Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-hgkh8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T13:21:49.383Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

On Spiritualism and Insanity [Ueber Spiritismus und Geistesstörung]. (Arch. f. Psych., Bd. xxxiv, H. 3.) Henneberg, R.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2018

Extract

Dr. Henneberg has read deeply in the extensive literature of spiritualism and occultism. He treats of table turning and spirit rapping, and what he calls psychographs, in which the subject, believed to be in a trance, writes to the dictation of the spirits of the dead. He mentions cases in which the mental derangement resulted from being hypnotised. Persons who practise these so-called communings with spirits have fallen into hysterical conditions. Some of these were previously disposed to neurosis, so that the tendency was merely aggravated. In other instances hysteria appeared as the result of these practices in persons previously healthy. Dr. Henneberg gives in detail the description of eight cases in which insanity was the result of concentration on spiritualistic experiments. He observes that it is the duty of the physician to warn persons disposed to nervous diseases against any dealings with mediums, magnetisers, and faith healers, who work on the imagination.

Type
Epitome of Current Literature
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1902 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.