Ecstatic expeditions: Fischl Schneersohn's "science of man" between modern psychology and Jewish mysticism.

This article examines Fischl Schneersohn's (1887-1958) "science of man" as a psychotherapeutic approach situated between modern psychology and Chassidic mysticism. While almost forgotten today, Schneersohn was a prolific writer, well-known in Yiddish-speaking circles as a psychologist, educationalist, novelist, and psychotherapist. As a descendant of an important dynasty of Chassidic rebbes, he grew up inside the Chabad movement, but followed a secular career. The first part of this article traces Schneersohn's biography from the outskirts of the Russian empire to Germany, Poland, the United States, and Palestine, and shows how his upbringing and historical experiences shaped his psychological works and his self-understanding as educationalist and psychotherapist. The second part examines Schneersohn's main work, Studies in Psycho-Expedition, which blended Chassidic mysticism and contemporary psychology in a way that was both idiosyncratic and unique. The psycho-sociological "science of man" was a modern psychological and psychotherapeutic approach, using specific methods to gain knowledge about the human mind, and to counteract and treat mental disorders, neuroses, and nervousness. At the same time, however, it was deeply influenced by Chassidic mysticism; revolving around the assumption of a universal human need for spiritual ecstasy. Schneersohn universalised, secularised, and reframed elements of the Kabbalah as a modern psychotherapy. By examining an almost forgotten psychotherapeutic approach outside the mainstream in its specific historical context, this article contributes to the history of the connection between religion and the psy-disciplines, as well as to ongoing debates about the role of spirituality and ecstasy in psychology and psychotherapy.

Mental disorder and mysticism in the late medieval world.

During the later Middle Ages, a number of religiously oriented people behaved in ways that we would consider unusual, yet it was unusual for them to be regarded as mentally disordered. This article reviews late medieval thinking and practice with regard to mental disorder and also with regard to the discernment of spirits, that is, how it could be decided whether an experience or impulse to do something was the consequence of God or a good spirit, an evil spirit, or some purely human cause. Many of the criteria for discerning a good spirit were behavioral, for example, consistently showing humility and discretion, and were clearly distinct from those displayed in mental disorder. A comparison of the criteria for mental disorder with those used to discern spirits shows how the distinction between mental disorder and religious experience could have been made and why confusion of the two seems to have been rare. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Late Feyerabend on materialism, mysticism, and religion.

Feyerabend's interests in religion and mysticism grew through his career. In his later writings, Feyerabend's numerous critiques of scientific materialism are often accompanied by purported advantages of religious orientations and temperaments. These recommendations do not simply follow from his tolerant theoretical pluralism; they are more positive attempts to articulate distinctive aspects of human life satisfied by religion, but not by scientific materialism. Elevating the human need for mystery, reverence, and love, he contrasts these goods with the deliverances of monistic conceptions of science and reason. I bring attention to some of the common themes in these remarks to argue that they were integral with other parts of his philosophical project and that they could serve as helpful rejoinders to contemporary exhortations to science-based secularism from philosophers of science.

Ramakrishna and the Clinic of Paradox.

This study presents a clinical conception of the human being as the paradox between immanence and transcendence. Through an exposition of the clinical conceptions of Brazilian author Gilberto Safra, we search for an integral manner in which to understand mystical experience as a way to rethink the ontological conceptions inherent to clinical practice. In such perspective, we elaborate a critique of both the psychological-only approach to mystical experience as well as the spiritual-only approach. We present it through the life of Indian mystic Ramakrishna, by comparing the interpretation different authors make of his experiences and placing our own perspective.

Darwin: German mystic or French rationalist?

The notion that Charles Darwin embraced the German Romantic tradition seems plausible, given the early influence of Alexander von Humboldt. But this view fails to do justice to other scientific traditions. Darwin was a protégé of the Englishman John Stevens Henslow and was a follower of the Scott Charles Lyell. He had important debts to French scientists, notably Henri Milne-Edwards, Etienne and Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, and Alphonse de Candolle. Many Germans were quite supportive of Darwin, but not all of these were encumbered by idealistic metaphysical baggage. Both Darwin and Anton Dohrn treated science as very much a cosmopolitan enterprise.

R.D. Laing's theological hinterland: the contrast between mysticism and communion.

Contrasting elements in R.D. Laing's psychiatry can be traced to two kinds of Christian theology: mystical theology and corporate theology. On one hand, Laing's mystical theology combined with psychoanalytic theory, to provide a New Age psychotherapeutic account of the recovery of authentic selfhood via metanoia. On the other, his incarnational, corporate theology promoted social inclusion of the mentally ill, particularly via therapeutic communities. For Laing, as for other post-war British Christians, a turn inwards, to mysticism and the sacralization of the self, and a turn outwards, to social and political activism, were ways of negotiating with the decline of traditional Christianity.

Dostoyevsky and epilepsy: between science and mystique.

This article, the result of a research project presented as a Master's degree dissertation in the graduate program of 'Teaching of Health Education' at UNIFESP, seeks to highlight the pertinence of analyzing epilepsy and especially, the paradoxical experience of the epileptic individual through literary narrative. Using as its object the novel, The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, it seeks to discuss the relationship between epilepsy and the mystic experience, bearing in mind the context of the scientific and humanistic perspectives of the 19th century and today.

Dostoyevsky and epilepsy: between science and mystique / Dostoiévski e a epilepsia: entre a ciência e a mística

This article, the result of a research project presented as a Master's degree dissertation in the graduate program of "Teaching of Health Education" at UNIFESP, seeks to highlight the pertinence of analyzing epilepsy and especially, the paradoxical experience of the epileptic individual through literary narrative. Using as its object the novel, The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, it seeks to discuss the relationship between epilepsy and the mystic experience, bearing in mind the context of the scientific and humanistic perspectives of the 19th century and today.

Este artigo, fruto de uma pesquisa apresentada como dissertação de mestrado junto ao programa de pós-graduação "Ensino em Ciências da Saúde" da UNIFESP, procura apontar a pertinência de se analisar a epilepsia e, principalmente, a paradoxal experiência do epiléptico através da narrativa literária. Tomando como objeto o romance O Idiota, de Fiódor Dostoiévski, procura-se discutir a relação entre epilepsia e experiência mística, considerando o contexto das perspectivas científicas e humanísticas do século XIX e de hoje.

"Ein Liebhaber des Mysterii, und ein grosser Verwandter desselben." Toward the Life of Balthasar Walther: Kabbalist, Alchemist and Wandering Paracelsian Physician.

Despite the attention recently paid to Jakob Böhme's life and works, the Görlitz theosopher's most famous disciple, Balthasar Walther (1558-c.1630), remains something of a historical puzzle. Utilizing several recently rediscovered print and manuscript sources located by the author, the present article seeks to provide the first detailed biographical study of Walther, highlighting his significance to sixteenth and seventeenth century history in a myriad of contexts. Far from being merely a follower of Böhme, Walther emerges as significant in his own right as a physician, Paracelsian, Kabbalist, Weigelian, religious heretic, and distributor of magical manuscripts, whose personal networks extended across Europe and beyond. In addition to providing a biography, this article seeks to discover new avenues of enquiry in which information concerning Walther's life and thought might be uncovered and contextualized. This investigation simultaneously throws light upon Walther himself, as well as Jakob Böhme's often neglected intellectual and social Umwelt. It also points to new and entirely unexamined sources for Böhme's thought.

The timeliness and timelessness of the 'archaic': analytical psychology, 'primordial' thought, synchronicity.

In 1930 Jung gave a lecture entitled 'Archaic Man' to the Lesezirkel in Hottingen. Following recent work on this text by two commentators, this article uses their interpretations as a springboard for a complementary reading, which emphasizes the fundamental significance of this paper as bridging the earlier and later stages in the development of analytical psychology, and examines closely the opposition between 'archaic'-'modern' in Jung's paper; indeed, in his work as a whole. In contrast to Lévy-Bruhl, Jung rejects the label of 'mysticism' as applied to the 'primitive' point of view, and his anti-mystical stance can be explained in terms of his dialectical conception of the relationship between Self and World. On this account, the subject and the object--the psyche and the external world--are more closely (inter)related than conventional (modern) epistemology and ontology generally believe. This conception of the relation between the subjective and the objective foreshadows his later, and controversial, concept of synchronicity, which is, Jung insists, a way of apprehending the world in terms of its meaning. Concluding with a survey of the status of the 'primordial' in some other texts by Jung, this article aims to foster further debate on one of Jung's most complex and fascinating texts.

Queering the cosmology of the vikings: a queer analysis of the cult of Odin and "holy white stones".

Ideas concerning Eros, honor and death were central to the Norse perception of the world. Odin is the greatest war god, and associated with manliness. However, Odin is also the most powerful master of seid (sorcery), an activity associated with women. Seid may be interpreted as a form of shamanism. If a man performed seid he could be accused of ergi, that is, unmanliness. Therefore it could be said that Odin exercised an activity considered unmanly. How could Odin perform seid without losing his position as the god of war and warriors? This paradox is discussed from a queer theoretical perspective. On this basis a new interpretation of the so-called "holy white" phallic stones in western Norway is suggested. Most of these stones are associated with burials from the later part of the Scandinavian Early Iron Age. The temporal distribution of the white phallic stones correlates well with the increasing importance of the cult of Odin. There may be a cultic association between the cult of Odin and the burial practices involving white holy phallic stones.

The evolution of a medical mystic: An interview with Christine Page, MD. Interview by Nancy Nachman-Hunt.

Christine Page, MD, has been a physician and healer for more than 30 years. She received her medical degree at London University. Her medical specialties include obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics, family practice, and homeopathy. She was raised in a family with rich spiritual traditions, and this background, in addition to her wide experience and expertise in traditional healthcare practices, enabled her to have an instrumental role in integrating complementary medicine into the British National Health Service. Dr Page is the author of 6 books: Frontiers of Health (Ebury Press; 1992); Mirror of Existence (Ebury Press; 1995); Beyond the Obvious (Ebury Press; 1998); Mind, Body, Spirit Workbook (Ebury Press; 2000); Spiritual Alchemy (Ebury Press; 2003); and the recently released 2012 and the Galactic Centre (Inner Traditions; 2008).

Inca of the blood, Inca of the soul: embodiment, emotion, and racialization in the Peruvian mystical tourist industry.

In the context of the globalizing New Age movement and of the "turismo mistico" (mystical tourism) industry emanating from Peru, white and mestizo New Age practitioners and tourists fashion ideologies emphasizing the spiritual energy which supposedly resides in Quechua bodies, even as they freely appropriate Quechua cosmology and ritual for a hybridized New Age Andean spirituality. This case shows how racialized structural inequalities are expressed and experienced by tourists and New Age movement leaders through particular, essentialist representations of the body and through a common repertoire of emotional responses to inequality, commodification, and privilege. The paper provides an ethnographic account of how racialization may be perpetuated, negotiated, and resisted through religious systems, particularly through the work of constructing ideologies and experiences of the body and of emotional subjectivity.

"Their pineal glands aglow": Theosophical physiology in Ulysses.

This article argues that Joyce's engagements with the Theosophy of the Dublin literary world amount to more than simple parody. In Ulysses, Joyce portrays Theosophy's efforts to offer an alternative understanding of physiology to that of the medical establishment as a form of boundary work, an adaptation of the discourse of modern medical research to fashion modern mysticism as a science. Ultimately, Joyce rejects Theosophical physiology and its evolutionary scientism because it provides an unsatisfactory rhetorical body, a failed attempt to renegotiate the boundaries between scientific materialism and spirituality in the awkward modernity of Dublin in 1904.

Jung and Kabbalah: imaginal and noetic aspects.

Jung made use of kabbalistic images and motifs in various parts of his opus, including in his alchemical studies, in Aion, and extensively in Mysterium Coniunctionis. He also recorded an important dream after his heart attack which made use of kabbalistic symbolism in Memories, Dreams, Reflections. In this paper I explore Jung's ideas in relation to Kabbalah, first, by differentiating between Jung's imaginal approach to kabbalistic symbolism and the noetic intention of the Kabbalah itself in its use of imaginal material. Second, I present a number of typical examples of how Jung understands (and sometimes misunderstands) kabbalistic material that he cites. Third, I briefly survey the development of the Kabbalah as an imaginal noetic system, and present a core self-understanding of kabbalists--as engaged in inner 'self-work' which intends to 'sweeten the harsh judgments of existence in their very roots'. Finally, I differentiate Jung's understanding of the psychical living symbol from the kabbalistic understanding of the mystical symbol. In this fourth section of the paper, I conclude by presenting a basic Hasidic/kabbalistic teaching on the nature and function of verbal contemplative prayer--as an illustration of the difference between the two understandings of symbolism. The four sections of the paper are framed by a 'Prelude' and a 'Coda'.

Raymond Prince and the R. M. Bucke memorial society for the study of religious experience.

The study of the relationship between psychiatry and religion has become an issue of increasing importance for both research and clinical practice. This article presents the history of the R. M. Bucke Memorial Society for the Study of Religious Experience, established by Raymond Prince in Montréal in 1964 as one of the first scientific societies whose aim was to investigate those characteristics of religious experience of interest to psychiatry. It also describes some of Prince's own studies on religious experience.