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Literary Life-Writing, Neurology and Medical Psychology, 1860-1939 This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ The Modernist Anti-Mental: Literary Life-Writing, Neurology and Medical Psychology, 1860-1939 Christensen, Susie Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 30. Sep. 2021 This electronic theses or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Title: The Modernist Anti-Mental: Literary Life-Writing, Neurology and Medical Psychology, 1860-1939 Author: Susie Christensen The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ You are free to: Share: to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. The Modernist Anti-Mental: Literary Life-Writing, Neurology and Medical Psychology, 1860-1939 Susie Christensen Thesis for the degree of PhD in English King’s College London, 2013 1 Abstract This thesis examines the selves represented by early-twentieth century modernist writers in the light of neurological developments which occurred during the late- nineteenth century. After the 1860s, the nervous system was understood in newly evolutionary terms. This meant that the lowest and fundamentally non-mental aspects of the nervous system became the basis of the conscious mind and mentality. The central concern of the thesis is with what I call the modernist anti- mental. This manifests itself in three clear ways. Firstly, I use the anti-mental as a term to describe a non- Freudian (or perhaps ambiguously Freudian) and explicitly physical mode of unconsciousness . Secondly, I argue that a certain strand of modernism itself, as a set of stylistic qualities and ideas emerging in both literature and medical science, was concerned with representing and often celebrating mindlessness and the primitive, and therefore debunked the rational mind. Thirdly, I use the term the anti-mental, or anti-mentality, to gather together the ways in which modernist writers, neurologists, and medical psychologists alike were concerned with placing the non-mental at the core and/or foundation of selfhood. The introduction establishes modernist anti-mentality and the anti-mental as an alternative to the idea of the unconscious mind as well as examining the complex relationship between neurology and psychology during the period in question. The first chapter considers the foundational figure of the thesis, the neurologist John Hughlings Jackson, and argues that although he pathologised anti-mentality, his account of the nervous system also meant that it became the bedrock of human selfhood. Hughlings Jackson's neurology is considered in relation to D. H. Lawrence's writings which have the anti-mental at their heart. Chapter two examines the potential for the anti-mental to be spiritual and physical all at once, exploring various oceanic states and metaphors in the works of sexologist Havelock Ellis and writer H.D. Chapter three considers how the anti- mental becomes a key concern for the modernist practices of sensory self- observation carried out in very different contexts by Virginia Woolf and the neurologist Henry Head. Chapter four questions the limits of textual expression of supposedly anti-mental states. It uses the diaries of Anaïs Nin and psychological writings by Otto Rank in order to challenge the modernist attempt to portray anti- mentality in textual forms. 2 Contents Acknowledgements 5 Introduction 6 'The nerves rather than the mind or imagination are most affected' 6 The Modernist Anti-Mental 8 Literary Life-Writing 20 The Anti-Mental, Dualism, and Portrayals of the 'Freudian Unconscious' 25 The Nerves and the Mind, Neurology and Medical Psychology 35 Literature, Psychology and Neurology 46 Methodology and Structure 52 1. The Anti-Mental in the works of D. H. Lawrence and John Hughlings Jackson 58 'The mind is but the last flower': Evolution 72 Primitivism 82 Two Non-Freudians: Rejecting Unconscious States of Mind 92 Shaking, 'Blankness' and 'Dreamy' or 'Voluminous' (Anti-) Mental States 101 Conclusion 111 2. H.D. and Havelock Ellis: Physicality, Spirituality and the Sea 113 Science and Religion: Critical Approaches 115 The Oceanic 117 Ellis's Anti-Mental Unconscious 120 H.D., Ellis and Freud 124 Havelock Ellis and Undinism 127 Notes on Thought and Vision 131 1. Over-Mind as Sub-Aqueous Brainless Jellyfish 135 2. Over-Mind as Spiritual 144 Asphodel 146 1. Vane and the Foetus 148 2. Beryl 151 Ellis, Notes and Asphodel 155 Conclusion 157 3. Modernist Sensory Self-Observation in the Diaries of Virginia Woolf and Henry Head's and W. H. R. Rivers's 'A Human Experiment in Nerve Division' 159 Woolf's Diaries 163 Henry Head's Modernist Physiology of Sensation 169 Attention and Sensation 177 Virginia Woolf's Sensory Self-Observation 181 Henry Head's Sensory Self-Observation 187 Anti-Mentality: Modernism, Weathercocks and the Countryside 191 Conclusion 201 4. Anti-Mentality and the Limits of the Text: The diaries of Anaïs Nin and the post-Freudian psychology of Otto Rank 204 Anaïs Nin's Diaries 205 Otto Rank and his pre-Nin, post-Freud works 211 3 Anaïs Nin Pre-Rank: Anti-Mentality in the diaries, 1931-3 220 The Initial Clinical Encounter between Nin and Rank: The Diary as Illness and Therapy 226 The Transformative Relationship 230 The Diary: Changing Perspectives 239 Beyond Psychology 246 Conclusion: Dancing in Harlem 251 Bibliography 256 4 Acknowledgements I am grateful to the Centre for Humanities and Health at King's College London for awarding me a Medical Humanities studentship which made this thesis possible. My largest personal debt of gratitude is to my supervisors Lara Feigel and Derek Bolton. Both Lara and Derek have been unfailingly supportive and patient, as well as generous with their time and thoughts, and it is thanks to them that this thesis took shape. Thanks especially to Lara for her caring and loyal friendship which has been consistently fun as well as nurturing. I would also like to offer a special thanks to Neil Vickers whose incisive advice and thoughtful comments on my work at various stages throughout the process of conceiving of and then writing this thesis have been invaluable. Particular thanks are also due to Brian Hurwitz for his helpful remarks on my work, as well as his guidance and support throughout my PhD. I would also like to thank Brian and everyone at the CHH for providing such a stimulating and welcoming research atmosphere. Thanks also to Jo McDonagh and the English Department at King's on a similar count, and to both the CHH and the English department for providing so many opportunities in such a supportive environment. There are numerous people, both staff and students from King's and elsewhere, who have offered me intellectual advice or reading suggestions which have found their way into this thesis. On this count I would particularly like to thank Helen Barron, Ellie Bass, Nicola von Bodman-Hensler, Sarah Chadfield, Ruth Charnock, Grant Gillett, Jessica Howell, Susan Jones, Ludmilla Jordanova, Helen Pynor, Max Saunders, Cathryn Setz, Anna Snaith, Hannah Strømmen, Kate Symondson, Will Tattersdill, Maria Vaccarella, Simon Vickery, Jamie Whitehead, Adam Winstanley and Hope Wolf. I would also like to thank many of these people for their valued friendship, and also extend thanks to Mary Horgan, Sophie Oliver, Tom Overton and David Stone for their general PhD-related friendship, advice and support. Thanks to all my friends and family who have helped me through the process of completing this thesis. There are too many people to list but I would particularly like to thank all my friends who have acted as sounding boards over numerous lunches and drinks, especially Pippa Eldridge, Kat Harris, Jack Mooney, Patrick Lawrence and Lou Wright.
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