Where the paranoid meets the paranormal: speculations on spirit photography

The affirmation of the paranoid impulse is never cast as delusion or psychopathology for the believer. These are the skeptic's labels for spiritualist revelations. From the perspective of the believer, the paranoiac aspect of the spirit photograph--in the sense that it illustrates being watched and watched over--offers the proof of spiritualism. This speculation (bewitched by the specter) is embedded in Mumler's spirited defense of his life's work. For Mumler speaks on behalf of his clientele and all those extras conjured by means of his photographic mediumship to promulgate the knowledge of the afterlife and the truth of spirit-communion. "As I look back upon my past experience, I feel that I have been the gainer, personally, for all the sacrifices I have made, and all the troubles I may have endured in the knowledge I have gained of a future existence, and in the soul-satisfaction of being an humble instrument in the hands of the invisible host that surrounds us for disseminating this beautiful truth of spirit-communion." (22) In this passage, the notion of agency shifts from the skeptic's paranoid critical need to make the photographer the sole agent and prime mover of this spiritual hoax to the believer's claim that he is just a medium and humble instrument in the hands of the invisible host acting as the soul agent of these paranoid manifestations.

Meanwhile, Lacan's formulation of the mirror stage is also applicable for an understanding of the paranoid dynamics that permeate the discourse of spirit photography and of photography in general. After all, it is no coincidence that the daguerreotype in its highly polished and silver plated form was known as the "mirror with the memory." Lacan argues that the 'T' is constituted only when the infant sees herself in the mirror and is captivated by this image that she misrecognizes as herself Thus, Lacan writes that the mirror stage is "the transformation that takes place in the subject when he assumes an image" and that it is "this jubilant assumption of his specular image by the child." (23) The mirror stage is a photographic parable of identity whereby the misidentification of the subject with a mirror reflection (or photographic image) formulates the subject as somehow split and alienated. (24) These well-known tenets have provided much fodder for contemporary film and photography theory.

Lacan further argues that what he terms specifically as paranoiac alienation "dates from the deflection of the specular I into the social I." (25) The spirit photo graph can be viewed as an illustration of this decisive moment of paranoiac alienation. With the introduction (or return) of the resurrected ancestor into the picture as a second term to be misrecognized, the relationship of the spectator to the image changes from the purely specular relationship of self to self-as-other in the mirror reflection to a social relationship that, according to Lacan, links the "I to socially elaborated situations." (26) In the case of spirit photography, the dearly departed family member functions as the symbolic representative of sociocultural and religious tradition and authority. Before this moment, we were worshipping at the altar of Narcissus. In other words, you watch yourself and yourself watches you. After this moment, we are worshipping at the altar of Paranoia. In other words, you are now elaborated as a social self who is "being-watched" and "being-watched-over." You are now situated in the field of the other (other than the sell-as-other) and as someone who is looked at from all sides. The gaze of spirit photography establishes the social scene of misrecognition so that you watch yourself, and yourself--and some suspicious-looking character claiming to be your ancestor who is lurking over your shoulder and whom you just cannot see for the life of you--watches you.