The Man in the Macintosh and the Science of the Occult

For decades, the man in the macintosh has remained one of literary modernism’s most enduring enigmas. This study applies the occult theories of the Society for Psychical Research—and specifically Edmund Gurney’s concept of the phantasm—to elucidate the ghostly figure in Ulysses. Not only does a psychical reading of M’Intosh as a telepathic hallucination provide fresh insights into his famously indeterminant identity, but it also highlights a mystico-scientific structure traversing much of the text. Joyce’s engagement with esoteric science thus suggests a paranormal thematic that resonates with the latent supernaturalism of his larger oeuvre and the burgeoning critical discourse around occult modernism.