Une reprise en anglais de l'article paru dans le Bulletin de psychologie vient de paraître dans Imágó Budapest. Tout le numéro est accessible gratuitement en ligne ici.
Freud
as a psychical researcher: The impossible Freudian legacy
Renaud Evrard1,
Claudie Massicotte2, & Thomas Rabeyron1
1University of Lorraine
Nancy,
France
2Young Harris College
Young
Harris, GA, USA
Abstract
Sigmund Freud constantly
attempted to distinguish psychoanalysis from occultism by explaining allegedly
paranormal phenomena (such as so-called prophetic dreams) as the results of
unconscious processes. His attitude towards the paranormal, however, evolved
according to his increasing interest in the possibility of thought
transference. In 1925, he reproduced Gilbert Murray’s experiments associating
telepathy and free associations. Then, he became convinced of the reality of
thought transference and shared his conviction in “The Occult Significance of
Dreams.” Yet, Ernest Jones, his biographer and then president of the
International Psychoanalytic Association, was reluctant to associate
psychoanalysis with psychical research and therefore worked to marginalize
Freud’s interest. This article aims to retrace the context of this rarely
discussed text and the experiments that preceded it in order to reexamine their
role in ulterior definitions of the Freudian legacy and the association of
psychoanalysis with experimental research on telepathic dreams.
Key-words: psychoanalysis,
telepathy, occultism, thought transference, psychical research.
Evrard, R., Massicotte, C., Rabeyron, T.
(2017). Freud as a psychical researcher: The impossible Freudian legacy. Imágó Budapest, 6(4), 9-32.
