Andreas Sommer

Historian of the human sciences at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Third Pre-Print Article from Psychical Research Special Issue: “Haunted Thoughts of the Careful Experimentalist”, by Richard Noakes

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A pre-print version of Richard Noakes’ thought-provoking article looking at the complex relationship between unorthodox and established sciences is now available for download on the website of Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. HAUNTED THOUGHTS OF THE CAREFUL EXPERIMENTALIST: PSYCHICAL RESEARCH AND THE TROUBLES OF EXPERIMENTAL PHYSICS Richard Noakes, University of … Read more

“Hypnosis in Spain (1888–1905): From Spectacle to Medical Treatment of Mediumship”. Second Online-First Article from Special Issue on Psychical Research

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The second article from an upcoming Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C special issue on psychical research is now available as a pre-print version on the journal’s website. Andrea Graus of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona investigates the remarkable history of the introduction of medical hypnotism in Spain. HYPNOSIS IN SPAIN (1888–1905): … Read more

“Was Sir William Crookes Epistemically Virtuous?” Online First Article of Upcoming Special Issue on Psychical Research

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I’m pleased to announce the online first/in-press version of an article to appear in an upcoming special issue of Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, dedicated to psychical research and parapsychology in the history of science and medicine. Thanks to the support of Greg Radick, the editor of Studies, I had the … Read more

William James: “Telepathy” in Johnson’s Universal Cyclopædia (1895)

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Though William James is now mostly remembered as a philosopher, he was one of two ‘founding fathers’ of modern professionalized psychology. While his German counterpart, Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig, dismissed empirical approaches to reported psychic phenomena and spiritualism, James on the contrary sought to make the study of unorthodox phenomena a legitimate part of nascent … Read more

The Case of Glossolalia. Lecture by Vincent Barras

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UCL/British Psychological Society History of the Psychological Disciplines Seminar Series Monday 28th July Professor Vincent Barras (University of Lausanne) Plays between Reason, Language and Gods: The Case of Glossolalia 19-20th Centuries Glossolalia, or speaking in tongues, plays a surprisingly important role in discussions between theologians, psychologists, and psychiatrists at the turn of the 20th century … Read more

Amateurs, Empiricism, and the Tedium of Psychical Research. By Alicia Puglionesi

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Alicia Puglionesi is completing her doctoral dissertation in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology at Johns Hopkins University. Her project, ‘The Astonishment of Experience: Americans and Psychical Research, 1885-1935,’ deals with the emerging boundaries between professionals and amateurs engaged in the study of the mind around the turn of the twentieth century. Email: apuglio1@jhmi.edu … Read more

William James on Exceptional Mental States

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Eugene Taylor, whose death in January 2013 was a heavy blow to history of psychology and William James scholarship, was one of the few modern historians to fully acknowledge and try to make sense of James’s by no means casual occupation with spiritualism, telepathy and other unorthodox areas of inquiry. The main fruits of Taylor’s … Read more

Psychedelics and Psychotherapy: A Historical Workshop

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A half-day workshop with presentations from the members of the UCL Centre for the History of Psychological Disciplines on the interaction between psychedelics and psychotherapy UCL Centre for the History of Psychological Disciplines Saturday, 26 July 2014, 14:30 to 21:30 Arts and Humanities Common Room (G24), Foster Court, Malet Place University College London 2:30 pm- … Read more

Deathbed Visions in the Journal ‘History of Psychiatry’

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On a recent article published in History of Psychiatry by historian of psychical research Carlos Alvarado. For the original article, see http://hpy.sagepub.com/content/25/2/237.abstract.

Mesmerising Sounds: The Role of Music in Animal Magnetism. By James Kennaway

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James Kennaway, PhD, is a Historian of Medicine at Newcastle University. His book Bad Vibrations: The History of the Idea of Music as a Cause of Disease is a study of the notion that music can cause illness, from eighteenth-century fears of over-stimulated nerves to the Nazi concept of ‘degenerate music’, concluding with a discussion … Read more