Interpreting "Mind-Cure": William James and the "chief task…of the science of human nature"

The private papers of the philosopher-psychologist, William James, indicate that he frequented several mental healers during his life, undertaking 100-200 therapeutic sessions concerning a range of symptoms from angina to insomnia. The success of the mind-cure movement constituted for James both a corroboration, and an extension, of the new research into the subconscious self and the psychogenesis of disease. Epistemologically, the experiences of those converts to the "mind-cure religion" exemplified his conviction that positivistic scientific enquiry can only reveal only one part of a wider reality. Metaphysically their reports comprised a powerful body of support for the existence of a "higher consciousness," a supernatural world of some description. The positing of such a source of "supernormal" healing power was, for James, the best way to reconcile the accounts of those who had been regenerated, via their faith, despite having exhausted all natural reserves of energy and will.