea captain and an Anglican, while his mother was the daughter of a sea captain who had many other relatives that lived on or near the sea.

The headmaster had died and Havelock Ellis carried on at the school for that year, but was unsuccessful.

Havelock Ellis lived at the school house on Sparkes Creek for a year.

Havelock Ellis studied at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, now part of King's College London, but never had a regular medical practice.

Havelock Ellis's training was aided by a small legacy and income earned from editing works in the Mermaid Series of lesser known Elizabethan and Jacobean drama.

Havelock Ellis joined The Fellowship of the New Life in 1883, meeting other social reformers Eleanor Marx, Edward Carpenter and George Bernard Shaw.

Havelock Ellis wrote the first objective study of homosexuality, as he did not characterise it as a disease, immoral, or a crime.

When Havelock Ellis bowed out as the star witness in the trial of The Well of Loneliness on 14 May 1928, Norman Haire was set to replace him but no witnesses were called.

In November 1891, at the age of 32, and reportedly still a virgin, Havelock Ellis married the English writer and proponent of women's rights Edith Lees.

Havelock Ellis served as vice-president to the Eugenics Education Society and wrote on the subject, among others, in The Task of Social Hygiene:.

However, Havelock Ellis was clear to assert that he did not feel that homosexuality was an issue that eugenics needed to actively deal with, as he felt that once the practice was accepted in society, those with homosexual tendencies would comfortably choose not to marry, and thus would cease to pass the 'homosexual heredity' along.

Havelock Ellis thus held much more moderate views than many contemporary eugenicists.

Havelock Ellis fundamentally disagreed with Galton's leading ideas that procreation restrictions were the same as marriage restrictions.

Havelock Ellis believed that those who should not procreate should still be able to gain all the other benefits of marriage, and to not allow that was an intolerable burden.

Havelock Ellis argues that they typically stand out and are remembered for the sole contrast of the intense encounter to any other ordinary experience.

Havelock Ellis asserts it is a mistake to assume all children are able to experience genital arousal or pleasurable erotic sensations.

Havelock Ellis proposes cases where an innocent child is led to believe that stimulation of the genitalia will result in a pleasurable erection.

Auto-eroticism, according to Havelock Ellis, includes a wide range of phenomena.

Havelock Ellis argues that auto-erotic impulses can be heightened by bodily processes like menstrual flow.

Havelock Ellis raises social concern over how auto-erotic tendencies affect marriages.

Havelock Ellis goes on to tying auto-eroticism to declining marriage rates.

Havelock Ellis then continues by describing the distinct odours in various races, noting that the Japanese race has the least intense of bodily odours.

Havelock Ellis viewed birth control as merely the continuation of an evolutionary progression, noting that natural progress has always consisted of increasing impediments to reproduction, which lead to a lower quantity of offspring, but a much higher quality of them.

However, Havelock Ellis noted that birth control could not be used randomly in a way that could have a detrimental impact by reducing conception, but rather needed to be used in a targeted manner to improve the qualities of certain 'stocks'.

Havelock Ellis observed that it was the 'superior stocks' who had knowledge of and used birth control while the 'inferior stocks' propagated without checks.

Havelock Ellis's solution to this was a focus on contraceptives in education, as this would disseminate the knowledge in the populations that he felt needed them the most.

Havelock Ellis argued that birth control was the only available way of making eugenic selection practicable, as the only other option was wide-scale abstention from intercourse for those who were 'unfit'.

Havelock Ellis considered the behavioral outcomes favorable, but remained staunchly opposed to compulsory sterilization.

However, already in his time, Havelock Ellis was witness to the rise of vasectomies and ligatures of the fallopian tubes, which performed the same sterilization without removing the whole organ.

Rather, Havelock Ellis considered the practicality of the situation, hypothesizing that if an already mentally unfit man is forced to undergo sterilization, he would only become more ill-balanced, and would end up committing more anti-social acts.

For Havelock Ellis, sterilization seemed to be the only eugenic instrument that could be used on the mentally unfit.

Havelock 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 1896.

Havelock Ellis consumed a brew made of three Lophophora williamsii buds in the afternoon of Good Friday alone in his set of rooms in Temple, London.

Havelock Ellis published two accounts of the experience, one in The Lancet in June 1897, and a second in The Contemporary Review in 1898.

Havelock Ellis resigned from his position as a Fellow of the Eugenics Society over its stance on sterilization in January 1931.

Havelock Ellis spent the last year of his life at Hintlesham, Suffolk, where he died in July 1939.

Havelock Ellis's ashes were scattered at Golders Green Crematorium, North London, following his cremation.