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Gurney and Myers were the first to present strong arguments contradicting W.B. Together with his close friend Edmund Gurney (1847–88), he studied the psychology of sensory and motor automatisms as well as hypnotism. Lacking formal scientific or medical training, Myers was a hugely disciplined and gifted autodidact well versed in physiology and science at large. While the focus of the book is clearly on Myers’ research into ‘supernormal’ phenomena, and particularly the question of the survival of the human personality after bodily death, Trevor Hamilton also provides original insights into Myers the man of letters and, perhaps most interesting to readers of this journal, Myers the psychologist. Immortal Longings, based on a wealth of primary and secondary sources, is the first biographical monograph dedicated to this unusual figure. Since Henri Ellenberger’s Discovery of the Unconscious (1970), historical interest in Frederic Myers (1843–1901), a Trinity classicist and poet, Cambridgeshire inspector of schools, and co-founder of the Society for Psychical Research, has grown slowly but steadily.
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