'The space of the paranormal can indeed be frightening. But psychoanalysis specializes in entering and tolerating frightening spaces. Why should this one be an exception?'-Nick Totton from the ForewordThis fascinating and long-overdue work on paranormal phenomena - a topic ignored in mainstream psychoanalytic media since the 1950s - aims to demonstrate the real relevance of the paranormal to psychoanalysis and clinical practice. Nick Totton has gathered together a wide range of psychoanalytic approaches, including Freudian, Lacanian, Jungian and Reichian, to present an impressive collection of thought-provoking articles on this controversial subject. Various aspects of the paranormal are investigated, such as dream telepathy, parapsychology, UFO contactee stories and alien abductions (the only wholly sceptical paper in this collection, presented by two Parisian Lacanian analysts), and synchronicity. There is also a philosophical essay concerned with the concept of the paranormal and the surrounding psychoanalytic ideas. This is a well-informed and well-argued work that will engage its readers in a stimulating debate on the disputed concept of the paranormal.
This book demonstrates, in different ways, that paranormal phenomena are of direct relevance to psychoanalysis, and that they frequently impinge directly on its clinical practice—most obviously in the forms of telepathy and synchronicity.
