Abstract
This article, the second in a two-part sequence, will cast new light on the strong possibility that John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress played a previously unrecognized role in inspiring James’s means of defense against the frightening hallucination and panic fear that characterized his well-known personal crisis in the early 1870s. It will also present an argument about the influence of his defensive measures upon his subsequent views on the nature and importance of attention and will in human life. Along the way, it will identify James’s specific, newly discovered copy of Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress and the specific, newly discovered Bible through which he developed familiarity with the scriptural phrases that helped him get through his ordeal. The first article in this sequence presented an argument and evidence regarding the previously unrecognized role of Arthur Schopenhauer’s thought in shaping and intensifying the way that James experienced his personal crisis. It also related Schopenhauer’s influence to prior issues that had concerned James, and in an appendix it provided an overview of other areas in which Schopenhauer seems to have influenced James, both during and after his personal crisis.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2015 The William James Society. This article first appeared in William James Studies 11 (2015), 28-45.
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Recommended Citation
Leary, David E. "New Insights into William James's Personal Crisis in the Early 1870s: Part II. John Bunyan and the Resolution & Consequences of the Crisis." William James Studies 11 (2015): 28-45.