Pierre Janet

Pierre Janet’s L'Automatisme Psychologique, originally published in 1889, is one of the earliest and most important books written on the study of trauma and dissociation. Here it is made available, in two volumes, in English for the first time, with a new preface by Giuseppe Craparo and Onno van der Hart. The second volume, Subconscious Acts, Anesthesias, and Psychological Disaggregation in Psychological Automatism, covers four main topics. Beginning with an examination of subconscious acts, Janet first assesses partial catalepsies, subconscious acts, and posthypnotic suggestions, then proceeds to a consideration of anesthesias and simultaneous psychological existences. This is followed by discussion of several forms of psychological disaggregation, including spiritism, impulsive madness, hallucinations, and possessions. Finally, Janet considers elements of mental weakness and strength, from misery to judgement and will. Janet’s work, with its many descriptions of dissociative actions and the dissociative personality, will help clinicians and researchers to develop insight in trauma-related dissociation, and to become more adapt at relating to their patients’ dissociative actions. This seminal work will be of great interest to researchers and students of psychoanalysis, philosophy, and modernism, as well as psychotherapists and psychoanalysts working with clients who have experienced trauma. It is accompanied by Catalepsy, Memory, and Suggestion in Psychological Automatism: Total Automatism.

Pierre Janet’s L'Automatisme Psychologique, originally published in 1889, is one of the earliest and most important books written on the study of trauma and dissociation. Here it is made available, in two volumes, in English for the first time, with a new preface by Giuseppe Craparo and Onno van der Hart. The second volume, Subconscious Acts, Anesthesias, and Psychological Disaggregation in Psychological Automatism, covers four main topics. Beginning with an examination of subconscious acts, Janet first assesses partial catalepsies, subconscious acts, and posthypnotic suggestions, then proceeds to a consideration of anesthesias and simultaneous psychological existences. This is followed by discussion of several forms of psychological disaggregation, including spiritism, impulsive madness, hallucinations, and possessions. Finally, Janet considers elements of mental weakness and strength, from misery to judgement and will. Janet’s work, with its many descriptions of dissociative actions and the dissociative personality, will help clinicians and researchers to develop insight in trauma-related dissociation, and to become more adapt at relating to their patients’ dissociative actions. This seminal work will be of great interest to researchers and students of psychoanalysis, philosophy, and modernism, as well as psychotherapists and psychoanalysts working with clients who have experienced trauma. It is accompanied by Catalepsy, Memory, and Suggestion in Psychological Automatism: Total Automatism.

Pierre Janet’s L'Automatisme psychologique, originally published in 1889, is one of the earliest and most important books written on the study of trauma and dissociation. Here it is made available, in two volumes, in English for the first time, with a new preface by Giuseppe Craparo and Onno van der Hart. Catalepsy, Memory, and Suggestion in Psychological Automatism, the first volume, examines three aspects of trauma and dissociation. Janet first explores catalepsy and analogous states, including comparing catalepsy to somnambulism, then discusses somnambulism, memory, and forgetting. Finally, Janet considers suggestion, amnesia, and distraction, as well as considering characteristics of suggestible individuals. Janet’s work is an unsurpassed experimental study of human actions in their simplest and most rudimentary forms, and a fundamental contribution to our understanding of trauma-related dissociation. This seminal work will be of great interest to researchers and students of psychoanalysis, philosophy, and modernism, as well as psychotherapists and psychoanalysts working with clients who have experienced trauma. It is accompanied by Subconscious Acts, Anesthesias, and Psychological Disaggregation in Psychological Automatism: Partial Automatism.

Pierre Janet’s L'Automatisme psychologique, originally published in 1889, is one of the earliest and most important books written on the study of trauma and dissociation. Here it is made available, in two volumes, in English for the first time, with a new preface by Giuseppe Craparo and Onno van der Hart. Catalepsy, Memory, and Suggestion in Psychological Automatism, the first volume, examines three aspects of trauma and dissociation. Janet first explores catalepsy and analogous states, including comparing catalepsy to somnambulism, then discusses somnambulism, memory, and forgetting. Finally, Janet considers suggestion, amnesia, and distraction, as well as considering characteristics of suggestible individuals. Janet’s work is an unsurpassed experimental study of human actions in their simplest and most rudimentary forms, and a fundamental contribution to our understanding of trauma-related dissociation. This seminal work will be of great interest to researchers and students of psychoanalysis, philosophy, and modernism, as well as psychotherapists and psychoanalysts working with clients who have experienced trauma. It is accompanied by Subconscious Acts, Anesthesias, and Psychological Disaggregation in Psychological Automatism: Partial Automatism.

Pierre Janet’s De l'Automatisme Psychologique, originally published in 1889, is one of the earliest and most important books written on the study of trauma and dissociation. Here it is made available in English for the first time, with a new foreword by Giuseppe Craparo and Onno van der Hart. Published here in two volumes, this seminal work will be of great interest to researchers and students of psychoanalysis, philosophy and modernism, as well as psychotherapists and psychoanalysts working with clients who have experienced trauma.

Lorsqu'il mourut a l'age de 87 ans, Pierre Janet travaillait a un ouvrage sur la croyance dont le manuscrit inacheve est reste inedit. Tout nous porte a croire que Janet avait a formuler un dernier secret qu'il a peut-etre emporte dans la tombe, mais dont il nous reste quelques fragments epars. H. F. Ellenberger, Pierre Janet philosophe (1973) Les Formes de la croyance constitue la toute premiere edition de l'essai reste inacheve du philosophe, medecin et psychologue francais, Pierre Janet (1859-1947). Cet ouvrage aux relents testamentaires - issu des ultimes lecons au College de France de ce savant autrefois mondialement connu, pourfendeur de la psychanalyse - l'a conduit a reviser sur le tard la partie la plus interessante de son systeme theorique, bouscule dans ses convictions par sa lecture des Deux Sources de la morale et de la religion d'Henri Bergson. Selon Janet, plusieurs formes de la croyance - delirantes, religieuses, philosophiques, scientifiques, historiques et enfin mystiques - s'emboiteraient, en se fructifiant non sans s'opposer. Ebauchees a la lisiere du social et de l'individu, elles seraient inherentes a l'evolution de la pensee humaine ayant fait l'objet, au gre des epoques, des lieux, des cultures et civilisations, de transformations psychologiques notables. Traverse par maintes fulgurances - esquissant entre autres certains rapports d'affinites et lignes de rupture entre mythes religieux et recits delirants - cet ecrit foisonnant revele surtout comment Janet, petri d'un scientisme revendique assimilant les mystiques a des malades mentaux, tel son cas central, Madeleine l'extatique de la Salpetriere, est parvenu a renverser partie de ses conceptions a un age deja avance. Aussi, non sans faire controverse, ira-t-il jusqu'a apparenter lesdits mystiques a des revolutionnaires porteurs d'un message avant-coureur a l'adresse de la societe moderne, a contre-jour des cadres scientifiques etouffant l'expression de la subjectivite. Par extension, ces reflexions peuvent indeniablement entrer en resonance avec certaines questions agitant le temps present... La retranscription in extenso du manuscrit, accompagne d'une serie de textes annexes qu'agremente un appareil critique, est precedee d'une double presentation. Elle rend compte, via une foule d'archives inedites, de la trajectoire intellectuelle de l'homme inscrit dans un contexte specifique et de reseaux, entretisses d'interactions contrastees qu'il put entretenir avec des contemporains - Bergson, Charcot, Ribot, Freud, Jung, Breton, Lacan, Delay, Leiris, Bataille, mais aussi Raymond Roussel, ou Nathalie Sarraute, etc. -, ainsi que de la genese et des eclipses de cet essai longtemps demeure meconnu. Une postface consacree au devenir de la vaste bibliotheque personnelle de Janet, dispersee apres sa mort, vient ponctuer cet ouvrage appele a faire reference.