Charles Richet et son autobiographie

Mon collègue Carlos Alvarado publie une petite synthèse sur Charles Richet, en analysant de façon critique son autobiographie "Souvenirs d'un physiologiste" (1933). Il m'avait sollicité pour commenter son texte qui est très réussi.

Alvarado, C.S. (2018). Fragments of a Life in Psychical Research: The Case of Charles Richet. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 32(1), 55-78.
http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/volume-32-issue-1-2018

Abstract
In this paper I present a translation of an autobiographical essay French physiologist Charles Richet wrote about his involvement in psychical research in his Souvenirs d’un Physiologiste (1933). In the essay Richet presented an outline of aspects of his psychic career, including: Early interest in hypnosis and hypnotic lucidity, encounters with gifted individuals such as Eusapia Palladino and Stephan Ossowiecki, contact with the Society for Psychical Research, his Traité de Métapsychique (1922) and his lack of belief in survival of death. Richet’s account will be of particular interest for those who are not acquainted with his career. However, the essay is succinct and lacks important events that need to be supplemented with other sources of information. An examination of this autobiographical essay illustrates the limitations of autobiographies to reconstruct the past, but also provides an opportunity to discuss aspects of Richet’s psychical research.

Keywords: autobiography—Charles Richet—history of psychical research—

French psychical research—Eusapia Palladino—Traité de Métapsychique