The epistemologies of research on the survival of consciousness after death in the golden era of the Society for Psychical Research (1882–1930)

General

A new piece now available online in History of Psychiatry may interest AHP readers: “The epistemologies of research on the survival of consciousness after death in the golden era of the Society for Psychical Research (1882–1930),” Pedro Henrique Costa de Resende, Alexander Moreira-Almeida, and Humberto Schubert Coelho. Abstract:

The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) of London was founded in 1882 with the purpose of investigating psychical phenomena, especially the theme of survival, with scientific rigour. Despite the recognized importance of the SPR for dynamic psychiatry in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there are few studies of its epistemological contributions to the theme of survival and its implications to science. In order to fill this gap, we have consulted the main journals of the SPR in its golden period, and highlight the epistemologies of Sidgwick, Myers, James, Podmore, Schiller, Lodge and Richet. We conclude that the authors, whether for or against survival, argued in defence of an expanded science, and looked forward to understanding the complexity of human experience.

About Jacy Young

Jacy Young is a professor at Quest University Canada. A critical feminist psychologist and historian of psychology, she is committed to critical pedagogy and public engagement with feminist psychology and the history of the discipline.