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Fragments of a Life in Psychical Research: The Case of Charles Richet
Open accessAbstract
Autobiographies are one of the sources we have to learn about past developments in psychical research. While powerful in terms of presenting a personal perspective, such documents can be problematic and may present incomplete perspectives. I will discuss this in the context of a translation of an autobiographical essay French physiologist Charles Richet wrote about his involvement in psychical research in his Souvenirs d’un Physiologiste (1933). In the essay Richet presented an outline of aspects of his psychic career, including aspects such as: Early interest in hypnosis and hypnotic lucidity, encounters with gifted individuals such as Eusapia Palladino and Stephan Ossowiecki, contact with the Society for Psychical Research, his Traité de Métapsychique, and his lack of belief in survival of death. Richet’s account will be of particular interest for those who are not acquainted with his career. However the essay is very succinct and lacks important events that need to be supplemented with other sources of information. An examination of this autobiographical essay illustrates the limitations of autobiographies to reconstruct the past.
Overview
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TL;DR
This article presents an English translation of Charles Richet’s autobiographical essay on his psychical research, drawn from his 1933 *Souvenirs d’un Physiologiste*, with historical commentary by Carlos S. Alvarado. Alvarado uses Richet’s brief account to illustrate both Richet’s place in psychical research and the limitations of autobiographies for reconstructing the history of parapsychology.
Key findings
- Richet’s translated essay outlines his early hypnosis work, encounters with Eusapia Palladino and Stephan Ossowiecki, contact with the Society for Psychical Research, his *Traité de Métapsychique* (1922), and his lack of belief in survival of death.
- Richet states that metapsychics is “the science of the future” and summarizes its phenomena as mental metapsychics (lucidity, premonition, monition, telepathy), telekinesis, and ectoplasms; he also says he cannot accept spiritist communications but admits some phenomena are inexplicable by current science.
- Alvarado argues the essay is very brief and omits important events, including Richet’s early statistical ESP work (Richet 1884b), his writings on chance and probability, his Nineteenth-Century ESP work with individuals such as Léonie Leboulanger, spontaneous ESP cases, involvement in early psychology congresses, and the founding of the *Annales des Sciences Psychiques*.
- Alvarado identifies memory and perspective problems in the essay, such as Richet dating the SPR Presidential Address to 1885 when it took place in 1905, and Richet’s selective account of the Algiers materialization controversy and critiques of the *Traité de Métapsychique*.
Methods
- Historical and documentary article: Alvarado reprints and translates Richet’s autobiographical chapter on psychical research from *Souvenirs d’un Physiologiste* (1933), adding introduction, notes, and references.
- Data consist of Richet’s autobiographical essay and cited primary and secondary sources on Richet, psychical research, hypnosis, and metapsychics; no new experimental study is reported.
- Analysis is contextual and critical: Alvarado supplements Richet’s account with other sources and examines its omissions, selectivity, chronology, and memory errors to discuss the use of autobiographies in parapsychology’s history.
Limitations
- Stated in the paper: Richet’s essay is succinct, lacks important events, is selective about controversies, lacks chronological sequence, and is based on memory, so it should not be used as a single source to reconstruct his life work.
- Stated in the paper: Alvarado notes he has not seen Richet’s unpublished *Mémoires sur Moi et sur les Autres*, which Evrard suggested comparing with the published chapter.
- Evident from the text: the article is a translation and commentary rather than a comprehensive biography, and its critique of Richet’s autobiography depends heavily on Richet’s own recollections plus secondary historical literature.
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0 Valid · 2 Not valid · 14 Not checked · 15 Own results and interpretations
None of the sources cited for this claim could be matched to a paper in Crossref, so there is nothing to check it against.
In the paper
“There were other issues that went unmentioned, such as the supposed confession of the medium, and the existence of a trap door (for overviews and references, see Brower 2010:84-92, Evrard 2016:172-199, and Le Maléfan 2002).”
- Also stated in: § Concluding Remarks · plain
“Richet's account in Souvenirs presented here in translation does not include many other details and accusations, including his contemporary counter-critiques, which I have avoided discussing here (see Evrard 2016:172-199).”
§ Fragments of a Life in Psychical Research: The Case of Charles Richet > Concluding Remarks
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Brower 2010
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Not matchedcites Evrard 2016
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- Not matchedcites Le Maléfan 2002
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plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Also stated in: § Concluding Remarks · plain
In the paper
“Richet's account of the accusations of fraud surrounding the materialization séances he had in Algiers (Richet 1905a; see Note 20) is incomplete.”
§ Fragments of a Life in Psychical Research: The Case of Charles Richet > Concluding Remarks
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Richet 1905a
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plainSingle case- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Not matched
None of the sources cited for this claim could be matched to a paper in Crossref, so there is nothing to check it against.
In the paper
“The same can be said of his Nineteenth-Century ESP work with various individuals (Richet 1888, 1889b), among them Léonie Leboulanger (born 1837).”
§ Fragments of a Life in Psychical Research: The Case of Charles Richet > Concluding Remarks
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Richet 1888
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Not matchedcites Richet 1889b
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plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Not matched
In the paper
“Richet was part of this movement, particularly strong in France, that explored the existence and range of non-conscious human functioning and that included both conventional and unconventional phenomena (Plas 2000).”
§ Fragments of a Life in Psychical Research: The Case of Charles Richet > Richet and Psychical Research
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Plas 2000
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plainstates an association- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Not matched
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Such selectivity extends to Richet's gloss of critiques about his best-known work, the Traité de Métapsychique.”
§ Fragments of a Life in Psychical Research: The Case of Charles Richet > Concluding Remarks
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
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Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.
Rated minor: it would not touch a result — a value no result rests on, a p-value that stays on the same side of the significance level, or a conflict that is clerical, resolved elsewhere in the paper, or outside its own findings.
In the paper
§ Fragments of a Life in Psychical Research: The Case of Charles Richet > Concluding Remarks
“The address, entitled "La Métapsychique," was presented in 1905, not in 1885, and published in the SPR Proceedings (Richet 1905b).”
§ Fragments of a Life in Psychical Research: The Case of Charles Richet > References
“77. Richet, C. (1905c). La métapsychique. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 19:2-49.”
Rated minor: it would not touch a result — a value no result rests on, a p-value that stays on the same side of the significance level, or a conflict that is clerical, resolved elsewhere in the paper, or outside its own findings.
In the paper
§ Fragments of a Life in Psychical Research: The Case of Charles Richet > Concluding Remarks
“On this book (Richet 1922), translated into English from its second French edition (Richet 1923b), see Alvarado (2010).”
§ Fragments of a Life in Psychical Research: The Case of Charles Richet > References
“89. Richet, C. (1923b). Le Savant. Paris: Hachette.”
Citations
Cites
Still being checked.
Research works printed but not linked: 44
- Alvarado, C. S. (1993). Gifted subjects' contributions to psychical research: The case of Eusapia Palladino. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 5:269-292.
- Alvarado, C. S. (2002). Dissociation in Britain during the late nineteenth century: The Society for Psychical Research, 1882-1900. Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, 3:9-33.
- Alvarado, C. S. (2008). Note on Charles Richet's "La Suggestion Mentale et le Calcul des Probalilites" (1884). Journal of Scientifi c Exploration, 22:543-548.
- Alvarado, C. S. (2010). Review of Traité de Métapsychique by C. Richet. Journal of Scientifi c Exploration, 24:535-541.
- Alvarado, C. S. (2011a). Eusapia Palladino: An autobiographical essay. Journal of Scientifi c Exploration, 25:77-101.
- Alvarado, C. S. (2011b). Upholding psychical research in front of psychologists: An excerpt from a paper by Charles Richet at the Fifth International Congress of Psychology (Rome, 1905). Psypioneer Journal, 7:79-88. http://www.iapsop.com/psypioneer/psypioneer_v7_n3_mar_2011.pdf
- Alvarado, C. S., & Evrard, R. (2012). The psychic sciences in France: Historical notes on the Annales des Sciences Psychiques. Journal of Scientifi c Exploration, 26:117-140.
- Alvarado, C. S., & Evrard, R. (2013). Nineteenth century psychical research in mainstream journals: The Revue Philosophique de la France et de l'Étranger. Journal of Scientifi c Exploration, 27:655-689.
- Anonymous (1888). Review of "Relation de diverses expériences sur la transmission mentale, la lucidité, et autres phénomènes non explicables par les données scientifi ques actuelles. " American Journal of Psychology, 2:164-165.
- Brower, M. B. (2010). Unruly Spirits: The Science of Psychic Phenomena in Modern France. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
- Carroy, J. (2004). Playing with signatures: The young Charles Richet. In The Mind of Modernism: Medicine, Psychology, and the Cultural Arts in Europe and America, 1880-1940 edited by M. S. Micale, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 217-249.
- Carroy, J. (2015). Charles Richet au seuil du mystère. In Charles Richet (1850-1935): L'Exercice de la Curiosité edited by J. van Wijland, Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, pp. 65-79.
- Crabtree, A. (1993). From Mesmer to Freud: Magnetic Sleep and the Roots of Psychological Healing. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
- Dechambre, A. (1873). Mesmérisme. In Dictionnaire Encyclopédique des Sciences Médicales (second series, Volume 7) edited by A. Dechambre, Paris: G. Masson, pp. 143-211.
- Evrard, R. (2014). Charles Richet commémoré à l'Académie de médecine. Bulletin Métapsychique, 16:4-5.
- Gauld, A. (1968). The Founders of Psychical Research. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
- Gauld, A. (1992). A History of Hypnotism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Granger, M. (2014). D'où vient le mot "ectoplasme" dans son acception spirite et métapsychique? Revue Spirite, 157(2):15-17.
- Guthrie, M., & Birchall, J. (1884). An account of some experiments in thought-transference. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 2:24-42.
- Inglis, B. (1992). Natural and Supernatural: A History of the Paranormal from Earliest Times to 1914 (revised edition). Dorset: Prism.
- Lachapelle, S. (2011). Investigating the Supernatural: From Spiritism and Occultism to Psychical Research and Metapsychics in France, 1853-1931. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Leaf, W. (1890). A record of observations of certain phenomena of trance (3). Part II. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 6:558-646.
- Le Maléfan, P. (2002). Richet chasseur de fantômes: L'épisode de la villa Carmen. In Des Savants Face à l'Occulte 1870-1940 edited by B. Bansaude-Vincent and C. Blondel, Paris: La Découverte, pp. 173-200.
- Lodge, O. J. (1894). Experience of unusual physical phenomena occurring in the presence of an entranced person (Eusapia Paladino). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 34:306-336, 346-360.
- Lodge, O. (1923). A textbook of metapsychics: Review and critique. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 34:70-106.
- Piéron, H. (1922). Review of Traité de Métapsychique by C. Richet. L'Anné Psychologique, 23:602- 603.
- Pierret, R. (1935). Review of Souvenirs d'un Physiologiste by C. Richet. Journal de Physiologie et de Pathologie Générale, 33:1250.
- Richet, C. (1875). Du somnambulisme provoqué. Journal de l'Anatomie et de la Physiologie Normales et Pathologiques de l'Homme et des Animaux, 11:348-378.
- Richet, C. (1886b). Les mouvements inconscients. In Hommage à Monsieur Chevreul à l'Occasion de son Centenaire 31 Août 1886 edited by M. Berthelot, Paris: Félix Alcan, pp. 79-84.
- Richet, C. (1888). Relation de diverses expériences sur la transmission mentale, la lucidité, et autres phénomènes non explicables par les données scientifi ques actuelles. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 5:18-168.
- Richet, C. (1889b). Further experiments in hypnotic lucidity or clairvoyance. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 6:66-83.
- Richet, C. (1895). À propos des expériences faites avec Eusapia Paladino: Réponse à M. Hodgson. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 7:67-75.
- Richet, C. (1899b). On the conditions of certainty. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 14:152-157.
- Richet, C. (1905a). Concerning the phenomenon called materialisation. Annals of Psychical Science, 2:207-210, 269-289.
- Richet, C. (1905b). The decimal indexing of memoranda relating to psychical sciences. Annals of Psychical Sciences, 1:69-74.
- Richet, C. (1905c). La métapsychique. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 19:2-49.
- Richet, C. (1907). "Metapsychism" or "occultism"? Annals of Psychical Science, 6:423-425.
- Richet, C. (1909). Occultism in antiquity: Plutarch. Annals of Psychical Science, 8:207-208.
- Richet, C. (1920). Les prémonitions. Bulletin de l'Institut Métapsychique International, 1:18-26, 2:74-80.
- Richet, C. (1924a). For and against survival: The diffi culty of survival from the scientifi c point of view. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 34:107-113.
- Richet, C. (1924b). Metapsychic science and survival. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 21:274-278.
- Schneider, W. H. (2001). Charles Richet and the social role of medical men. Journal of Medical Biography, 9:213-219.
- Sudre, R. (1935). Charles Richet. Journal de Débats Politiques et Littéraires, December 5:1.
- Venzano, G. (1906). Some phenomena of transmission of thought, in relation to mediumship. Annals of Psychical Science, 3:17-46.
Cited by
Evrard, R., Gumpper, S., Beauvais, B., & Alvarado, C. S. (2021) · Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.1002/jhbs.22086 · Cited by 7
Self-citationRoss, C. A. (2022) · European Journal of Trauma & Dissociation · doi:10.1016/j.ejtd.2022.100292
Metadata
- Authors
- Parapsychology Foundation New York, & Alvarado, C.
- Corresponding author
- Alvarado, Carlos
- ORCID
- Alvarado, Carlos
- Venue
- Journal of Scientific Exploration
- Publisher
- Society for Scientific Exploration
- Published
- 2018-03-31
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 55-78
- ISSN
- 0892-3310 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2803022598
- Cited by
- 2
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2022: 1 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 3.25
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Locations
- Journal of Scientific Exploration (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › History of Science and Medicine
- Keywords
- Charles Richet, psychical research, hypnosis, Society for Psychical Research, survival of death, history of parapsychology
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