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Article

French

ID: <

10670/1.izl3yz

>

Where these data come from
Psychological impact of the ‘memories’ of clean death: criticism of the work of Dr Pim Van Lommel

Abstract

`titrebThe Psychological Repercussions of ‘Memories’ of One’s Own Death – a Critical Assessment of the Work of Dr Pim Van Lommel`/titrebIn 2001, in the medical journal The Lancet, cardiologist Pim van Lommel and his colleagues published a prospective, longitudinal study on the enduring existence of ‘memories’ from periods of unconsciousness in 344 patients who had suffered cardiac arrest. Although methodologically better than previous studies on this subject (based on retrospective surveys), this study is not immune from criticism. In particular, the transformation process supposedly caused by Near-Death Experiences (NDE), a set of memories identified in the literature as the subjective equivalent of demise, is based on a biased assessment of the subjective processes involved, and on a relatively small sample for a longitudinal study. Yet it is this study which provides the main empirical basis for the alleged psychological after-effects inherent to NDE. This article offers a critical analysis of the methodology used in Van Lommel’s study, and, in the wake of Le Maléfan, puts forward a different interpretation of the transformations highlighted : these ‘memories’ or ‘false memories’ of the individual’s own death are in fact a salutary hallucination supporting a revival of subjectivity in extreme situations.

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