PREFACE From the point of view indicated in Chapter 111, namely that the energy expended by psychics and psychical researchers, in attempting to prove im- mortality and the various other phenomena, is a conscious desire prompted by an unconsciolis fear, and is therefore an activity really not in line with the constructive employnlcnt of the libido, it will be evident that I approach the discussion of spiritistic phenomena with a certain natural reluctance be- cause I do not wish to be accused of an undue in- terest in either the validity or the invalidity of the alleged proofs. On a subject in which all my unconscious desire woulld be centred, if consciousness permitted me to know that a proof was available, I do not, from one point of view, wish to be heard at all. But it has seemed to rne that enough importance, to make it wholly worth while, attaches to the qution which one might, as a student of psychoanalysis, put to the psychical researchers, namely, How can you say so...