O self e suas alterações na psicologia de William James: uma análise conceitual

Abstract

The so-called psychic phenomena were a subject of interest during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as in the early 1900s, and drew the attention of a significant part of that period’s intelligentsia, specially those who were interested in the study of consciousness. William James, one of the founding fathers of North American psychology, was an important name that joined those debates. Initially, he turned to Pierre Janet and the French school taking into consideration the concepts of psychic automatism and dissociation of consciousness. However, his interest in phenomena related to the self in individuals led him to observe altered states of consciousness, in which a person would allegedly be able to go beyond his power of synthesis, a fundamental trait of the mind. Therefore, James resorted to Frederic Myers’ theory of the subliminal self, which considers the possibility of a trancendent psychic spectrum of experience. Considering that concept, new perspectives other than the pathological were thus made available to the research of psychic phenomena, as well as mystical and religious experiences, including mediumship. Taking all that into consideration, the present study aims at understanding James’ theory of self and its alterations through a conceptual analysis, considering his psychological writings on the subject.