Automatic writing: A history from Mesmer to Breton

Automatic writing has been a feature of the psychological movement since its earliest days. Its history is interesting for students of French Literature because the founders of French psychiatry studied it, and because the surrealists made use of automatic writing to explore poetry and language.;The second chapter describes the beginnings of automatic writing, from its first reported instance through the use of automatic writing in the French psychiatric movement. For Pierre Janet, automatic writing was related directly to hypnosis. He used automatic writing as a tool to investigate the structure of the self. Automatic writing allowed Janet to clearly outline such phenomena as post-hypnotic suggestion.;Chapter 3 looks at automatic writing from the Spiritists' point of view. They shared the scientists' interest in automatic writing, seeing it as proof that they could communicate with the spirits of the deceased. The Society for Psychical Research, founded in London in the 1880s, began using automatic writing as a tool to investigate other psychical phenomena, often debunking rather than supporting the claims of the Spiritists. For Frederic Myers, automatic writing became the most important tool in the study of paranormal phenomena. It was a "key that actually turned in the lock" in Myers's quest to prove that human personality could survive bodily death.;The earliest surrealist text was the product of automatic writing. The surrealists saw automatic writing as a way to investigate the poetic process, a way to free language from its bonds of utility, and by so doing, to free humanity from the "trainers".;The final chapter deals with the debate as to the inspiration for Magnetic Fields, some parties believing Breton's version that Freud alone inspired him, while others believe Soupault's story that he and Breton had read and reread Janet's work just prior to their joint effort. While it is not possible to exclude Freud as a possible source of inspiration, it is very definite that Janet must have played a part, despite Marguerite Bonnet's assertions to the contrary.