Search Results: Psychology & The Occult from Reginald C. Williams Rare Books

8vo, two volumes. Bound in recent stained half calf with marbled boards and marbled sides and edges, red morocco titles to spines and raised bands. FIRST EDITION of this great work Written by James Mill, the father of John Stuart Mill, Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind theorizes that the human mind is a store of associations of ideas derived from experience (for example, between burn and fire ). Reasoning, remembering and other mental phenomena consist of calling up and recombining these associations (ODNB). Mill was greatly influenced by Hobbes, Locke, Hume and by the French writers, such as Condillac, Helvetius and Cabanis; but his chief master was Hartley, whose theory of association he applied and extended. The book marks a distinct stage in the development of the empirical school, and many of J.S. Mill s logical and ethical doctrines are evidently suggested by the attempt to solve problems to which his father s answers appeared unsatisfactory (DNB). In Analysis, his magnum opus, Mill… Read More

8vo. [viii], 180 pp. 16 full-page lithographed plates, 5 of which are heightened in gilt. Publisher's contemporary patterned marbled paper boards. Edges lightly rubbed, Some light foxing, but overall a very good copy with the plates clean and bright. Now housed in a custom slipcase.First edition, a curious attempt to devise a system of anthropology and psychology based exclusively on observation of deaf-mutes. Building on the sociological work of Kaspar Hauser, the authors, director and instructor at the Prague Institute for Deaf-Mutes, assert that the actions of the deaf and dumb take place in a sort of vacuum in which the true spiritual nature of man can be witnessed. They argue that gestures and facial expressions are the language of the soul and are the key in understanding the relationship between the body and spirit. The first nine illustrations show men expressing various emotions by way of body language and hand signals. The other six are almost psychedelic, portraying thought and will as a… Read More

FIRST EDITION of one of the most influential early books on what was to become the discipline of psychiatry, probably the most widely read and influential English language book on the subject in the 18th century. George Cheyne (1671-1743) was a scientist, mathematician and physician with a wide range of interests. He has particular interest in nervous diseases and this is his major work on the subject. pp xvii-xxxii; title page Part I; text pp 1-107; Title Part II; text 111-255; Title Part III; 259-370; Finis with one line erratum; Ads 6pp; final blank. Decorative head and tailpieces and initial capitals. The contents are clean and sound with some toning which varies in depth through the work. Some slight but firm splitting of the outer hinges but an attractive unsophisticated copy in a full contemporary calf binding.

Hardcover. Small octavo. 139pp. plus half-title. Small stamp to rear fly-leaf, "F.S.L Dupl." Half-vellum with marbled boards and matching endpapers; some foxing. An uncut copy. The author, John Ferriar (1761-1815), was a Scottish physician and author whose researches into typhoid and other diseases and leadership of the Manchester Infirmary made their mark in British medical history. His work, "An Essay towards a Theory of Apparitions" is a sometimes humorous examination of ghosts, the manifestations of witchcraft, etc. in which he argues that there is a psycho-physiological rather than a supernatural basis to such phenomena. He was, as such, one of the first to argue it so comprehensively and cohesively. Some moderate wear to the marbled paper, otherwise a clean, complete very good copy housed in a blue clamshell box with a black Morocco label.

First British edition. Near fine in the very scarce seldom seen dust jacket. Ownership signature on front end page of (presumably) Arie de Jong (1865-1957) Dutch enthusiast and reformer of the constructed language Volapük by Johann Martin Schleyer, with whose help the Volapük movement gained new strength in the Netherlands. Else clean, bright, and unmarked with a bit of foxing to edges and prelims. Jacket is well preserved for age with some chipping to corners and some amateur tape repairs made to reverse which are partially visible from outside. First UK edition, first impression, published the same year as the first US edition. James originally assembled an early version of the collection in 1906, choosing essays which were first published in journals. A year later he composed a separate list of essays for a proposed book under this title, which remained unrealized until 1912 when his colleague and biographer Ralph Barton Perry amalgamated James's choices with some of his own additions to create… Read More

Grundzuge der physiologischen Psychologie. 8vo. xii, 870, [2, errata]pp. Text illustrations. 232 x 158 mm. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann, 1874. Publisher s original brown cloth. Some browning throughout the text, mild wear at the spine ends and the front hinge starting to crack but holding firm. A nice copy and notoriously scarce in the publisher s original cloth. Housed in a grey cloth clamshell case by the Heritage Bindery. A work that came to be one of the most important in the history of psychology. This was the first textbook that was written pertaining to the field of experimental psychology. Known today as one of the founding figures of modern psychology. Wundt, who noted psychology as a science apart from philosophy and biology, was the first person ever to call himself a psychologist. He is widely regarded as the "father of experimental psychology". In 1879, Wundt founded the first formal laboratory for psychological research at the University of Leipzig. This marked psychology as an independent… Read More

FIRST EDITION. Octavo, 270 pp., [1] leaf (ads) attractive contemporary paneled calf. No spine label. Half-title is present and the text is very fresh for its age with white pages. The rear hinge is a little weak and shaken, but an excellent contemporary copy usually found rebound or in later bindings. Housed and chemised in a quarter morocco slipcase with marbled boards and a green morocco label by the Heritage Bindery which will insure protection. British clergyman Francis Hutchinson was "the man who gave the coup de grace to the witch delusion in England" (Robbins), leveling "a final and deadly blow at the dying superstition" (Note stein). "Of most interest to him were the witchcraft accusations at Boston and Salem, and… [the case] of Jane Wenham (1712), which provoked intense passions and vicious politicking… Hutchinson's account of witchcraft is thoroughly modern a history book 'of the moment'… and his carefully modest appeal for reform of the laws on witchcraft was indeed heeded, although… Read More

FOURTH EDITION 1855 edited and enlarged by Edwin Norris. 2 volumes, lacks folio of Six ethnographical maps, often missing, 8vo, approximately 240 x 140 mm, 9½ x 5¾ inches, 57 original hand colored plates, mostly aquatints and a few lithographs, 5 plates are not colored making a total of 62 plates, Woodcuts in the text, original publisher's pictorial wine colored cloth, gilt lettering to spines, gilt portrait to each upper cover with blind portraits to lower covers and blind surrounding decoration, original yellow endpapers, A very good set of an important book, edited and enlarged by Edwin Norris, first published in 1848. Physician and ethnologist James Cowles Prichard was (along with William Lawrence and Charles William Wells) one of the three British scientific precursors to Darwin and evolutionary theory. His central idea was the unity of mankind as a variegated but single species. He was one of the first scientists to suggest that Africa was the original source of the human racial diaspora. He… Read More

First edition copy. London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, 1817. 1st Edition. viii+312pp. + 4 copper plates. Contemporary 1/2 calf with marbled boards and gilt spine. Corners repaired, rebacked (some time ago) with original spine laid-down, light browning and foxing, hinges cracked, A very good copy. First edition of Spurzheim s influential work on insanity, advocating for better understanding and treatment of mental disorders, illustrated with four engraved plates. Spurzheim and his mentor Franz Gall developed the system of phrenology. While it has long been discredited, it was, at the turn of the 19th century, "the first psychological framework within which mad-doctors struggling unguided with their patients could understand insane behavior and so give a powerful fillip to the psychological approach. For the first time it became meaningful to get to know patients as persons if only to be able to interpret bumps on their heads" (Hunter & Macalpine, 714). In this work, Spurzheim "applied phrenology to… Read More

FIRST EDITION. 129pp., 4 unnumbered leaves of illustrated plates. Publisher's original pictorial cloth binding sturdy, spine and edges distinctly age-toned; outer and inner hinges strong; leaves a little shaken between pages 64 and 65 else contents clean and attractive, title-page excellent. An excellent copy that's now Mylar protected and housed in a custom slipcase. Dewey's first published work of length on education. A highly influential publication in its own right, it would also lay the foundation for his later work. In the lectures included in the initial publication, Dewey proposes a psychological, social, and political framework for progressive education. Notably, this includes collaborative practical experimentation as the central element of school work. He argues that the progressive approach is both an inevitable product of the Industrial Revolution and a natural fit with the psychology of children. A final chapter details some of the experiments done at the University of Chicago Laboratory… Read More

8vo, pp xiii, [3], 192, uncut in original blue boards, neatly respined in paper with window cut original label, minor foxing at end, a little worn at corners, but a sound very good copy, FIRST EDITION; John Haslam was medical officer at the Rethlem Hospital in London, and, based on earlier work, in 1809 published his highly influential work 'Observations on Madness and Melancholy.' A father figure in modern psychiatric practice. Haslam was known for his work on mental illness. Haslam's case study of James Tilly Matthews is the earliest detailed description of paranoid schizophrenia.

Octavo. iv (publisher ads), 337, [1 (blank)], [2 (ads)], 8 (ads) pp. First American edition. Bound in contemporary speckled calf with brown morocco title label on the spine. Spine ends are a trifled rubbed; front cover has been discreetly and professionally reattached; rear joint shows some separation to the leather, but it remains solid; corners are a bit frayed. Irregular toning to the contents, one leaf has a missing top corner (affecting only the empty margin) and there is a closed tear to the bottom of a blank preliminary leaf. A reasonably nice copy, all in all. "Prichard, better known for his work in the field of anthropology, was the first describe moral insanity. This first appeared in the Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine (J. Forbes), London, 1833-35, 2, pp. 12 and was afterwards enlarged." Garrison & Morton 4928. Also published in the same year by E.L. Carey & A. Hart of Philadelphia, no priority established. "An invitation to write an article on insanity in the Cyclopædia of Practical… Read More

Slim octavo, original navy cloth, original dust jacket (now brodart protected). First English edition and first authorized translation in English of Freud s essays on infantile sexuality and human psychosexual development. Three Essays is second only to the Interpretation of Dreams in its importance to Freudian theory. First published in German in 1905; the first American edition was published in 1910 under the title Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory. No previous signs of ownership. Book is near-fine, with only most minor wear to the spine of the original dust jacket.

Small 12mo. [12], 227, [1]p. Full contemporary marbled calf with spine adorned with golden fillets and florets, top board tender with a small loss of leather at the head. Minor foxing to title page, untrimmed copy with wide margins. A very good copy which seldom surfaces in a contemporary binding. Housed in a cloth clamshell slipcase with chemise. A refutation of the work of Bekker, arguing for the existence of demons and supportive of the Inquisition. It was also printed as an supplement to Colin de Plancy's Dictionnaire des sciences occultes in 1846. Citations: STCN 169612. Coumont B65.1. Caillet I, 1167. Bibliotheca Esoterica 364. Brunet 8874. Rosenthal 2875.Yve-Plessis 254. Graesse, Magica, 62. Not in Baertsoen; Cornell, Witchcraft.