Common phantoms : an American history of psychic science / Alicia Puglionesi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Puglionesi, Alicia, author.

Contributor:

Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Series:

Spiritual phenomena

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American Society for Psychical Research--History.

American Society for Psychical Research.

Parapsychology--Research--United States--History--19th century.

Parapsychology.

Parapsychology--Research--United States--History--20th century.

Parapsychology and science--United States--History--19th century.

Parapsychology and science.

Parapsychology and science--United States--History--20th century.

Parapsychology--Research.

United States.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xi, 319 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2020]

Summary:

"Modeling a new approach to the history of psychology and the mind sciences, this book brings to life the seances, deathbed communions, flashes of clairvoyance, and telepathic experiments that captivated the American public from the 1860s well into the twentieth century. The book contextualizes psychical research, an unorthodox "science of the soul," within a long history of citizen science in the United States. Rather than a superstitious impediment to the progress of laboratory psychology, psychical research belongs to a continuous tradition of knowledge production by ordinary people in everyday settings. The book reveals how an eclectic group of investigators tried to capture the most elusive dimensions of human consciousness. They formed a far-flung network devoted to gathering evidence and making the study of experience an "in vivo" field science. And they persisted despite growing marginalization in the 1920s and 30s, as psychology asserted its professional and laboratory-based status. Each chapter delves into the vigorous experimental culture of amateur psychical researchers, challenging readers to discern whether this was a pseudo-science, a failed science, or a phantom science-one impossible yet persistent, the faint rapping of a curiosity that refuses to be extinguished"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction : at home, with ghosts

The weather map at the bottom of the mind

Machines that dream together

Drawings from the other side

Psychic domesticity

The wilderness of insanity

Conclusion : to keep alive and heap up data

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Puglionesi, Alicia, Common phantoms

ISBN:

9781503608375

1503608379

9781503612778

1503612775

OCLC:

1127066051