Editing Ernest Jones (section)

== Early life and career ==
Ernest Jones was born in [[Gowerton]] (formerly Ffosfelin), Wales, an industrial village on the outskirts of [[Swansea]], the first child of Thomas and Ann Jones. His father was a self-taught [[colliery]] engineer who went on to establish himself as a successful businessman, becoming accountant and company secretary at the Elba Steelworks in Gowerton. His mother, Mary Ann (née Lewis), was from a Welsh-speaking [[Carmarthenshire]] family which had relocated to Swansea.{{sfn|Maddox|2006|pp=7–8}} Jones was educated at [[Bishop Gore School|Swansea Grammar School]], [[Llandovery College]], and [[Cardiff University]] in [[Wales]]. Jones studied at [[University College London]] and meanwhile he obtained the [[Conjoint]] diplomas [[Royal College of Physicians#Membership and fellowship|LRCP]] and [[Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons|MRCS]] in 1900. A year later, in 1901, he obtained an [[Bachelor of Medicine|M.B.]] degree with honours in medicine and [[obstetrics]]. Within five years he received an [[Doctor of Medicine|MD]] degree and a [[Membership of the Royal College of Physicians]] (MRCP) in 1903. He was particularly pleased to receive the University's gold medal in obstetrics from his distinguished fellow-Welshman, [[Sir John Williams, 1st Baronet, of the City of London|Sir John Williams]].{{sfn|Jones|1959|p=29}}

After obtaining his medical degrees, Jones specialised in [[neurology]] and took a number of posts in London hospitals. It was through his association with the surgeon [[Wilfred Trotter]] that Jones first heard of Freud's work. Having worked together as surgeons at [[University College Hospital]], he and Trotter became close friends, with Trotter taking the role of mentor and confidant to his younger colleague. They had in common a wide-ranging interest in philosophy and literature, as well as a growing interest in Continental psychiatric literature and the new forms of clinical therapy it surveyed. By 1905 they were sharing accommodation above [[Harley Street]] consulting rooms with Jones's sister, Elizabeth, installed as housekeeper. Trotter and Elizabeth Jones later married. Appalled by the treatment of the mentally ill in institutions, Jones began experimenting with hypnotic techniques in his clinical work.{{sfn|Jones|1959|pp=123–124}}

Jones first encountered Freud's writings directly in 1905, in a German psychiatric journal in which Freud published the famous [[Dora (case study)|Dora]] case-history. It was thus he formed "the deep impression of there being a man in Vienna who actually listened with attention to every word his patients said to him...a revolutionary difference from the attitude of previous physicians..."{{sfnm |1a1=Brome |1y=1982 |1pp=45–46 |2a1=Jones |2y=1959 |2p=159}}

Jones's early attempts to combine his interest in Freud's ideas with his clinical work with children resulted in adverse effects on his career. In 1906 he was arrested and charged with two counts of indecent assault on two adolescent girls whom he had interviewed in his capacity as an inspector of schools for "mentally defective" children. At the court hearing Jones maintained his innocence, claiming the girls were fantasising about any inappropriate actions by him. The magistrate concluded that no jury would believe the testimony of such children and Jones was acquitted.{{efn|At that time, Jones was in a particularly turbulent mental state. Demoralised by his failure to secure a position appropriate to his outstanding qualifications, he was also powerfully sexually attracted to his then client, Loe Kann. Notwithstanding Jones's acquittal, his biographer Maddox suggests that Jones may have suffered a "loss of self-restraint" during his interviews of the adolescent girls.}}{{sfn|Maddox|2006|pp=41–47}} In 1908, employed as a pathologist at a London hospital, Jones accepted a colleague's challenge to demonstrate the repressed sexual memory underlying the hysterical paralysis of a young girl's arm. Jones duly obliged but, before conducting the interview, he omitted to inform the girl's consultant or arrange for a [[chaperone (clinical)|chaperone]]. Subsequently, he faced complaints from the girl's parents over the nature of the interview and he was forced to resign his hospital post.{{sfn|Maddox|2006|pp=58–60}}