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Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Vol. XV, 1946, No. I.
The author in his very lucid paper on telepathic phenomena occurring during analysis draws first of all attention to the paucity of psycho-analytic contributions to this and allied fields in contrast to the very extensive scientific literature developing in other quarters. He quotes extensively Freud's important contributions to the subject and his hypothesis that telepathy is an activity of the unconscious mind; although similar observations have been made by other authors, the hypothesis was neither advanced nor attacked. The author believes that this attitude of apathy and disinterest in the subject of telepathy exemplifies a strong resistance against the acceptance of these phenomena due to repression of one's own infantile narcissistic inclinations towards magic and the omnipotence of thought, and he gives as illustration two examples from his analytical experience which as he states can only be fully explained by the hypothesis of the existence of telepathic phenomena. An experiment which he undertook in order to find objective proof for the existence of telepathy failed as such, but revealed the complicated nature of telepathic processes involving not only the two persons used for the experiment but other patients and the two experimenters as well. The author maintains that the phenomena of telepathy are such that analysts would be in a particularly advantageous position to study such functions by virtue of their methodology.
The author maintains that 'the telepathic episode is a function not only of the repression of emotionally charged material by the patient, but of the repression of similar or related emotionally charged material by the analyst as well'. He draws attention to the fact that Hollòs and Servadio have arrived at this same discovery independently, and gives a very clear example from his own analytical material to elucidate this point. He furthermore explains the phenomenon of 'cross-associati