Nandor Fodor | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Nandor Friedlander[1] (1895-05-13)13 May 1895 |
| Died | 17 May 1964(1964-05-17) (aged 69) |
| Occupation(s) | Parapsychologist Psychoanalyst |
| Organization(s) | National Laboratory of Psychical Research Society for Psychical Research The Ghost Club |
Nandor Fodor (May 13, 1895 – May 17, 1964) was a British and Americanparapsychologist,psychoanalyst, author and journalist ofHungarian origin.[2]
Fodor was born in Beregszász,Austro-Hungarian Empire (nowBerehove inUkraine), to a Jewish family.[1] He received a doctorate in law from the Royal Hungarian University of Science inBudapest. He moved to New York to work as a journalist and to Britain in 1929 where he worked for a newspaper company.[3]
Fodor was one of the leading authorities onpoltergeists,haunting and paranormal phenomena usually associated withmediumship. He was at one timeSigmund Freud's associate and wrote on subjects like prenatal development and dream interpretation, although he is mostly credited for hismagnum opus,Encyclopedia of Psychic Science, first published in 1934.[3] Fodor was the London correspondent for theAmerican Society for Psychical Research (1935-1939).[3] He worked as an editor for thePsychoanalytic Review and was a member of theNew York Academy of Sciences.[3]
Fodor in the 1930s embracedparanormal phenomena but by the 1940s took a break from his previous work and advocated a psychoanalytic approach to psychic phenomena.[4][5] He published skeptical newspaper articles on mediumship, which caused opposition from spiritualists.[6]
Among the subjects he closely studied was the case ofGef the talking mongoose, which served as the basis for the 2023 filmNandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose.[7][8]
Fodor was the father of Andrea Fodor Litkei, composer, author, soloist and wife ofErvin Litkei.[9][better source needed]
Fodor pioneered the theory thatpoltergeists are external manifestations of conflicts within thesubconscious mind rather than autonomous entities with minds of their own. He proposed that poltergeist disturbances are caused by human agents suffering from some form of emotional stress or tension and compared reports of poltergeist activity tohysterical conversion symptoms resulting from emotional tension of the subject.[5]
In 1938, Fodor investigated the Thornton Heath poltergeist case that involved Mrs. Forbes. According toRosemary Guiley "Fodor asserted that the psychosis was an episodic mental disturbance of schizophrenic character, and that Mrs. Forbes' unconscious mind was responsible for the activities finally determined to be fraudulent. Fodor eventually identified the cause as sexual trauma that had occurred in Mrs. Forbes's childhood, and had been repressed."[10] Because he was skeptical of the case, Fodor was heavily criticized by spiritualists and was dismissed from his post at theInternational Institute for Psychical Research. The spiritualistArthur Findlay, who founded the institute, did not approve of his research and resigned. Fodor was attacked in the Spiritualist newspaper,Psychic News which he sued forlibel.[10]
Fodor published two scientific papers on poltergeist phenomena,The Psychoanalytic Approach to the Problems of Occultism (1945) andThe Poltergeist, Psychoanalyzed (1948). "The poltergeist is not a ghost. It is a bundle of projected repressions," he stated. With the psychical researcherHereward Carrington Fodor co-authoredHaunted People: Story of the Poltergeist down the Centuries (1951), the book which received positive reviews.[11][12]
The psychologistRobert Baker and the skeptical investigatorJoe Nickell wrote in most cases Fodor discovered that ghosts are "pure inventions of the hauntee's subconscious" and praised Fodor's bookThe Haunted Mind as vastly entertaining.[13] However, Fodor's belief that some poltergeist phenomena could be explained bypsychokinesis has drawn criticism.Henry Gordon has stated that parapsychologists such as Fodor andWilliam G. Roll took a speculative approach to the poltergeist subject, ignoring the rational explanation of deception in favour of a belief in the paranormal.[14]
Fodor's workThe Search for the Beloved (1949) has been described as an influential text in the field ofprenatal psychology.[15]
Fodor believed that a pregnant mother could communicatetelepathically with the mind and body of her unborn child. He held that the mother could cause physical and psychological events in her unborn child depending on her state of mind.[16] Science writerMartin Gardner wrote in 1957 that although Fodor had contributed to respectable psychoanalytical journals his views on telepathy werepseudoscience.[17]
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