Charles Arthur Mercier (21 June 1851 – 2 September 1919) was a British

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

and leading expert on

forensic psychiatry Forensic psychiatry is a subspeciality of psychiatry and is related to criminology. It encompasses the interface between law and psychiatry. According to the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, it is defined as "a subspecialty of psychiat ...

and

insanity Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or t ...

.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 ''The BMJ'' is a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal, published by the trade union the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Origi ...

''. Vol. 2, No. 3063), 1919, pp. 363-365.

Biography

Mercier was born on 21 June 1851. He studied

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

where he graduated. He worked at Buckinghamshire County Asylum in Stone, near Aylesbury. He became the Assistant Medical Officer at

Leavesden Hospital Leavesden Mental Hospital was a mental health facility at Leavesden on the outskirts of Abbots Langley in Hertfordshire. History The facility was commissioned by the Metropolitan Asylums Board and designed by John Giles. It opened as the Metr ...

and at the City of London Asylum in Dartford, Kent. He also worked as a

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

at the Jenny Lind Hospital. He was the resident

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

at Flower House, a private asylum in Catford. In 1902 became a lecturer in

at the

Westminster Hospital Medical School The Westminster Hospital Medical School was formally founded in 1834 by George Guthrie, an ex-military surgeon – although students had been taken on at Westminster Hospital almost from the hospital's foundation in 1719 (the traditional name a ...

. He was also a physician for mental diseases at

Charing Cross Hospital Charing Cross Hospital is an acute general teaching hospital located in Hammersmith, London, United Kingdom. The present hospital was opened in 1973, although it was originally established in 1818, approximately five miles east, in central L ...

. In 1894 Mercier was secretary of a committee of the

Medico-Psychological Association The Royal College of Psychiatrists is the main professional organisation of psychiatrists in the United Kingdom, and is responsible for representing psychiatrists, for psychiatric research and for providing public information about mental health ...

. He published articles in the

Journal of Mental Science A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...

. He joined the Medico-Legal Society in 1905, and became the president of the Medico-Psychological Association in 1908. Mercier has been described as a pioneer in the field of

. In 1917 Mercier wrote to the Mind Association denouncing politician-philosopher Lord Haldane and philosopher

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, a ...

as traitors. He was the author of many important works on

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in C ...

, and

psychology Psychology is the science, scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immens ...

. In 1916, Mercier criticized

vegetarianism Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianis ...

in ''

The Lancet ''The Lancet'' is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal and one of the oldest of its kind. It is also the world's highest-impact academic journal. It was founded in England in 1823. The journal publishes original research articles ...

'' journal. Mercier suggested that vegetarians had an unbalanced mind and "we should expect, therefore, to find among vegetarians an undue proportion of insane persons."

Spiritualism

Mercier who spent most of his career studying insanity and mental disorders did not believe human personality could survive death. Mercier attacked

spiritualism Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (when not lowercase ...

in the '' Hibbert Journal'' for 1917. His book ''Spiritualism and Sir Oliver Lodge'' (1917) was an exposure of

trance medium Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or spir ...

ship and a criticism of the spiritualist views of

Oliver Lodge Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge, (12 June 1851 – 22 August 1940) was a British physicist and writer involved in the development of, and holder of key patents for, radio. He identified electromagnetic radiation independent of Hertz's proof and at his ...

. In the book he criticized Lodge for ignoring

Occam's razor Occam's razor, Ockham's razor, or Ocham's razor ( la, novacula Occami), also known as the principle of parsimony or the law of parsimony ( la, lex parsimoniae), is the problem-solving principle that "entities should not be multiplied beyond neces ...

and invoking miracles. In his book ''Spirit Experiences'' (1919), Mercier claimed to have converted to spiritualism and apologized for his previous book. He claimed that after investigating the subject he had personally experienced communications with the dead,

levitation Levitation (from Latin ''levitas'' "lightness") is the process by which an object is held aloft in a stable position, without mechanical support via any physical contact. Levitation is accomplished by providing an upward force that counteract ...

and

telepathy Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...

. The book was heavily criticized in a review. However, the book was actually a

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming o ...

that intended on mocking the credulity shown by believers in spiritualism. It was published by Watts & Co, a publishing company that has historical links with the Rationalist Association. The book was positively reviewed by the ''

British Journal of Psychiatry The ''British Journal of Psychiatry'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal covering all branches of psychiatry with a particular emphasis on the clinical aspects of each topic. The journal is owned by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and publ ...

'' which described it as a well written parody of spiritualist phenomena. David Robert Grimes has noted that "Mercier had spent a great deal of time debunking trance mediums, painstakingly dismantling their claims"."Science of the seance: why speaking to spirits is talking to yourself"
The Guardian.

Publications

Books
Nervous System and the Mind''
(1888)
''Sanity and Insanity''
(1890) *''Lunatic Asylums, Their Organisation and Management'' (1894)
''Psychology, Normal and Morbid''
(1901) *''A Text-Book of Insanity'' (1902)
''Criminal Responsibility''
(1905)
''Crime and Insanity''
(1911)
''Conduct and Its Disorders''
(1911)
''A New Logic''
(1912)
'' Leper Houses and Mediaeval Hospitals''
(1915) *''Human Temperaments: Studies in Character'' (1916) *''On Causation'' (1916) *''Food, Sleep, and Efficiency'' (1917)
''Spiritualism and Sir Oliver Lodge''
(1917)
''Crime and Criminals''
(1918)
''Spirit Experiences''
(1919) Selected papers *Mercier, Charles. (1913)
''Vitalism and Materialism''
''Bedrock: A Quarterly Review of Scientific Thought'' 3 (2): 352–357. *Mercier, Charles. (1915)
''Vitalism''
''

The Hibbert Journal ''The Hibbert Journal'' was a large, quarterly magazine in softback book format, issued since 1902 by the Hibbert Trust, best described by its subtitle: ''A Quarterly Review of Religion, Theology and Philosophy''. In the early years it was publish ...

'' 14: 286–299. *Mercier, Charles. (1916)
''Are We Happier Than Our Forefathers?''
''

'' 15: 75–89. *Mercier, Charles. (1916)
''Diet as a Factor in the Causation of Mental Disease''
''

'' 1: 561–565. *Mercier, Charles. (1917)
''Sir Oliver Lodge and the Scientific World''
''

'' 15: 598–613. *Mercier, Arthur. (1917)
''Sir Oliver Lodge and the Scientific World: A Rejoinder''
''

'' 16: 325–327. *Mercier, Charles. (1918)
''The Irrelevance of Christianity and War''
''

'' 16: 555–563.

References

External links

*
Online Books for Charles Arthur Mercier
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mercier, Charles Arthur 1851 births 1919 deaths 19th-century English medical doctors 20th-century English medical doctors Alumni of the University of London Anomalistic psychology Critics of parapsychology Critics of Spiritualism Critics of vegetarianism English sceptics English surgeons Forensic psychiatrists People from Buckinghamshire (before 1974) Place of birth missing Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons 20th-century surgeons