"Life Self", Death and the Experience of Limit. The case of Victor Egger, Paul Xilliez, and Thomas Mann

I propose here an historical and theoretical overview as regards a crucial phase of French philosophy and psychology at the end of the 19th century. First, I’m going to take into account the last years of the 19th century (particularly 1896-1897), when many different intellectuals became attracted by «near-death experiences [NDE]». Amongst them, the French philosopher and psychologist Victor Egger (1848-1909) developed a unique reflection on the moral dimension of biological death, working in between philosophy and psychology, and literature too. Thus, in the second part of the article, I investigate the theoretical contribution of Paul Xilliez (1868-1896), a young priest associated with the Grand Séminaire of Nancy and pupil of Egger at the University of Nancy, who devoted himself to the study of psychology and philosophy of his time. More specifically, I am going to analyse his «spiritual testament», entitled La psychologie du tuberculeux (published posthumously in 1897 by his Séminaire colleague Léon Jérôme [1867-1934]). This is particularly to the extent that, having been written after his hospitalisation in the Swiss sanatorium of Leysin, this same text reveals some surprising coincidences with the main themes discussed by Thomas Mann’s Zauberberg (1924). Therefore, the comparison between the two works is worth shedding light on the French psychological and philosophical sources of the great German writer.