History of psychology
August 1, 2018
Erika Dyck, Patrick Farrell
21 citations
In the 1950s, as psychiatry turned toward psychopharmacology, Canadian researchers in an isolated prairie mental hospital pioneered a unique blend of psychotherapy and psychedelic substances like mescaline and LSD. The correspondence between psychiatrist Humphry Osmond and writer Aldous Huxley reveals how they developed their psychedelic approach to therapy, combining interests in psychoactive substances, perception, and empathy. Working far from major research centers, Osmond sought collaborators outside psychiatry, fostering an innovative regional approach that blended traditions.
History of psychology
February 1, 2011
Liliana Albertazzi
12 citations
Renata Calabresi conducted laboratory research in the 1920s and 1930s on the nature, extensity, and quality of the psychic present, drawing on the Central European tradition of descriptive psychology. Her work, largely unrecognized due to the decline of that paradigm and historical events, demonstrated that perceptual events in subjective time are at least partially independent from those in objective time. Subjective and objective time do not flow in unison, and the continuum of perceptive sequences has different modalities of existence from physical sequences.
History of psychology
February 1, 2020
Walter Melo, Pedro Henrique Costa de Resende
6 citations
William James influenced Carl Jung's theoretical development, particularly through James's book 'The Varieties of Religious Experience'. Jung's emphasis on fundamental subjective experience in his own work 'Psychology and Religion' drew on James's ideas. The article examines how James's dynamic psychology shaped Jung's later writings, including 'On the Nature of the Psyche'. Jung's acquaintance with James led him to move away from psychoanalysis and shaped his views on religious experience and the concept of the unconscious.
History of psychology
August 1, 2024
John R. Snarey, Joel Mclendon
1 citation
William James's 1901 and 1902 Gifford Lectures, later published as The Varieties of Religious Experience, are examined as separate performances. Comparing newspaper reports from The Scotsman with James's own correspondence shows that both sources strongly agree: the 1901 lectures were better received than those in 1902. The accounts also reveal a complex interplay between James and his audience, shaped by competing expectations and worldviews. Viewing the lectures as performance events within their personal and historical contexts deepens understanding of James, each lecture, and the resulting book.
History of psychology
November 1, 2020
Matei Iagher
Henri Delacroix's 1908 book on the psychology of mysticism was part of a debate with the American school of psychology of religion. Delacroix argued against the American emphasis on the primacy of emotions in religious experience, instead introducing a developmental logic into the mystical life. He also sought to shift focus away from ecstasy as the central aspect of mysticism and to account for mysticism's value by positing a specific underlying mental state.
History of psychology
May 1, 2019
Simon Kemp
In the later Middle Ages, people sometimes behaved in ways that seem unusual today, yet they were rarely considered mentally disordered. This article reviews medieval ideas about mental disorder and the discernment of spirits—how to decide whether an experience or impulse came from God, a good or evil spirit, or a purely human cause. Criteria for discerning a good spirit were behavioral, such as consistent humility and discretion, and clearly differed from signs of mental disorder. Comparing criteria for mental disorder with those for discerning spirits shows how the distinction could be made and why confusion between the two appears to have been rare.
History of psychology
August 1, 2000
G Jahoda
The French philosopher Lucien Levy-Bruhl's concept of a "pre-logical mentality" characterized by "mystical participation" strongly influenced Jean Piaget's early work on children's thinking. Piaget first showed interest in 1920 and later compared children's thought to that of "primitives," adopting Levy-Bruhl's term "participation." By 1928 Piaget argued that both children and so-called primitives are subject to social constraint—children by parents and teachers, primitives by elders—and that logical thought emerges only through cooperation in free social interaction. Piaget maintained these views long after Levy-Bruhl himself abandoned the notion of pre-logicality.