title: Théodore Flournoy on synesthetic personification.
abstract: In 1893, Théodore Flournoy published a landmark book on synesthesia - Des phénomènes de synopsie [Of Synoptic Phenomena]. The book presented a pioneering chapter on synesthetic personification, including numerous striking case examples, and it is frequently cited by twenty-first-century researchers as providing some of the earliest examples of the phenomenon. Flournoy employed a broad definition of personification - the representation of stimuli as concrete and specific individuals or inanimate objects. This definition encompassed a more extensive set of phenomena than the definition used by researchers today and was illustrated by cases that would fall outside of contemporary subtypes of synesthetic personification. Yet, Flournoy's seminal work remains unavailable in English, and the extent of the phenomenon that he described has not been discussed in the contemporary literature. We provide an unabridged translation of Flournoy's chapter "Des personnifications" ["Of Personifications"].
authors.affiliation: a Faculty of Arts , The Open University , Milton Keynes , UK.|b Faculty of History , University of Oxford , Oxford , UK.|c Christ Church , University of Oxford , Oxford , UK.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Plassart
authors.affiliation: c Christ Church , University of Oxford , Oxford , UK.|d Department of Experimental Psychology , University of Oxford , Oxford , UK.
authors.forename: Rebekah C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: White
mesh_terms: D003118:Color Perception; D003243:Consciousness; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000266:history*; D011589:Psychology, Experimental / Q000266:history*; D012677:Sensation; D013557:Switzerland; D000080311:Synesthesia
keywords: Flournoy; nineteenth-century psychology; personification; synesthesia