In the 1950s, three delusional Messiahs were gathered to live together in the same mental hospital. This is one of the most remarkable experiments in the history of psychology and I've written about it in an article for Slate.I've had this tale told to me many times, but in a hazy way almost like a myth. I've been asked it as a question ("what would happen if three delusional Christs met each oth
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May 28, 2010
Three Christs
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September 18, 2009
Carl Jung’s mythical Red Book to be published
The New York Times has a huge article on the forthcoming publication of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung's 'Red Book', the notebook he kept during the six years of his 'creative illness' in which he was clearly psychotic but found inspiration for some of his most influential ideas. Jung is one of the most interesting people in the history of psychology. He was both an experimentalist and an analy
7 Vote(s)
7 Vote(s)
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August 31, 2009
The automated phrenologist
I've just discovered the excellent This Week in the History of Psychology podcast series which has a particularly good episode on the 'psycograph', an automated phrenology device created in 1905.The idea is that it would 'read' the bumps on your head by the use of mechanical plungers and it would then print a profile of your 'character' in a matter of seconds.There's a remarkable amount of inform
15 Vote(s)
15 Vote(s)
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