Jacob W. Glazier, PhD, has a doctorate degree in Psychology: Consciousness and Society from the University of West Georgia. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Positive Human Development and Social Change at Life University and an online Adjunct Professor in the Department of Applied Psychology at New York University – Steinhardt. He is author of Arts of Subjectivity: A New Animism for the Post-Media Era. His website is https://jacobglazier.academia.edu/.

Here he describes the marginal scientific status of both parapsychology (data looking for a theory) and psychoanalysis (a theory looking for data). He points to the specific role of Jacques Lacan in focusing on the linguistic aspects of psychoanalysis. He examines some of the internal contradictions with parapsychology, such as its emphasis on the empirical method to uncover data that illuminates the weaknesses of that very method. The role of the Trickster archetype is also discussed. He offers the possibility that a new animism, guided by psychoanalytic thought can avoid the pitfalls associated with superstition.

(Recorded on August 26, 2020.)

Published on October 2, 2020