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A finales del siglo XIX, mediante el estudio científico de los fenómenos espiritistas, nuevos enfoques médicos y psicológicos se aplicaron a la mediumnidad. La idea del médium espiritista fue sustituida por la noción del médium como un ser desequilibrado, capaz de emanar fuerzas psíquicas inconscientemente. Este trabajo analiza la redefinición de la mediumnidad a través de unos polémicos artículos del médico catalán Víctor Melcior. Esta microhistoria sirve, por un lado, para situar el debate local dentro del contexto científico internacional y, así, mostrar las relaciones entre el espiritismo, la medicina y la psicopatología del momento. Por otro lado, permite analizar las reacciones de algunos espiritistas a las teorías de Melcior, así como las consecuencias que este debate tuvo para el espiritismo en general. Towards the end of the 19th century, new medico-psychological approaches were applied to mediumship through the scientific study of spiritualist phenomena. The spiritualist idea of the medium was replaced with the notion of the medium as an unstable human being capable of emanating psychic forces unconsciously. This paper analyses the redefinition of mediumship through the polemical articles of the Catalan physician Víctor Melcior. On one hand, this microhistory allows the local debate to be placed within the scientific international context, describing the relationships among spiritualism, medicine and psychopathology at that time. On the other hand, it permits analysis of the reactions of some spiritualists to Melcior’s

El presente estudio histórico trata de las aportaciones realizadas entre 1924 y 1936 por la Revista Médica de Barcelona al tema del cuidado psíquico. Con ello constatamos el protagonismo de E. Mira y López y B. Rodríguez Arias, así como cuatro vías diferentes buscadas por la revista para promover e incidir en la salud mental de la población. Un primer nivel consistía en la promoción de la psicología como fuente de salud y campo de especialización médica. Relacionado con esto nos encontramos, en segundo lugar, con la psicoterapia y el psicoanálisis, aplicado tanto en el plano individual (en la consulta privada), como de forma colectiva en instituciones. En un tercer nivel situamos la campaña para la higiene mental. Por último, tenemos en cuenta los aspectos psicológicos relacionados con la criminología y la higiene moral. This historical study deals with the contributions made between 1924 and 1936 by the journal Revista Médica de Barcelona to the topic of mental care. Thereby we recognized the crucial role played by E. Mira y López and B. Rodríguez Arias and four different strategies sought by the journal to promote and influence the mental health of the population. The first level consists of the promotion of psychology as a source of health and as a medical field of specialization. In connection with this we find, in the second place, psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, applied both, at an individual level (in the private practice), and collectively in institutions. At a third level we situate the campaign for mental hygiene. Finally, we consider the psychological aspects of criminology and moral hygiene.

This paper discusses the relation between dissociation theories and spiritism in Spain. It shows two cases that took place at the beginnings of the 20th Century. The first describes the mental dissociation that the physician Víctor Melcior attributed to the medium Teresa Esquius. The second shows the polemic, between the astronomer Josep Comas and the spiritist Jacint Fornaguera, in regard to the bodily dissociation in the medium Carmen Domínguez. It is argued that these kind of debates favoured the scientific study of mediumship. El presente artículo aborda la relación entre las teorías del desdoblamiento y el espiritismo en España. Se exponen dos casos acontecidos a principios del siglo XX. El primero describe el desdoblamiento de la personalidad que el médico Víctor Melcior atribuyó a la médium Teresa Esquius. El segundo trata la polémica, entre el astrónomo Josep Comas y el espiritista Jacint Fornaguera, respecto al desdoblamiento corporal en la médium Carmen Domínguez. Se argumenta que esta clase de debates favorecieron el estudio científico de la mediumnidad.

Focusing on the chess prodigy Samuel Reshevsky (1911–1992), this paper examines the international commercial exploitation of child prodigies and their rise to celebrity. In the early 1920s, this boy wonder toured Europe and the United States, where he defeated some of the best players in simultaneous chess exhibitions, met important personalities and became a subject of global fascination. His ascent into stardom just before Hollywood’s child star era reveals the public’s eagerness to capitalise on gifted children as yet another commodity of the entertainment industry. Parents played a key role in exploiting child prodigies, despite the success of recent campaigns to secure children’s rights such as compulsory education and the regulation of child labour. Meanwhile, philanthropists attempted to aid children like Reshevsky and stop their public exhibition. Moreover, psychologists examined their talent and worried about their futures. Overall, Reshevsky’s case reconstructs the network of interests (commercial, humanitarian, scientific) surrounding child prodigies and historicises the child star phenomenon beyond the mainstream child performer., This research has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 793654, as well as by the Beatriu de Pinós Fellowship (2019 BP 00034) funded by the Secretary of Universities and Research (Government of Catalonia) and by the Horizon 2020 programme of research and innovation of the European Union under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 801370.

This special issue entitled «Managing giftedness in contemporary society» analyzes how the category of giftedness has been mobilized in different areas -education, mental testing, and childrearing- to manage, classify, nurture, and even exploit commercially children in Europe and America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the first decades of the twentieth century, educators, pedagogical experts, pedologists, and psychologists, together with some physicians, drew attention to the existence of children whose intelligence and talents exceeded the average. The agendas that motivated their studies varied, including eugenics, mental hygiene, professional guidance, and an attempt to improve schooling while increasing educational efficiency. Intelligence tests became a widespread tool, but as several articles have demonstrated, they were not the only method to explore children’s minds and capacities. In the particular case of child prodigies, psychological examinations were expected to contribute knowledge about mental traits, such as memory, because in these cases such traits appeared magnified. The present volume aims to shed light on the social and scientific agendas supporting the use of categories like «child prodigy» and «gifted child», and to explore the impact they achieved beyond the limits of psychological science., This special issue is based on a panel we organized in 2019 for the conference of the European Society for the History of the Human Sciences. This research has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 793654.

The child prodigy phenomenon expanded during and after the mid-19th century, nurtured by a growing entertainment industry in Europe. Prodigies were particularly popular in two domains —classical music and mental calculation. Many spent their early childhoods on tour and living abroad. This paper analyzes the problem of the general education of the child prodigy, and the parents’ and impresarios’ role in financially exploiting the child’s talent. I focus on virtuosos and arithmetic wonders who performed in France in the 19th century. These children rarely received regular schooling and many only learned to read and write once their years of glory as a prodigy passed, or when their lack of education became problematic. The consequences of neglecting the prodigy’s elementary studies were greater than parents and impresarios had anticipated. Illiteracy and a meager knowledge of the wider culture affected talent development. In the end, a lack of general education contributed to the deterioration of the child’s giftedness, accelerating the transition from prodigy to ordinary., This research has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 793654.

In the nineteenth century a new type of mystic emerged in Catholic Europe. While cases of stigmatisation had been reported since the thirteenth century, this era witnessed the development of the ‘stigmatic’: young women who attracted widespread interest thanks to the appearance of physical stigmata. To understand the popularity of these stigmatics we need to regard them as the ‘saints’ and religious ‘celebrities’ of their time. With their ‘miraculous’ bodies, they fit contemporary popular ideas (if not necessarily those of the Church) of what sanctity was. As knowledge about them spread via modern media and their fame became marketable, they developed into religious ‘celebrities’.