author
J. (Joseph) Maxwell
1858–1938
A French magistrate and physician, he wrote at the crossroads of law, medicine, psychology, and the paranormal. His best-known work explores unusual mental and psychic experiences with the eye of a careful observer.
1 Audiobook
Metapsychical Phenomena: Methods and Observations
by J. (Joseph) Maxwell
About the author
Born in 1858 and dying in 1938, Joseph Maxwell was a French doctor of medicine as well as a senior legal official, with catalog records identifying him as having served at the Bordeaux court and later near the Paris Court of Appeal.
He is remembered chiefly for books on psychology and psychical research, including Metapsychical Phenomena and Psychologie sociale contemporaine. In the English edition of Metapsychical Phenomena, he is presented as both a medical doctor and a deputy attorney-general at the Court of Appeal in Bordeaux, which fits the picture of a writer who brought professional discipline to subjects many of his contemporaries treated more loosely.
Maxwell's work sits in that fascinating early-20th-century moment when medicine, psychology, and spiritual inquiry often overlapped. Even now, his books attract readers interested in the history of psychical research and in how serious-minded observers tried to study extraordinary claims.