Chapter I: Preface

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 the public at large. Such interest seems prone to take its clue from the activity of those who herald startling revelations on the basis of unusual psychic experiences, and who give promise of disclosing other worlds than the one with which common sense and common sensation acquaint us, rather than from the cautious and consistent results of serious and professional students in study or in laboratory. The fascination of the unusual over the popular mind is familiar and intelligible, and seems in no direction more pronounced than in matters psychological. So long as this interest is properly subordinated to a comprehensive and illuminating general view of the phenomena in question, it is not likely to be harmful and may prove to be helpful. But when the conception of the nature of our mental endowment and the interest in the understanding thereof are derived from the unusual, the abnormal, and the obscure, instead of from the normal, law-abiding observations systematized and illuminated by long and successful research, there is danger that the interest will become unwholesome and the conception misleading. It is quite natural that the plain man should be interested in the experiences of the world of mind which form an intrinsic part of his common humanity; and it is equally natural that he should find attraction in less commonplace and seemingly anomalous mental phenomena. If thunderstorms were as rare as total eclipses of the sun, it is likely that they would attract equal attention, be looked upon as terrifying and portentous by superstitious humanity, and be invested by tradition with mysterious significance, under the influence of the interest in the unusual. The existence of this interest is itself a distinctive trait meriting a psychological interpretation, and one not likely to be overlooked. Its direction and regulation become the care of the several departments of science that deal with the respective subject-matters involved. And yet in a special way, as expressions of the popular _esprit_, such interests claim the psychologist's attention as they do not claim the attention of representatives of other sciences. It may happen that the astronomer finds an interest in noting popular conceptions in regard to comets and life on other planets and beliefs about meteors and eclipses, but such interest forms no essential part of his occupation. He knows very well that the intelligent layman who wishes to be informed on astronomical matters will turn with confidence and respect to the accounts of the solar system, which represent the result of generations of scientific research under the guidance of exceptional ability and devotion. The psychologist is in a less fortunate position. His topic has neither that exclusive definiteness of content nor that position of hereditary prestige nor the general acknowledgment of its essentially technical character, which belong to astronomy. All men have their own psychological experiences and notions about mental phenomena, but opinions concerning astronomy are admitted to belong to those who have specially fitted themselves for such pursuits.

There is thus a natural reason why it should be particularly difficult in psychology to bring about a wholesome and right-minded and helpful interest on the part of the layman,--a difficulty further aggravated by the encouragement of well-meaning but logically defective publications claiming to substantiate by quasi-scientific methods the popular belief in the peculiar personal and mysterious significance of events. In the face of this situation, the professional psychologist cannot but take heed of the dangers which imperil the true appreciation of his labors and his purpose, on the part of the sympathetic layman. It is a matter of serious concern that the methods of genuine psychological study, that the conditions of advance in psychology, that the scope and nature of its problems should be properly understood. It is matter of importance that the dominant interest in psychology should centre about the normal use and development of functions with respect to which psychology bears a significant message for the regulation of life. The restoration of a more desirable and progressive point of view requires some examination of the false and misleading conceptions and alleged data, which threaten to divert the sound and progressive interest from its proper channels. It is not to be expected, when many who engage public attention speak in favor of the importance of the unknown and the mystic in psychology, when the twilight phenomena of mental life are dwelt upon--and professionally as well as by amateurs--to the neglect of the luminous daylight actualities, that the layman will always correctly distinguish between what is authentically scientific and in accordance with the advancing ideals of psychology, and what is but the embodiment of unfortunate traditions, or the misguided effort of the dilettante, or the perverse fallacy of the prepossessed mystic. Fact and fable in psychology can only be separated by the logical sifting of evidence, by the exercise of the prerogative of a scientific point of view substantiated and fortified by the lessons embodied in the history of rational opinion. The cause of truth and the overthrow of error must sometimes be fought in drawn battle and with the clash of arms, but are more frequently served by the inauguration of an adherence to one side and the consequent desertion of the other. Both procedures may be made necessary by the current status of psychological discussion.

The present collection of essays is offered as a contribution towards the realization of a sounder interest in and a more intimate appreciation of certain problems upon which psychology has an authoritative charge to make to the public jury. These essays take their stand distinctively upon one side of certain issues, and as determinately as the situation seems to warrant, antagonize contrary positions; they aim to oppose certain tendencies and to support others; to show that the sound and profitable interest in mental life is in the usual and normal, and that the resolute pursuit of this interest necessarily results in bringing the apparently irregular phenomena of the mental world within the field of illumination of the more familiar and the law-abiding. They further aim to illustrate that misconceptions in psychology, as in other realms, are as often the result of bad logic as of defective observation, and that both are apt to be called into being by inherent mental prepossessions. Some of the essays are more especially occupied with an analysis of the defective logic which lends plausibility to and induces credence in certain beliefs; others bring forward contributions to an understanding of phenomena about which misconception is likely to arise; still others are presented as psychological investigations which, it is believed, command a somewhat general interest. The prominence of the discussion of unfortunate and misleading tendencies in psychological opinion should not be allowed to obscure the more intrinsically important problems which in the main are of a different, though possibly not of an unrelated character. I should be defeating one of the purposes of these essays if, by the discussion of mooted positions, I conveyed the notion that the problems thus presented were naturally the fundamental ones about which advance in psychology may be most promisingly centred. I deeply regret that the dispossession of fable requires more resolute and more elaborate exposition than the unfoldment of fact; but such is part of the condition confronting the critical student of psychological opinion. I must depend upon the reader to make due allowances for this foreshortening of a portion of the composition, and so to bring away a truer impression of the whole than the apparent perspective suggests.

It would not be proper to claim for this budget of psychological studies a pre-arranged unity of design or a serial unfoldment of argument. They represent the unity of interest of a worker in a special field, who has his favorite excursions and vistas, who at times ventures away from the beaten paths and as frequently returns along those already traversed, but with varying purposes, and reaches the outlook from a different approach. There seems enough of singleness of purpose in the several presentations to warrant their inclusion in a single volume with a common name. There is enough also to make it pertinent to explain that the occasional repetitions of the same line of thought seemed less objectionable than frequent reference from one essay to another.

All of the essays have been previously printed in the pages of various scientific and popular magazines; and I have accordingly to acknowledge the courtesy of the several publishers, which makes possible their appearance in their present form. The essays have, however, been subjected to a critical revision, in the hope of increasing their acceptability in regard to form and material, and of giving them a setting appropriate to the interests of the present-day readers of psychological literature. Both in the selection of the essays from a larger group of published studies, and in their arrangement and elaboration, I have attempted to bear in mind the several current interests in questions of this type, and to direct these interests formatively along lines which seem to me fertile in promise and sterling in value. In the recasting thus made necessary it has come about (markedly in two cases, The Problems of Psychical Research and The Logic of Mental Telegraphy) that some of the essays have been entirely rewritten and bear only a generic resemblance to their former appearance.

The several acknowledgments to be recorded are as follows: To the "Popular Science Monthly," for permission to reprint The Psychology of Deception (December, 1888), The Psychology of Spiritualism (April, 1889), A Study of Involuntary Movements (April and September, 1892), The Mind's Eye (January, 1899), The Modern Occult (September, 1900); to the "New Princeton Review," for The Dreams of the Blind (January, 1888); to "Harper's Monthly Magazine," for The Problems of Psychical Research (June, 1889); to "Scribner's Magazine," for The Logic of Mental Telegraphy (October, 1895); to the "Cosmopolitan," for Hypnotism and its Antecedents (February, 1896). The Natural History of Analogy was delivered as a vice-presidential address before the Section of Anthropology of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was printed in its Proceedings, vol. xl., 1891. The article, Mental Prepossession and Inertia, appeared in a college publication of the University of Wisconsin, the "Aegis" (April, 1897). I have also to acknowledge my indebtedness to Miss Helen Keller for her very interesting contribution to my presentation of the dreams of the blind. My most comprehensive obligation in the preparation of the volume I have acknowledged upon the dedicatory page.

JOSEPH JASTROW.
MADISON, WISCONSIN, November, 1900.

CONTENTS

PAGE
PREFACE v

THE MODERN OCCULT

I. The nature of the occult 1

II. Historical aspect of the occult 5

III. Theosophy 7

IV. Spiritualism 12

V. Practical occult systems: Alchemy 18

VI. Astrology, Phrenology, etc. 21

VII. The occult in relation to medicine 24

VIII. Christian Science 26

IX. Other forms of occult healing 33

X. Influences affecting belief in the occult 38

THE PROBLEMS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

I. Science and its attitude toward borderland phenomena 47

II. The attitude of Psychical Research; its relation
to Psychology 50

III. Types of interest in Psychical Research: the occult
interest; the psychological interest; practical
applications of "psychical" investigations; the
explanatory interest; the investigative interest;
the anthropological interest 56

IV. The content of the problems of Psychical Research:
hypnotism; subconscious activities; hallucinations;
telepathy 66

V. The tendencies of Psychical Research 75

THE LOGIC OF MENTAL TELEGRAPHY

Introductory 78

I. Factors of the problem: unconscious mental processes;
mental community; coincidences 79

II. The statistical nature of the inquiry; the
application of theory to special cases 83

III. Sources of error in the data 87

IV. The source of coincidences in the subjective interest 88

V. Résumé 93

VI. The value of the data; coincidences; experimental
evidence; assumption and logical hypothesis 95

VII. The legitimacy of the telepathic hypothesis 99

VIII. Logical interpretation of the evidence 102

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DECEPTION

Introductory 106

I. The interpretative factor in perception; its
relation to sense-deceptions 106

II. The rôle of the conjurer; the comprehension of
conjuring tricks dependent upon a knowledge of
technical detail; illustrations; conjuring
deceptions as imitations of the conditions of
real experience 111

III. The subjective factors in deception: suggestion,
expectation, misdirection of the attention; the
setting of a trick; illustrations 118

IV. The subjective attitude and prepossession as a
factor in deception; illustrated by the phenomena
of Spiritualism; experimental proof of the
influence of the belief-attitude; extreme instances
of prepossession 125

V. Mental contagion 132

VI. Résumé; the safeguards against deception 134

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SPIRITUALISM

I. Origin of modern Spiritualism; a survey of typical
manifestations; report of the Seybert Commission;
reports of other observers 137

II. The belief in Spiritualism psychologically
interpreted; the technical requisites for a
judgment in the matter; the investigations of Messrs.
Hodgson and Davey; the psychological factors
contributory to deception 147

III. The logical status of Spiritualism 159

IV. The source of the belief in spirit-agency; its
anthropological bearings; the appeal to unfortunate
predispositions; the moral aversion to Spiritualism 166

HYPNOTISM AND ITS ANTECEDENTS

Introductory 171

I. The historical aspect of hypnotism; the point of
view of modern hypnotism 172

II. Healers of disease by mental methods; their methods;
Greatrakes; Gassner 176

III. Mesmer; the beginnings of Animal Magnetism;
Mesmer's career in Paris; the Commission of 1784;
decline of Mesmerism 180

IV. The system of Animal Magnetism; its practices; a
critical view 189

V. Puységur and the discovery of artificial
somnambulism; the status of Puységur; Pétetin and
his contributions 193

VI. The revival of Mesmerism; Abbé Faria; somnambulism
in the hospitals of Paris; the report of the
Commission of 1825; the report of the Commission
of 1837 200

VII. James Braid; his early observations; his
enunciation of the physiology of the hypnotic
state; his connection with phrenology; his later
views; his recognition of unconscious deception 205

VIII. The chaotic condition of hypnotism in the middle
decades of the nineteenth century; hypnotism
as an anæsthetic; scientific contributions 213

IX. Extravagances of Mesmerism; Deleuze and his
followers; "electro-biology;" Harriet Martineau's
letters on Mesmerism; Mesmeric miracles;
Reichenbach and the "odic" force 216

X. Transition to modern hypnotism; the scientific
recognition of hypnotism; Charcot and his followers;
Bernheim and the school of Nancy 227

XI. Principles illustrated by the history of hypnotism;
lack of proper conceptions; unconscious suggestion;
conclusion 231

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF ANALOGY

I. The logical and psychological aspects of analogy 236

II. Analogy and primitive mental life; illustrations;
sympathetic magic based upon analogy; further
illustrations 238

III. Analogy the basis of belief in the connection
between object and name; illustrations; similar
relation between the object and its image, drawing,
or shadow 243

IV. Analogy and metaphor; vaguer forms of analogy 248

V. Analogy in children 250

VI. Analogy in superstitions and folk-lore customs;
in dream-interpretation; in fortune-telling; in
numbers; in folk-medicine 252

VII. The doctrine of sympathies; of signatures;
astrology; the rôle of analogy in these systems;
their modern survivals 261

VIII. Analogy as a phase in mental evolution; the
transition from superstition to science; the
evolution of the race and of the individual;
analogy, the serious thought habit of primitive man,
becomes in civilization a source of amusement;
conclusion 269

THE MIND'S EYE

I. The nature of perception; its subjective and
objective factors 275

II. Illustrations of the effects of the subjective
factor 279

III. Perception as modified by attention and by the
mental concept; illustrations; equivocal drawings 282

IV. The function of the mind's eye 294

MENTAL PREPOSSESSION AND INERTIA

I. The nature of prepossession; pedagogical
illustrations 296

II. Illustration derived from the experience of the
Census Bureau 301

III. Psychological interpretation 304

A STUDY OF INVOLUNTARY MOVEMENTS

I. Unconscious activities 307

II. Muscle-reading; method of recording involuntary
movements 308

III. Illustrations and description of records of
involuntary movements 312

IV. Interpretation and analysis of records of
involuntary movements 321

V. Influence of the nature of the object of attention
upon involuntary movements 330

VI. Other forms of involuntary indications;
"involuntary whispering;" the subconscious 334

THE DREAMS OF THE BLIND

I. The rôle of vision in mental life 337

II. The retention of vision in dreams as dependent
upon the age of the loss of sight; the "critical
period;" the investigation of Heermann in 1838;
the status as to "dream-vision" of the partially
blind 340

III. Corroborations of the above results by other
evidence; the dreams of the blind-deaf; dreams of
Laura Bridgman; Helen Keller's account of her
dream-life; interpretations 345

IV. Distinctions in dream-life of incidents experienced
during the period of sight from those of the
blindness period; the imagination of the blind;
illustrations of their dreams 360

V. Résumé 369

INDEX 371

FACT AND FABLE IN PSYCHOLOGY

THE MODERN OCCULT