Hélène Smith: Occultism and the Discovery of the Unconscious (OXFORD STU WESTERN ESOTERICISM SERIES)

Hélène Smith: Occultism and the Discovery of the Unconscious (OXFORD STU WESTERN ESOTERICISM SERIES)
by: Claudie Massicotte (Author)
Publisher:OUP USA
Publication Date: 18 Aug. 2023
Language:English
Print Length:184 pages
ISBN-10:019768002X
ISBN-13:9780197680025
Book Description
In 1896, a young Genevan medium named Hélène Smith perceived in trance the following words from a Martian inhabitant: “michma michtmon mimini thouainenm mimatchineg.” Those attending her séance dutifully transcribed these words and the event marked the beginning of a series of occult experiences that transported her to the red planet. In her state of trance, Smith came to produce foreign conversations, a new alphabet, and paintings of the Martian surroundings that captured the popular and scientific imagination of Geneva. Alongside her Martian travels, she also retrieved memories of her past lives as a fifteenth-century “Hindoo” princess and as Queen Marie Antoinette.Today, Smith’s séances may appear to be nothing more than eccentric practices at the margins of modernity. As author Claudie Massicotte argues, however, the medium came to embody the extreme possibilities of a new form of subjectivity, with her séances becoming important loci for pioneering authors’ discoveries in psychology, linguistics, and the arts. Through analyses of archival documents, correspondences, and publications on the medium, Massicotte sheds light on the role of women in the construction of turn-of-the-century psychological discourses, showing how Smith challenged traditional representations of female patients as powerless victims and passive objects of powerful doctors. She shows how the medium became the site of conflicting theories about subjectivity–specifically one’s relationship to embodiment, desire, language, art, and madness–while unleashing a radical form of creativity that troubled existing paradigms of modern sciences. Massicotte skillfully retraces the story of this prolific figure and the authors, scientists, and artists she inspired in order to bring to light a forgotten chapter in modern intellectual history.
About the Author
Review This book is a rich, sensitive, and thought-provoking work that sheds new light on the role of female mediums and patients in the construction of psychological discourses. As Massicotte points out, Hélène Smith was not only a gifted medium, but also an active and creative contributor to contemporary scientific theories on the unconscious. This is an accurate and engaging account of the story of this extraordinary woman, her influence on scientists and artists, and her indispensable role in the history of psychology. ― Júlia Gyimesi, Head of Department, Department of Personality and Clinical Psychology, Pázmány Péter Catholic UniversityDuring her career as a medium in the late nineteenth century, Hélène Smith wrote poems, invented languages, developed herself as all-round artist, and even travelled―in her astral body―to other planets. Now, this example of female creativity, who lived at a time when only men were considered geniuses, is finally getting the spotlight she deserves. Massicotte’s thoughtful study of this surrealist role model contributes significantly to the histories of psychoanalysis and of modern occultism. Telling Smith’s story, it also sheds light on the gender dynamics at play in the modern discovery of the unconscious and the complexity of authorship both overcome and deepened, paradoxically, by creative women mediums. ― Tessel M. Bauduin, author of Surrealism and the Occult: Occultism and Western Esotericism in the Work and Movement of André Breton About the Author Claudie Massicotte is a learning designer in San Diego, California. She previously worked as Assistant Professor of Literary Theory and Criticism at Young Harris College and as a Postdoctoral fellow in French and Francophone Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of Trance Speakers: Femininity and Authorship in Spiritual Seances, 1850-1930.