Standing in a metaphysical doorway

Mind Dust and White Crows The Psychical Research of William James ed. Gregory Shushan White Crow Books 2024 Pb, 354pp, £16.99, ISBN 9781786772046 William James, MD Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician Emma K Sutton University of Chicago Press 2023 Pb, 261pp, £24, ISBN 9780223858985 Throughout his career, the psychologist and philosopher William James demonstrated a fortean-like distrust of scientific fundamentalism. He was frustrated by scientists’ claims of irrefutable objectivity, which, doctrinally speaking, requires its own ironic surrender of scientific rigour. James was also outspoken in his criticism of Social Darwinism and medical materialism, favouring a more holistic and totalistic view of human psychology, open to anomalous phenomena. James’s interest in paranormal phenomena dates to 1885, when, soon after his infant son’s death, he learned of the medium Leonara Piper’s alleged ability to…