Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 2.djvu/74

 230 COLLECTIVE REVIEWS

the omnipotence of thought, which made possible a psycho-analytic explanation of superstition, animism and magic. His article on * Das Unheimliche' (6) may be quoted as supplying the direct carrying on of the same line of thought : it demonstrates how many occult phenomena are revealed in the light of psycho-analysis to be natural if complicated psychic forms. Rank's monograph (12) 'Der Doppelganger' should be mentioned here for the same reason. A case of 'sudden conviction' put forward by Dr. Demole for discussion (13) permitted ot a complete analysis which was all that was necessary for the adequate explanation of the state ot mind inducing a remarkably pleasing hallucination in all its detail. Furthermore various publications of serious investigators who cherish leanings to the occult attest the fact that they are beginning to make psycho-analysis the subject of intensive study. Professor Flournoy (3) makes use of Freud's explanations to elucidate many obscure connections, and Vorbrodt (23) emphasizes the value ol psycho-analysis in research into the nature of religion. Dessoir too (2) is obliged to recognise its importance in the investigation of occult phenomena. Hans Freimark (4) approaches the psycho- analytic view in his psychological examination of the mediumistic art, and reports cases of connection between peculiar type ot spiritist 'controls' and the sexuality ot the mediums (5).