Léon Marillier and the veridical hallucination in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century French psychology and psychopathology

Abstract

Recent research on the professionalization of psychology at the end of the nineteenth century shows how objects of knowledge which appear illegitimate to us today shaped the institutionalization of disciplines. The veridical or telepathic hallucination was one of these objects, constituting a field both of division and exchange between nascent psychology and disciplines known as 'psychic sciences' in France, and 'psychical research' in the Anglo-American context. In France, Leon Marillier (1862-1901) was the main protagonist in discussions concerning the concept of the veridical hallucination, which gave rise to criticisms by mental specialists and psychopathologists. After all, not only were these hallucinations supposed to occur in healthy subjects, but they also failed to correspond to the Esquirolian definition of hallucinations through being corroborated by their representation of external, objective events.

Are you afraid of the dark? Notes on the psychology of belief in histories of science and the occult

“…This is particularly true for the infancy of professionalized psychology: Between 1889 and about 1909, investigations into ‘marvellous’ phenomena associated with mesmerism and spiritualism were discussed on important platforms of early academic psychology like the International Congresses of Psychology, which were initiated and organized by parapsychological researchers such as Charles Richet, Julian Ochorowicz, Arthur T. and Frederic W. H. Myers, Henry and Eleanor M. Sidgwick, and Albert von Schrenck-Notzing. ‘Founding fathers’ of the psychological profession, such as William James in the US and Théodore Flournoy in Switzerland, were active psychical researchers and attempted an integration of radical empirical parapsychological studies into fledgling psychology, while others, such as Théodule Ribot in France, appeared supportive of such attempts (Brower, 2010; Le Maléfan & Sommer, 2015; Plas, 2012; Shamdasani, 1994; Sommer, 2013a, 2013b; Taylor, 1985). Also flying in the face of assertions that scientific psychology had done away with the occult is the continuity of open-minded scientific interest in parapsychological phenomena within and beyond the psychological profession (Mauskopf & McVaugh, 1980; Sommer, 2013a, 2014b; Valentine, 2012).…”

Are you afraid of the dark? Notes on the psychology of belief in histories of science and the occult

“…This is particularly true for the infancy of professionalized psychology: Between 1889 and about 1909, investigations into 'marvellous' phenomena associated with mesmerism and spiritualism were discussed on important platforms of early academic psychology like the International congresses of Psychology, which were initiated and organized by parapsychological researchers such as charles Richet, Julian Ochorowicz, Arthur T. and Frederic W. h. myers, henry and Eleanor m. Sidgwick, and Albert von Schrenck-Notzing. 'Founding fathers' of the psychological profession, such as William James in the US and Théodore Flournoy in Switzerland, were active psychical researchers and attempted an integration of radical empirical parapsychological studies into fledgling psychology, while others, such as Théodule Ribot in France, appeared supportive of such attempts (Brower, 2010;Le maléfan & Sommer, 2015;Plas, 2012;Shamdasani, 1994;Sommer, 2013aSommer, , 2013b 1985). Also flying in the face of assertions that scientific psychology had done away with the occult is the continuity of open-minded scientific interest in parapsychological phenomena within and beyond the psychological profession (mauskopf & mcVaugh, 1980;Sommer, 2013aSommer, , 2014bValentine, 2012).…”

Interdependent Concepts and their Independent Uses: Mental Imagery and Hallucinations

“…Although agreeing that hallucinations in different sensory modalities stem from a common 14. The interest in veridical hallucinations provides an example of this resistance, see Le Maléfan and Sommer 2015. 15. For an example of how abnormal SLMP were associated with mental disorder prior to the current concept of hallucinations and the difficulty of studying these histories, see Harris 2013. physiological cause, Baillarger separated the sometimes pathological hallucinations of sight, touch, taste, and smell from the exclusively pathological experiences of auditory hallucinations (Lothane 1982;Berrios 1996).…”