Among the many peculiarities of schizophrenics perhaps the most obvious is their tendency to say odd things. Indeed, for most clinicians, the hallmark of schizophrenia is “thought disorder”. Decades of clinical observations, experimental research, and linguistic analyses have produced many hypotheses about what, precisely, is wrong with schizophrenic speech and language. These hypotheses range from assertions that schizophrenics have peculiar word association hierarchies to the notion that schizophrenics are suffering from an intermittent form of aphasia. In this article, several popular (...) hypotheses are critically assessed. Work in the area turns out to be flawed by errors in experimental method, faulty observations, tautological reasoning, and theoretical models that ignore the complexities of both speech and language. This does not mean that schizophrenics are indistinguishable from nonschizophrenics. They are clearly deviant in many situations. Their problem, however, appears to be in processing information and in selective attention, not in language itself. (shrink)

During the last third of the 19th century, the ‘new’ French psychology developed within ‘the hypnotic context’ opened up by Charcot. In spite of their claims to the scientific nature of their hypnotic experiments, Charcot and his followers were unable to avoid the miracles that had accompanied mesmerism, the forerunner of hypnosis. The hysterics hypnotized in the Salpêtrière Hospital were expected to have supernormal faculties and these experiments opened the door to psychical research. In 1885 the first French psychology society (...) was founded. The research carried out by this society may seem surprising: its members – Charles Richet in particular – were interested in strange phenomena, like magnetic lucidity, ‘mental suggestion’, thought-reading, etc. Very quickly, psychologists applied themselves to finding rational explanations for these supposedly miraculous gifts. Generally, they ascribed them to unconscious or subconscious perceptual mechanisms. Finally, after a few years, studies of psychical phenomena were excluded from the field of psychology. However, during the 4th International Congress of Psychology, which took place in Paris in 1900, the foundation of an institute devoted to the study of psychical phenomena was announced, but Pierre Janet and Georges Dumas founded within it the Société Française de Psychologie, from which psychical research was excluded. As for Charles Richet, disappointed by the psychologists, he devoted himself to the development of a new ‘science’ which he called ‘Métapsychique’. Several hypotheses have been put forward to account for this early research undertaken by the French psychologists, pertaining as much to parapsychology as to scientific psychology. (shrink)

Напередодні появи психоаналізу в західній науці та культурі відбувалися різноманітні процеси, що їх можна розглядати як «протопсихоаналітичні». Автор намагається показати, що деякі з цих процесів дістали відображення у працях випускників та викладачів Київської духовної академії. Приклади осмислення поняття несвідомого можна зустріти у таких випускників і викладачів КДА, як Орест Новицький, Петро Ліницький, Григорій Малеванський, Маркеллін Олесницький, Федір Орнатський, Олексій Кирилович. Показано, що до подібних міркувань їх підштовхували ідеї західноєвропейських філософів, зокрема Фрідріха Шеллінґа, Артура Шопенгауера, Едуарда фон Гартмана, Іммануїла Фіхте, Поля (...) Жане та ін. Зазначено, що випускник і викладач КДА Матвій Троїцький максимально наблизився до визначення такого важливого для психоаналізу феномену, як перенос. Найбільшу увагу присвячено працям випускника КДА Михайла Вержболовича. Вони містять розгляд низки концептів, уявлень, міркувань, настанов, практик, що відіграли важливу роль у формуванні різних версій психоаналізу. Михайло Вержболович виходить на відповідну проблематику, аналізуючи погляди не лише згаданих вище філософів, а й провідних європейських психологів ХІХ – початку ХХ ст. – Йогана Гербарта, Германа Ульріци, Вільгельма Вундта, Теодора Флурнуа та ін. У серії праць Вержболовича, присвячених вивченню різноманітних окультних феноменів, відображено чимало ідей та процесів, що відіграли велику роль у формуванні аналітичної психології Карла Юнґа. Зазначене дає змогу уникнути звуженого уявлення щодо розвитку науки у КДА. Хоч вона й була передусім релігійним закладом, у її стінах навчалися та працювали фахівці з широким кругозором. Вони здійснювали актуальні розвідки, добре знаючись на філософських засадах та новітніх тенденціях у різних наукових дисциплінах, зокрема у психології. (shrink)

This article aims to provide a historical overview of the relationship between epilepsy and religiosity. Although the link between epilepsy and religiosity has been observed since ancient times, empirical research has not supported the direct relationship between epilepsy and religiosity in any unequivocal way. The rich reference to the historical relationship between epilepsy and religiosity often served as a kind of evidence in itself, even though observations of epileptic religiosity were far less detailed as modern scholars referred to them. A (...) detailed analysis of the connection between epilepsy and religiosity only emerged in the 20th century. By introducing a symbolic level of interpretation, psychoanalysis significantly contributed to the psychological theory of the epileptic personality in general and epileptic religiosity in particular. The older concept of the epileptic personality (and religiosity) mixed with psychoanalytic interpretation was preserved in the Szondi Test. Based on the present historical analysis, the author concludes that the connection between epilepsy and increased religiosity was overstated in the 20th century. (shrink)

Sándor Ferenczi, the great representative of the Budapest School of Psychoanalysis, had a lifelong interest in psychical phenomena. Although his ideas on the psychoanalytical understanding of spiritualistic phenomena and telepathy were not developed theories, they had a strong influence on some representatives of psychoanalysis, and thus underlay the psychoanalytic interpretation of telepathy. Ferenczi’s ideas on telepathy were interwoven with his most important technical and theoretical innovations. Thus Ferenczi’s thoughts on telepathy say a lot about his psychoanalytical thinking and attitudes, and (...) illuminate the significance of his greatest innovations in the context of psychical research. (shrink)

In 1891 Thέodore Flournoy became the first Professor of Psychology to be appointed at the University of Geneva, and his teaching regularly included references to religion. His successor, Georges Berguer, who taught psychology of religion, began as privat-docent in 1910 and received a full professorship in Religious Psychology and the History of Religion in 1928. French-speaking Switzerland is one of the rare places in the world where psychology of religion has been taught continuously since the very beginning of the 20th (...) century. The aim of this article is to shed light on this tradition and especially on Georges Berguer and Edmond Rochedieu who succeeded Flournoy. This historical enterprise concludes with some reflections on the role of the psychology of religion at the intersection of psychology and the study of religions. (shrink)

The psychical researcher William Mackenzie (1877-1971) was born in Genoa of Scottish parents and spent almost his entire life in Italy, while formally remaining a British citizen. He studied at several Italian and European Universities, graduating in Biology and Philosophy, and in 1905 he established a marine biology laboratory in Quarto dei Mille. During that period he published his first important work, Alle Fonti della Vita (To the Sources of Life) (Mackenzie 1912a), and his speculative nature and his passion for (...) the philosophy of biology are already evident. In that work, Mackenzie claims that materialism is insufficient to explain biological phenomena, and he drew the foundations of a neovitalistic theory which asserted the specificity of a biological realm ruled by an intelligent and psychic energy needed to explain the teleological complexity of living organisms. (shrink)

This paper is an overview of aspects of the French journal Annales des Sciences Psychiques (ASP, 1891-1919) with emphasis on nineteenth century developments. The ASP was founded by Charles Richet and Xavier Dariex. The development of the journal was assisted both by the prestige and influence of Richet as a scientist and of Félix Alcan as a publisher. For the nineteenth-century period the journal emphasized cases and experiments over theories. Much of this was about spontaneous telepathy and physical mediumship. Some (...) of the authors included in the pages of the ASP were Émile Boirac, Ernesto Bozzano, Albert de Rochas, Giovanni Battista Ermacora, Paul Joire, and Julian Ochorowicz. There were translations of the work of members of the Society for Psychical Research, such as Frederic W. H. Myers. In 1908 the ASP was affiliated with the Sociétè Universelle d’Études Psychiques, becoming its official publication. The ASP was important in establishing standards and in providing a forum for the development of psychical research in France. (shrink)

Composer and musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky published a fascinating and delightful book entitled Lexicon of Musical Invective: Critical Assaults on Composers Since Beethoven’s Time (Slonimsky 1965). The book is a collection of what Slonimsky called “biased, unfair, ill-tempered, and singularly unprophetic judgments” (p. 3) about famous composers and their works. We find, for example, the Gazette Musicale de Paris on August 1, 1847, saying of Verdi, “there has not yet been an Italian composer more incapable of producing what is commonly called (...) a melody.” And this publication stuck to its guns. On May 22, 1853, it said of Rigoletto that it “lacks melody. This opera has hardly any chance to be kept in the repertoire.” The May 1804 issue of Zeitung für die Elegente Welt proclaimed Beethoven’s Second Symphony is a crass monster, a hideously writhing wounded dragon, that refuses to expire, and though bleeding in the Finale, furiously beats about with its tail erect................ (shrink)