Charles Arthur Mercier (21 June 1851 – 2 September 1919) was a British

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

and leading expert on

forensic psychiatry Forensic psychiatry is a subspecialty of psychiatry and is related to criminology. It encompasses the interface between law and psychiatry. According to the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, it is defined as "a subspecialty of psychiatr ...

and

insanity Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors caused by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to other ...

.Charles Arthur Mercier, M.D.Lond., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.S., Consulting Physician For Mental Diseases, Charing Cross Hospital; Past President Of The Medico-Psychological Association. ''

British Medical Journal ''The BMJ'' is a fortnightly peer-reviewed medical journal, published by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, which in turn is wholly-owned by the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world ...

''. Vol. 2, No. 3063), 1919, pp. 363-365.

Biography

Mercier was born on 21 June 1851. He studied

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

where he graduated. He worked at Buckinghamshire County Asylum in Stone, near Aylesbury. He became the Assistant Medical Officer at Leavesden Hospital and at the City of London Asylum in Dartford, Kent. He also worked as a

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

at the Jenny Lind Hospital. He was the resident

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

at Flower House, a private asylum in Catford. In 1902 became a lecturer in

at the Westminster Hospital Medical School. He was also a physician for mental diseases at Charing Cross Hospital. In 1894 Mercier was secretary of a committee of the Medico-Psychological Association. He published articles in the Journal of Mental Science. He joined the Medico-Legal Society in 1905, and became the president of the Medico-Psychological Association in 1908. Mercier has been described as a pioneer in the field of

. In 1917 Mercier wrote to the Mind Association denouncing politician-philosopher

Lord Haldane Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane, (; 30 July 1856 – 19 August 1928) was a Scottish-born English lawyer, philosopher, an influential British Liberal and later Labour politician and statesman. He was Secretary of State for War ...

and philosopher

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic ...

as traitors. He was the author of many important works on

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

, and

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

. In 1916, Mercier criticized

vegetarianism Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...

in ''

The Lancet ''The Lancet'' is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal, founded in England in 1823. It is one of the world's highest-impact academic journals and also one of the oldest medical journals still in publication. The journal publishes ...

'' journal. Mercier suggested that vegetarians had an unbalanced mind and "we should expect, therefore, to find among vegetarians an undue proportion of insane persons."

Spiritualism

Mercier who spent most of his career studying insanity and mental disorders did not believe human personality could survive death. Mercier attacked

spiritualism Spiritualism may refer to: * Spiritual church movement, a group of Spiritualist churches and denominations historically based in the African-American community * Spiritualism (beliefs), a metaphysical belief that the world is made up of at leas ...

in the '' Hibbert Journal'' for 1917. His book ''Spiritualism and Sir Oliver Lodge'' (1917) was an exposure of trance mediumship and a criticism of the spiritualist views of

Oliver Lodge Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge (12 June 1851 – 22 August 1940) was an English physicist whose investigations into electromagnetic radiation contributed to the development of Radio, radio communication. He identified electromagnetic radiation indepe ...

. In the book he criticized Lodge for ignoring

Occam's razor In philosophy, Occam's razor (also spelled Ockham's razor or Ocham's razor; ) is the problem-solving principle that recommends searching for explanations constructed with the smallest possible set of elements. It is also known as the principle o ...

and invoking miracles. In his book ''Spirit Experiences'' (1919), Mercier claimed to have converted to spiritualism and apologized for his previous book. He claimed that after investigating the subject he had personally experienced communications with the dead,

levitation Levitation, Levitate, or Levitating may refer to: Concepts *Levitation (illusion), an illusion where a magician appears to levitate a person or object *Levitation (paranormal), the claimed paranormal phenomenon of levitation, occurring without an ...

and

telepathy Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...

. The book was heavily criticized in a review. However, the book was actually a

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

that intended on mocking the credulity shown by believers in spiritualism. It was published by Watts & Co, a publishing company that has historical links with the

Rationalist Association The Rationalist Association was a charity in the United Kingdom which published '' New Humanist'' magazine between 1885 and 2025. Since 2025, the Rationalist Press has been the publishing imprint of Humanists UK. The original Rationalist Press ...

. The book was positively reviewed by the ''

British Journal of Psychiatry The ''British Journal of Psychiatry'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal covering all branches of psychiatry with a particular emphasis on the clinical aspects of each topic. The journal is owned by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and publish ...

'' which described it as a well written parody of spiritualist phenomena. David Robert Grimes has noted that "Mercier had spent a great deal of time debunking trance mediums, painstakingly dismantling their claims"."Science of the seance: why speaking to spirits is talking to yourself"
The Guardian.

Publications

Books
Nervous System and the Mind''
(1888)
''Sanity and Insanity''
(1890) *''Lunatic Asylums, Their Organisation and Management'' (1894)
''Psychology, Normal and Morbid''
(1901) *''A Text-Book of Insanity'' (1902)
''Criminal Responsibility''
(1905)
''Crime and Insanity''
(1911)
''Conduct and Its Disorders''
(1911)
''A New Logic''
(1912)
'' Leper Houses and Mediaeval Hospitals''
(1915) *''Human Temperaments: Studies in Character'' (1916) *''On Causation'' (1916) *''Food, Sleep, and Efficiency'' (1917)
''Spiritualism and Sir Oliver Lodge''
(1917)
''Crime and Criminals''
(1918)
''Spirit Experiences''
(1919) Selected papers *Mercier, Charles. (1913)
''Vitalism and Materialism''
''Bedrock: A Quarterly Review of Scientific Thought'' 3 (2): 352–357. *Mercier, Charles. (1915)
''Vitalism''
''

The Hibbert Journal ''The Hibbert Journal'' was a large, quarterly magazine in softback book format, issued since 1902 by the Hibbert Trust, best described by its subtitle: ''A Quarterly Review of Religion, Theology and Philosophy''. In the early years it was publis ...

'' 14: 286–299. *Mercier, Charles. (1916)
''Are We Happier Than Our Forefathers?''
''

'' 15: 75–89. *Mercier, Charles. (1916)
''Diet as a Factor in the Causation of Mental Disease''
''

'' 1: 561–565. *Mercier, Charles. (1917)
''Sir Oliver Lodge and the Scientific World''
''

'' 15: 598–613. *Mercier, Arthur. (1917)
''Sir Oliver Lodge and the Scientific World: A Rejoinder''
''

'' 16: 325–327. *Mercier, Charles. (1918)
''The Irrelevance of Christianity and War''
''

'' 16: 555–563.

References

External links

*
Online Books for Charles Arthur Mercier
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mercier, Charles Arthur 1851 births 1919 deaths 19th-century English medical doctors 20th-century English medical doctors Alumni of the University of London Anomalistic psychology Critics of parapsychology Critics of Spiritualism English sceptics English surgeons Forensic psychiatrists History of mental health in the United Kingdom People from Buckinghamshire (before 1974) Place of birth missing Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England 20th-century British surgeons