James McHarg

James McHarg (1917-2003) was a Scottish psychiatrist, university teacher and medical historian. He made a close study of psychic phenomena, seeking to understand it through Jungian concepts.

Life and Career

James Fleming McHarg graduated in medicine at Edinburgh University in 1940 and then served in the Royal Navy, reaching the rank of surgeon commander. He trained at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital and was the deputy physician superintendent at the Gartnavel Royal Hospital in Glasgow. His final post was that of consultant and honorary senior lecturer in the department of psychiatry of Dundee University.

McHarg was an elected fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and a foundation fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 1971. He was the founder of the McHarg Essay Prize, awarded to a trainee psychiatrist who had produced an outstanding research paper.

Psychical Research

In his later years McHarg sought to understand the psychic experiences reported by some of his patients.[1] He joined the Society for Psychical Research, serving on its governing council, and the (American) Parapsychological Association, and contributing articles to the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research and other journals (see list below).

In an article about the paranormal and the recognition of personal distress[2] McHarg explores both genuine and pseudo psi phenomena that might arise from ‘pre-existing psychotic, psychoneurotic, or physiological pathologies’.  Here he mentions the writings of Hughlings Jackson, Henry James and cases of near-death experience. He further discusses the contribution of psychiatry to psychical research in a book published to mark the centenary of the founding of the SPR.[3]

Selected Works

Articles

Poltergeist and apparitional haunting phenomena affecting the family and associates of an adolescent girl with well-controlled epilepsy (1972). In Research in Parapsychology, ed. by J.D. Morris, W.G. Roll & R.L. Morris, 17-19.

A poltergeist case from Glasgow (1976). In Research in Parapsychology, ed. by J.D. Morris, W.G. Roll and R.L. Morris, 13-15.

A Vision of the Aftermath of the Battle of Nechtanesmere AD 685 (1978). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 49, 938-48.

Correspondence: review of at the hour of death (1979). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 50, 128-29.

Psychical research and Psychiatry (1982). In Psychical Research, ed. by I. Grattan-Guinness, 316-24.  Wellingborough: Aquarian Press.

The paranormal and the recognition of personal distress (1982). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 51, 201-9.

Personation—cryptomnesic and paranormal: Two contrasting cases (1983). Parapsychological Journal of South Africa 4/1, 36–50.

Psychose und Synchronizität (1985). Grezgebiete der Wissenschaft I, 23-31.

Comments on ‘A neurobiological model for near-death experiences’ by Juan C. Saavedra-Aguilar, and Juan S. G6mez-Jeria (1989). Journal of Near-death Studies 7/4, 229-31.

Correspondence (1989). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 55, 311.

Book Reviews

Journeys out of the Body by Robert A. Monroe (1973). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 47, 48-52.

The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience by R.E.L. Masters and J. Houston (1973). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 47, 258-59.

Telepathy and Clairvoyance: Views of some little investigated capabilities of man by W.H.C. Tenhaeff (1974). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 47, 373-75.

Parapsychology and Anthropology: Proceedings of an International Conference held in London, England, August 29-31, 1973. Edited by A. Angoff and D. Earth (1975). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 48, 161-64.

Exorcism, Past and Present by M. Ebon (1975). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 48, 232-35.

Song of the Siren: A Parapsychological Odyssey by S. Krippner (1976). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 48, 345-47.

The Realms of Healing by S. and A. Villoldo (1977). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 49, 612-14.

Case Studies in Spirit Possession, edited by V. Crapanzano and V. Garrison (1977). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 49, 660-61.

At the Hour of Death, by K. Osis and E. Haraldsson (1978). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 49, 885-87.

The ESP Experience, by J. Ehrenwald (1979). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 50, 120-22.

Poltergeists by A. Gauld and A.D. Cornell (1980). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 50, 301-303.

Psychic-Nexus: Psychic Phenomena in Psychiatry and Everyday Life by B. Schwarz (1981). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 51, 93-94.

Paranormal Foreknowledge: Problems and Perplexities by J. Eisenbud (1982). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 51, 386-87.

As in Adam all Die by S. Ramsay Blackley (1988). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 55, 99-101.

Superstition: The True Story of the Nanny they called a Witch by C. Compton with G. Cole (1991). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 58, 106-109.

Melvyn Willin

Literature

Aungle, P. (n.d.). James Fleming McHarg. The BMJ. [Web page]

McHarg, J.F. (1982a). The paranormal and the recognition of personal distress. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 51, 201-209.

McHarg, J.F. (1982b). Psychical Research and Psychiatry (1982). In Psychical Research, ed. by I. Grattan-Guinness, 316-24.  Wellingborough: Aquarian Press.

Unsigned (2003). Obituaries. Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, 226.

Endnotes

Footnotes

- 1. Unsigned (2003).

- 2. McHarg (1982a).

- 3. McHarg (1982b).

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