Fact and Fable in Psychology

by Joseph Jastrow

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.

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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]

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