BENDER, HANS. MEDIUMISTIC PSYCHOSES: A CONTRIBUTION TO THE PATHOLOGY OF SPIRITUALISTIC PRACTICS.

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conclusions of importance for psi investigations.-DA
118.. Strauch, Inge. A contribution to the problem of
"spiritual :healing': Preliminary report on a medico-
psychological investigation. Part I. Zeitschrift fur Parapsy-
chologieundGrenzgebi'eteder Psychologie, 1958, 2 (lj, 41-64.
20 refs.--Starting Erom the definition of "spiritual healing" given
by Thouless, the author reports the motivation, the methods
and the results of an investigation which was performed by the
Medizinische Poliklinik of Freiburg University and the Freiburg
Institut fur Grenzegebiete der Psychologie and Psychohygiene
(Institute for Border Areas of Psychology and Mental Hygienej,
concerning the activity of a "spiritual healer:' 650 patients were
medically and psychologically examined and the results of the
contact with the "spiritual healer' were observed up to 14 mon-
ths. About 52% subjective improvements were stated, scattered
with about 15% on the various diseases (three quarters of the
patients were chronically ill). In contrast to these improvements
there were only few objective improvements.
Finally, the psychological structure of positive reactors is ex-
amined, improved methods are proposed and the agencies of
"spiritual healing' are discussed.-DA
119. Sexauer, Bans. A contribution to the
phenomenology and psychology of the poltergeist.
Zeitschrift fu"r Parapsychologie and Grenzgebiete der
Psychologie, 1958, 2 (213j, ' 104-106. 4 refs.-Poltergeist
phenomena are of a very complex nature. At the same time they
show an objective aspect concerning the percepted data and a
subjective one, consisting of a specific emotional resonance.
The description of the phenomena and their course make ob-
vious the illusionary and scenic character of many forms of pol-
tergeist phenomena. The perception of these phenomena in-
cludes qualities in close relation to the emotional expression of
anxiety.
Poltergeist phenomena may be divided into two different
groups: those of a dynamic character associated with persons,
and those apparently attached to certain locations. The emo-
tional qualities of theses experiences have specific parallels to
the events studied by the psychology of religion. As yet, there is
no parapsychological theory of poltergeist phenomena. Former
attempts of explanation do not seem to hit the very nature of the
occurrences. Depth-psychology contributes important marginal
clues. There are striking analogies to the catathymic pseudo-
hallucinations and to dream experience. But from the parapsy-
chological point of view the decisive question is, whether the
phenomena do exceed the frame of the subjectivity and if so, in
which way do they.-DA
120. Ehrenwald, Jan. Doctrinal compliance in
psychotherapy and problems of scientific methodology.
Zeitschrift fur Parapsychologie and Grenzgebiete der
Psychologie, 1958, 2(2/3(, 127-144. 21 refs.-Doctrinal com-
pliance in psychotherapy is described as compliance by the pa-
tient with the therapist's preconscious wishes and expectations
concerning the validity of his own theoretical concepts and
favorite scientific hypotheses. It may be due to suggestion, con-
scious or unconscious, to "operant reinforcement," but it may
also be aided by telepathic leakage from the therapist to the pa-
tient. Influences of this type may be compared with the in-
evitable interference by the observer in the physical sciences
with objects studied on the microphysical plane. Further points
of comparison between modern physics and psychology are
various other causal acid spatiotemporal anomalies, common to
both quantum mechanics and psychoanalytic theory brought up
to date by integrating the psi factor with its system of
thought. - DA
121. Uslar, Detlev von. On the dreamlike structure of
telepathic assertions. Part IL- Zeitschrift fair Parapsy-
chologie and Grenzgebiete der Psychologie, 1958/59, 2 (2/3j,
145-172.-The sensitive's impressions induced by the telepathic
situation often present important deviations in relation to the
material which seems to provoke the parapsychic perception. In
analyzing these deviations it becomes obvious that they repre-
sent a meaningful and interpretable product of dream
mechanisms (e.g. concentration, displacement, etc.(. The author
poses the question of their origin: are these deviations produced
by the mind of the sensitive or are they elaborated by the sub-
conscious of the subject (the presumable "agent"j, or are these
00660004-5
amples shows that the deviation had its origin in the mind of the
subject. However, these considerations do not seem to exhaust
the complexity of the telepathic phenomena, which possibly
might be understood as an intrinsic reciprocity between the
psyches involved. Further research should also stress the
analysis of the unverifiable "mediumistic material" which could
perhaps indicate how the telepathic process is imbedded in the
psychism of the sensitive, and thus open the path to under-
standing the relationship between telepathy and individual
psychic life.-DA
122. Bender, Hans. Mediumistic psychoses: A contribu-
tion to the pathology of spiritualistic practices. Zeitschrift
fur Parapsychologie and Grenzgebiete der Psychologie,
1958!59, 2 (2/3), 173-201.29 refs.-This paper on the pathology
of spiritualistic practices (table-tilting, Ouija-board, automatic
writing, pendulum, etc.) describes by a series of characteristic
cases, typical mental disturbances arising in connection with
the alleged spirit-communication. The emotional shock, caused
by the misinterpreted experience of the spiritual world by the
subject, is important for the pathogenesis of these disturbances
which in the German literature are termed "mediumistic
psychoses." This misinterpretation is induced by subconscious
manifestations which imply characteristic features of an in-
telligent activity. This subconscious activity is a sort of "in-
dependent thinking," not controlled by the conscious mind.
Such a mental automatism may rest in the frame of the normal
but there is the danger of pathological degenerations arising,
which are characterized by auditory hallucinations, delusions,
compulsions, etc., which are often misinterpreted as symptoms
of schizophrenia. But with the exception of transition-cases they
are rather attributable to hysterical manifestations (ego-
weakness, deintegration, autonomous complexesJ.-DA
Spearheaded by Paola Giovetti, Ph.D., a group of Italian para-
psychologists have promised to prepare English-language ab-
stracts of the Italian parapsychological literature. In the mean-
time, Michela Alfieri of the Metapsichica Rivista Italiana di Para-
psico[ogia has ;onerously supplied the Parapsychology Sources
of Information Center with a run of back issues. Since 1965 it
has published English-language abstracts, four of which are
given below.
123. Inardi, Massimo. Spiritism in Brazil. Metapsichica
Rivista Italiana di Parapsicologia, 1965 (JullDecJ, 20 (314),
65-84-Based on the book, Spiritism in Brazil, by a Capuchin
friar, Bonaventuie Kloppenburg of the Catholic University of
Rio de Janeiro, this paper describes the situation of spiritism in
Brazil. Shows by means of direct and indirect statistical data
that such practices are widely spread throughout the country.
He describes the doctrinal picture, and touches upon three prin-
cipal currents or movements into which spiritism has split in
Brazil and also the branches into which each movement has fur-
ther divided over a period of time. He also considers the general
and particular cases which have brought or may have brought
about such a wide and deeply rooted diffusion of these prac-
tices. Briefly describes- from an ethnological point ofview- the
spiritistic-fetishistic rites, principally of African origin, with
American interaction and with Christian religious syncretism,
which are commonly known by the name of
"Umbanda."- DAIR.A.W.
124. Riccardi, Nicola. An orientation considering the re-
establishment of psychical research. Metapsichica Rivista
Italiana di Parapsicologia, 1965, (juUDecj, 22 (3/4j,
102-111.-In an article recently published in Luce a Ombra, the
author proposes that the vitalistic concept of the "aura" is the
turning. point of paranormal phenomenology. He urges large
scientific institutions to conduct controlled research into the
aura, enlisting many teams uncompromised with spiritualism or
parapsychology to engage in free interdisciplinary operational
research in this subject. Longitudinal repetitions of mediumistic
apports in the laboratory would be likely to make it possible to
identify the permanent presence of psychical transmutations in
the mechanism of sensory perception as well. We can see, then,
the gradual nullification of the artificial walls between the nor-
maland the paranormal. The basic hypothesis is that the events
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