Whilst best known as a Nobel laureate physiologist, Charles Robert Richet (1850–1935) was also a pioneer of scientific psychology. Starting in 1875 Richet had a leading role in the habilitation of hypnosis, in the institutionalization of psychology in France, and in the introduction of methodological innovations. Authoring several psychology books, Richet's works contributed to the recognition of the scientific nature of the discipline. This role is often underplayed by some historians and psychology textbooks in favor of his later position as a proponent of the controversial discipline he christened metapsychics in 1905, which today lies within the province of parapsychology. In this article, we show how his psychological approach guided by physiology, or physiological psychology, facilitated the reception of psychology. We hypothesize a strong continuity between his physiological psychology and his metapsychics, as he himself considered metapsychics as an advanced branch of physiology, and thus also an outpost of psychology.
Authors
Renaud Evrard, Stéphane Gumpper, Bevis Beauvais, Carlos S Alvarado
- Authors Organism
- Université de Strasbourg
- Bibliographic Reference
- Renaud Evrard, Stéphane Gumpper, Bevis Beauvais, Carlos S Alvarado. “Never sacrifice anything to laboratory work”: The “physiological psychology” of Charles Richet (1875-1905). Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 2021, 57 (2), pp.172-193. ⟨10.1002/jhbs.22086⟩. ⟨hal-02314646⟩
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/jhbs.22086
- HAL Collection
- ["Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société", 'Université de Strasbourg', 'Université de Lorraine', "INTERPSY - Laboratoire de psychologie de l'interaction et des relations intersubjectives", 'Archive ouverte du site Alsace', 'Interpsy - axe PsyCliP : Psychopathologie Clinique et Projective']
- HAL Identifier
- 4106244
- Institution
- ['Université de Lorraine', 'Université de Strasbourg', 'Parapsychology Foundation']
- Laboratory
- ["Laboratoire de psychologie de l'interaction et des relations intersubjectives", 'Subjéctivité, lien social et modernité']
- Published in
- France
Table of Contents
- Submitted on 25 May 2023 1
- Never sacrifice anything to laboratory work The physiological psychology of Charles Richet 1875 1905 2
- Renaud Evrard Stéphane Gumpper Bevis Beauvais 2
- Carlos S. Alvarado 2
- Abstract 2
- 1 A MULTIFACETED MAN 2
- 2 ENTER CHARLES RICHET 4
- 3 MAGNETISM INDUCED SOMNAMBULISM AND HYPNOSIS 4
- 3.1 A magnetic personality 4
- 3.2 Induced somnambulism 6
- 3.3 Poisons of intelligence and experimental hypnotism 7
- 3.4 The habilitation of hypnosis 9
- 3.5 Works on the intelligence 10
- 4 RICHET AND THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY 12
- 4.1 From society to Congress 12
- 5 METAPSYCHICS THE FUTURE OF PSYCHOLOGY 13
- 6 THE INTERNAL DISSYMMETRY OF AN AMATEUR 15
- 7 CONCLUSION 17
