Fact and Fable in Psychology

A group of problems that appears conspicuously in the present volume, and in so far contributes to the fitness of its title, has obtained a considerable interest on the part of...

It is well, at least occasionally, to remember that our conceptions of science and of truth, of the nature of logic and of evidence, are not so universally held as we unreflecti...

As to the present-day status of this cult it is not easy to speak positively. Its _clientèle_ has apparently greatly diminished; it still numbers amongst its adherents men and w...

Surely this is a remarkable product of mortal mind! It would perhaps be an interesting _tour de force_, though hardly so entertaining as "Alice in Wonderland," to construct a un...

No better illustrations could be desired of the effects of mental prepossession and the resulting distortion of evidence and of logical insight than those afforded by the career...

As the occult interest recedes to an obscure position in the background, and as the foreground and middle distance come to be suffused with the light of critical discernment and...

The place which the explanation of spiritualistic and theosophic manifestations occupies in Psychical Research has already been noted; that of ghosts and rappings and haunted ho...

The distinction between the individual and the statistical aspect of a problem may be further illustrated in the much-discussed question of the differences in brain characterist...

So far as the strength and weakness of the arguments for mental telegraphy depend upon the perspective of value attached to the various data and to the conditions under which th...

Continuing with deceptions dependent upon exceptional external arrangements, we may find in conjuring tricks simple and complex illustrations in great perfection. When wine is t...

With these all-powerful magicians--an expected result and the willingness to credit a marvel--clearly in mind, let us proceed from those instances in which they have least effec...

The psychological aspect of the phenomena of Spiritualism may be presented in a consideration of these questions: How is it that the manifestations produced in evidence of spiri...

It must not be supposed that the errors of mal-description and lapse of memory thus committed are at all serious in themselves; on the contrary, they are mostly such as would be...

The strongly rooted, anti-logical tendencies of our nature, thus indicated, come to the surface in various and unexpected ways, and give rise to views and cults that have much i...

The details of Mesmer's early doings are of special value, for in them we may expect to discover the true nature of the man and his system; our knowledge of them is derived main...

From the point of view of modern hypnotism, Puységur's position is a most important one, more important, indeed, than that of Mesmer. His literary productions and his personal a...

It would take us too far into the details of the hypnotic condition to describe Braid's practices and experiments; attention will be directed only to those points which have a b...

From the "Letters to a Candid Inquirer on Animal Magnetism," by William Gregory, M.D., F.R.S.E., professor of chemistry in the University of Edinburgh, selections appropriate to...

An analogy is a type of reasoning, and as such is referred to the logician for more precise definition. His briefest explanation of the term may be stated as the inference of a...

The parallelism between the mental development of the individual and of the race, though necessarily incomplete, is yet deeply suggestive and significant. In a very true sense t...

While in the doctrine of sympathy, the resemblance basal to the analogy is one of relation,--such as the relation of cause and effect, of owner and the object owned, of implemen...

Of the many thousands of persons who handle our silver dollar, but few happen to observe the lion's head which lies concealed in the representation of the familiar head of Liber...

Many a student approaches a study such as psychology or logic with an unshakable conviction that he is about to consider matters abstruse and difficult; things totally unrelated...

We may now consider a few typical results. Fig. 2, an ordinary average result, was obtained while the subject was calling out the names of a series of small patches of color, di...

Much attention has recently been paid to automatic writing, or the unconscious indication of the _nature_, not merely the _direction_ of one's thoughts, while the attention is e...

I have had the opportunity of questioning a blind and deaf young man whose life-history offers a striking contrast to that of Laura Bridgman, and illustrates with all the force...

There is often ascribed to the blind a somewhat mystical sense, by which they can tell the presence and even the nature of objects, and can feel their way. As far as such a powe...

Mesmer, Friedrich Anton, 14, 25, 36, 43, 180; his theories, 181, 189; his practices, 181, 190, 191; his Parisian career, 182-189; the commission to examine, 185-187, 192, 193; h...