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Anomalistic Psychology
In psychology, anomalistic psychology is the study of human behaviour and experience connected with what is often called the paranormal, with few assumptions made about the validity (or otherwise) of the reported phenomena. Early history According to anomalistic psychology, paranormal phenomena have naturalistic explanations resulting from psychological and physical factors which have given the false impression of paranormal activity to some people. There were many early publications that gave rational explanations for alleged paranormal experiences. The physician John Ferriar wrote ''An Essay Towards a Theory of Apparitions'' in 1813 in which he argued that sightings of ghosts were the result of optical illusions. Later, the French physician Alexandre Jacques François Brière de Boismont published ''On Hallucinations: Or, the Rational History of Apparitions, Dreams, Ecstasy, Magnetism, and Somnambulism'' in 1845 in which he claimed sightings of ghosts were the result of hallucin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between the natural and social sciences. Psychologists seek an understanding of the emergent properties of brains, linking the discipline to neuroscience. As social scientists, psychologists aim to understand the behavior of individuals and groups.Fernald LD (2008)''Psychology: Six perspectives'' (pp.12–15). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Hockenbury & Hockenbury. Psychology. Worth Publishers, 2010. Ψ (''psi''), the first letter of the Greek word ''psyche'' from which the term psychology is derived (see below), is commonly associated with the science. A professional practitioner or researcher involved in the discipline is called a psychologist. Some psychologists can also be classified as behavioral or cognitive scientists. Some psyc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unconscious Communication
Unconscious (or intuitive) communication is the subtle, unintentional, unconscious cues that provide information to another individual. It can be verbal (speech patterns, physical activity while speaking, or the tone of voice of an individual) or it can be nonverbal (facial expressions and body language). Some psychologists instead use the term ''honest signals'' because such cues are involuntary behaviors that often convey emotion whereas body language can be controlled. Many decisions are based on unconscious communication, which is interpreted and created in the right hemisphere of the brain. The right hemisphere is dominant in perceiving and expressing body language, facial expressions, verbal cues, and other indications that have to do with emotion but it does not exclusively deal with the unconscious. Little is known about the unconscious mind or about how decisions are made based on unconscious communications except that they are always unintentional. There are two types o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ivor Lloyd Tuckett
Ivor Lloyd Tuckett (1 February 1873 – 28 November 1942) was a British professor of physiology, physician, and skeptic. Career Tuckett was born at Cleveland Gardens, London. He studied natural science and physiology at Trinity College, Cambridge between 1890 and 1894, where he was awarded the degrees of BA (1893-4), MA (1897), and MD (1910). He was a physician at University College Hospital and was made a Fellow of University College London. Tuckett worked as an ophthalmologist in Norwich and on the Isle of Wight. He held an interest in yacht racing. From 1896 to 1910 Tuckett was an active researcher and published many papers in the ''Journal of Physiology''. He wrote an important paper on the structure of non-meduallated nerve fibres. He was elected a member of The Physiological Society in 1896. He married Anna Marie Christine Wickman on 6 April 1899. Skepticism Tuckett became known as an exposer of the false claims of spiritualists. He is best known for his book ''The Ev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Arthur Mercier
Charles Arthur Mercier (21 June 1851 – 2 September 1919) was a British psychiatrist and leading expert on forensic psychiatry and insanity.Charles Arthur Mercier, M.D.Lond., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.S., Consulting Physician For Mental Diseases, Charing Cross Hospital; Past President Of The Medico-Psychological Association. ''British Medical Journal''. Vol. 2, No. 3063), 1919, pp. 363-365. Biography Mercier was born on 21 June 1851. He studied medicine at the University of London where he graduated. He worked at Buckinghamshire County Asylum in Stone, near Aylesbury. He became the Assistant Medical Officer at Leavesden Hospital and at the City of London Asylum in Dartford, Kent. He also worked as a surgeon at the Jenny Lind Hospital. He was the resident physician at Flower House, a private asylum in Catford. In 1902 became a lecturer in insanity at the Westminster Hospital Medical School. He was also a physician for mental diseases at Charing Cross Hospital. In 1894 Mercier was secr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Jastrow
Joseph Jastrow (January 30, 1863 – January 8, 1944) was a Polish-born American psychologist, noted for inventions in experimental psychology, design of experiments, and psychophysics. He also worked on the phenomena of optical illusions, and a number of well-known optical illusions (notably the Jastrow illusion) were either first reported in or popularized by his work. Jastrow believed that everyone had their own, often incorrect, preconceptions about psychology. One of his goals was to use the scientific method to identify truth from error, and educate the layperson, which he did through speaking tours, popular print media, and radio. Biography Jastrow was born in Warsaw, Poland. A son of Talmud scholar Marcus Jastrow, Joseph Jastrow was the younger brother of the orientalist, Morris Jastrow, Jr. Joseph Jastrow came to Philadelphia in 1866 and received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. During his doctoral studies at Johns Hopki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Millais Culpin
Millais Culpin FRCS (6 January 1874 in Ware, Hertfordshire – 14 September 1952 in St Albans, Hertfordshire) was an English physician and psychotherapist. He appears as a character in the ''Casualty 1907'' and ''Casualty 1909'' television series, where he was played by Will Houston. Culpin lived at Meads, Loughton, where he is commemorated by a blue plaque. Publications *''Mental Abnormality: Facts and Theories'' (1948) *''Psychology in Medicine'' (1945) *''Recent Advances in the Study of Psychoneuroses'' (1931) *''Spiritualism and the New Psychology: An Explanation of Spiritualist Phenomena and Beliefs in Terms of Modern Knowledge'' (1920) References Sources * Frances Millais MacKeith, ‘Culpin, Millais (1874–1952)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2006 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/51592 accessed Millais Culpin (1874–1952): * CULPIN, Millais’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Baerwald
Richard Baerwald (1867–1929) was a German academic psychologist, in Berlin. Towards the end of his life he became interested in parapsychology and occultism (as it was interpreted at the period). He edited the ''Zeitschrift für Kritischen Okkultismus'' from 1926 to 1928.Kurtz, Paul. (1985). ''A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology''. Prometheus Books. p. 487. Works *''Theorie der Begabung'' (1896) *''Der Mensch ist grösser als das Schicksal'' (1922) *''Die intellektuellen Phänomene'' (1925) *''Okkultismus und Spiritismus und ihre weltanschaulichen Folgerungen'' (1926) *''Psychologie der Selbstverteidigung in Kampf-, Not- und Krankheitszeiten'' (1927) References Further reading *Perovsky-Petrovo-Solovovo Count Mikhail Mikhailovich Perovsky-Petrovo-Solovovo (граф Михаил Михайлович Перовский-Петрово-Соловово; 1868–1954) was a Russian diplomat, psychical researcher and skeptic. Career Mikhail Petrovo- .... (1928)''Okku ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Kurtz
Paul Kurtz (December 21, 1925 – October 20, 2012) was an American scientific skeptic and Secular humanism, secular humanist. He has been called "the father of secular humanism". He was Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, State University of New York at Buffalo, having previously also taught at Vassar, Trinity, and Union colleges, and the New School for Social Research. Kurtz founded the publishing house Prometheus Books in 1969. He was also the founder and past chairman of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI, formerly the ''Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal'', CSICOP), the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Center for Inquiry. He was editor in chief of ''Free Inquiry'' magazine, a publication of the Council for Secular Humanism. He was co-chair of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) from 1986 to 1994. He was a Fellow of the American Association for the Adva ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karl Jaspers
Karl Theodor Jaspers (, ; 23 February 1883 – 26 February 1969) was a German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher who had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry, and philosophy. After being trained in and practicing psychiatry, Jaspers turned to philosophical inquiry and attempted to discover an innovative philosophical system. He was often viewed as a major exponent of existentialism in Germany, though he did not accept the label. Biography Jaspers was born in Oldenburg in 1883 to a mother from a local farming community, and a jurist father. He showed an early interest in philosophy, but his father's experience with the legal system undoubtedly influenced his decision to study law at the University of Heidelberg. Jaspers first studied law in Heidelberg and later in Munich for three semesters. It soon became clear that Jaspers did not particularly enjoy law, and he switched to studying medicine in 1902 with a thesis about criminology. In 1910 he married Gertrud Maye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Religious Experience
A religious experience (sometimes known as a spiritual experience, sacred experience, or mystical experience) is a subjective experience which is interpreted within a religious framework. The concept originated in the 19th century, as a defense against the growing rationalism of Western society. William James popularised the concept. Many religious and mystical traditions see religious experiences (particularly the knowledge which comes with them) as revelations caused by divine agency rather than ordinary natural processes. They are considered real encounters with God or gods, or real contact with higher-order realities of which humans are not ordinarily aware. Skeptics may hold that religious experience is an evolved feature of the human brain amenable to normal scientific study. The commonalities and differences between religious experiences across different cultures have enabled scholars to categorize them for academic study. Definitions William James Psychologist and ph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apparitional Experience
In parapsychology, an apparitional experience is an anomalous experience characterized by the apparent perception of either a living being or an inanimate object without there being any material stimulus for such a perception. In academic discussion, the term "apparitional experience" is preferred to the term "ghost" because: # The term ghost implies that some element of the human being survives death and, at least under certain circumstances, can make itself perceptible to living human beings. There are other competing explanations of apparitional experiences. # Firsthand accounts of apparitional experiences differ in many respects from their fictional counterparts in literary or traditional ghost stories and films (see below). # The content of apparitional experiences includes living beings, both human and animal, and even inanimate objects. History of the concept Attempts to apply modern scientific or investigative standards to the study of apparitional experiences began w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Nevil Maskelyne
John Nevil Maskelyne (22 December 183918 May 1917) was an English stage magician and inventor of the pay toilet, along with other Victorian-era devices. He worked with magicians George Alfred Cooke and David Devant, and many of his illusions are still performed today. His book ''Sharps and Flats: A Complete Revelation of the Secrets of Cheating at Games of Chance and Skill'' is considered a classic overview of card sharp practices.In 1914 he founded the Occult Committee, a group to "investigate claims to supernatural power and to expose fraud". Early life Maskelyne was born on 22 December 1839 at Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England to John Nevil Maskelyne (1800–1875), a saddler, and his wife Harriet née Brunsdon (1812–1871). He trained as a watchmaker. Career Maskelyne became interested in conjuring after watching a stage performance at his local Town Hall by the fraudulent American spiritualists the Davenport brothers. He saw how the Davenports' spirit cabinet illusio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
