From India to the Planet Mars

A Case of Multiple Personality with Imaginary Languages

Theodore Flournoy, Sonu Shamdasani

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780691608990, 9780691637358
• eBook ISBN: 9781400872831
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

A classic in the field of psychology, From India to Planet Mars (1900) depicts the remarkable multiple existence of the medium Hélène Smith, who claimed to be the reincarnation of Marie Antoinette, of a Hindu princess from fifteenth-century India, and of a regular visitor to Mars, whose landscapes she painted and whose language she appeared to speak fluently. Through a psychological interpretation of these fantasies, which consisted in the subliminal elaboration of forgotten memories, Théodore Flournoy vastly extended the scope and understanding of the unconscious, and in particular, of its creative and mythopoetic capacities. In the introduction to this work, Soriu Shamdasani evokes the rich cultural and intellectual setting which Flournoy published his findings, and discusses their impact on Freud, Jung, and other pioneers psychology.

Originally published in 1994.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Editorial Note (1994)
• Foreword Théodore Flournoy, by C. G. Jung
• Introduction Encountering Hélène: Théodore Flournoy and the Genesis of Subliminal Psychology, by Sonu Shamdasani
• Preface
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Childhood and Youth of Mlle. Smith
• 3. Mlle. Smith Since Her Initiation into Spiritism
• 4. The Personality of Léopold
• 5. The Martian Cycle
• 6. The Martian Cycle (Continued): The Martian Language
• 7. The Martian Cycle (Concluded): The Ultra-Martian
• 8. The Hindoo Cycle
• 9. The Royal Cycle
• 10. Supernormal Appearances
• 11. Conclusion
• Appendix 1. The Making of Martian: The Creation of an Imaginary Language, by Mireille Cifali
• Appendix 2. Passages Abridged from the 1900 Translation