Neil McConaghy

Nathaniel "Neil" McConaghy (1927–2005) was a Sydney based psychiatrist. He was referred to by Kaplan as called the father of Behaviour therapy in Australian psychiatry.

Early life He was born in Brisbane, Australia. He won a scholarship to attend the Independent Brisbane Grammar School He then studied Medicine at the University of Queensland. after whom some of his aversion therapy was based. When he attempted to present some of his work on sexuality at an American Psychiatric Association meeting in San Francisco in the early 1970s, there was nearly a riot and it was reported in Time. Clinically he worked at the Behaviour Therapy Research Unit at the Psychiatric Unit at Prince of Wales Hospital, from 1976, until his retirement in 1992. By 1970 he was appointed Associate Professor, and continued to work at UNSW until he retired in 1992. He was awarded his Doctor of Science in 1990 from UNSW.

He told Sue Wills in 1973 “I feel ultimately hopeful that the time could come when public attitudes to homosexuality are such that people won’t get so distressed about their homosexuality.”.

Personal life His wife was Helen Molony, they had two daughters Finola and Suzi. He declared himself a Marxist and was Bisexual.

Selected publications

1993 book, Sexual Behaviour, Problems, and Management Two clinically discrete syndromes of transsexualism. Buhrich N, McConaghy N. The British Journal of Psychiatry. 1978;133:73–76. doi:10.1192/bjp.133.1.73