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Libra Esoterica

Spectres of the Self: Thinking about Ghosts and Ghost-Seeing in England, 1750–1920

by Shane McCorristine

  • First published:
  • 21st century
  • Language: English

Description

Description from OpenAlex (opens in a new tab)

Spectres of the Self is a fascinating study of the rich cultures surrounding the experience of seeing ghosts in England from the Reformation to the twentieth century. Shane McCorristine examines a vast range of primary and secondary sources, showing how ghosts, apparitions, and hallucinations were imagined, experienced, and debated from the pages of fiction to the case reports of the Society for Psychical Research. By analysing a broad range of themes from telepathy and ghost-hunting to the notion of dreaming while awake and the question of why ghosts wore clothes, Dr McCorristine reveals the sheer variety of ideas of ghost seeing in English society and culture. He shows how the issue of ghosts remained dynamic despite the advance of science and secularism and argues that the ghost ultimately represented a spectre of the self, a symbol of the psychological hauntedness of modern experience.

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Ghosts, hauntings, and poltergeists, Parapsychology and psychical research, and Telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition.

  • Ghosts, hauntings, and poltergeists

    Retained metadata contains “ghost” in the title, “Ghosts” in the title, “Apparitions” in the description, and 4 additional metadata match(es).

    • “ghost”· in title
    • “Ghosts”· in title
    • “Apparitions”· in description
    • “ghost”· in description
    • “Ghosts”· in description
    • “ghost”· in edition title
  • Parapsychology and psychical research

    Controlled discovery queries from openalex matched “psychical research”. Retained metadata contains “Psychical research” in the description.

    • “psychical research”· via OpenAlex
    • “Psychical research”· in description
  • Telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition

    Controlled discovery queries from openalex matched “telepathy”. Retained metadata contains “Telepathy” in the description and “Telepathy” in the subject metadata.

    • “telepathy”· via OpenAlex
    • “Telepathy”· in description
    • “Telepathy”· in subject

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

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Buy or borrow

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Editions

One edition cataloged here.

OpenAlex scholarly book record

2009-01-01Cambridge University Press; Cambridge University Press eBooksEnglish—Unknown

Subjects

21 subject headings

Identifiers & provenance

How this record was assembled, and the authority identifiers it carries.

Cataloged from

Catalog id
openalex:W1482527109
Edition coverage
Multi source partial
Retrieved