University of Virginia Library

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL. By H. Addington Bruce. Little, Brown & Co., 1914.

Professor Flournoy, in the Preface to his Spiritism and Psychology, made the remark: "It will be a great day when the subliminal psychology of Myers and his followers, and the abnormal psychology of Freud and his school, succeed in meeting, and will supplement and complete one another. That will be a great

forward step in science and in the understanding of our nature." (Page VI.)

Any one who attacks the problem from this standpoint, in the right manner, is to be commended; and this is, very largely, the method of attack taken by a certain group of "psychical researches"; it is also the method of approach of Mr. Bruce, in the book under review. Although it will probably contain but little new to the student of abnormal psychology, it is, nevertheless, a welcome and extremely sane presentation of the problems discussed; while, for the general public, the effect of the book cannot be other than beneficial,—giving a sound and scientific view-point of many of these obscure and outlying problems.

Much of this book will be familiar to readers of the JOURNAL. The chapters on the "Subconscious" (extended and amplified in his final chapter on "The Larger Self"), "Dissociation and Disease," and "The Singular Case of B. C. A.," contain a summary of material long familiar to general psychological students—though this data has not been sufficiently popularized as yet,—while the case of B. C. A. is a relief after the oft-quoted earlier cases!

The first chapter, "Ghosts and their Meaning," deals with apparitions of the living, of the dying, and of the dead—according to the tentative arrangement of these cases made by the English S. P. R. Most of these are quoted from the Society's Proceedings, and the usual theories are offered to account for them; in the case of apparitions of the dead, e. g., "ghosts," the theory of deferred telepathic suggestion being held. This brings us naturally to the second chapter, "Why I believe in Telepathy," which again contains a summary of much of the S. P. R. work in this field; accompanied, however, by some other cases and a few interesting incidents which fell under the author's personal observation. The next two chapters deal with "Clairvoyance and Crystal Gazing" and "Automatic Speaking and Writing" respectively. Here, again, the bulk of the material is familiar to psychical and psychological students; though it must be admitted that this material is all excellently and carefully summarized. The author's attitude, throughout, is strictly critical and scientific; and while he believes in telepathy and other supernormal powers, he rejects spiritism as an explanation, and his views throughout are temperate and modest.

The remaining chapter, dealing as it does with "Poltergeists and Mediums," takes us into the more dubious field of "physical phenomena"—spontaneous and experimental—and cases are discussed which lie outside the province of the psychologist,—

since they entrench more upon the domain of physics and biology. As such they have been treated and discussed by the majority of Continental savants.

One word more regarding the famous medium, Eusapia Palladino, whom Mr. Bruce refers to in several passages in this Chapter, referring to her in a footnote on page 196, as "The discredited Eusapia Palladino, once the marvel of two continents." May I take this occasion to repeat here what I have often repeated in public and private, elsewhere? and that is, that I retain my unshaken belief, amounting to a conviction, in the genuineness of Eusapia's power, and that, despite the trickery which was undoubtedly discovered here—and which had also been discovered, I may add, more than twenty years before she ever came to this country—she yet possesses genuine, remarkable powers of a supernormal character, and this belief, I may say, is shared equally by all the continental investigators, who remain unaffected by the so-called American exposé. A statement of their attitude is perhaps well summarized by Flournoy, in his Spiritism and Psychology (Chap. VII); while I have published the records of the American séances—for those who may be interested—in my "Personal Experiences in Spiritualism," where copious extracts from the shorthand notes of the American sittings are given.

To return, however: If there is a criticism to make of Mr. Bruce's book, it is that it displays a lack of personal investigation and experimentation, and bears throughout the ear-marks of a literary compilation. But this is, after all, not a serious detraction from a work of this character,—which is, as I have said before, excellently done.

HEREWARD CARRINGTON.