automatist
(ɔːˈtɒmətɪst)
[f. prec.: see -ist.]
1. One who holds the doctrine of automatism (1).
| 1882 Goldw. Smith in Pop. Sci. Monthly XX. 768 Though not a declared automatist, Mr. Spencer is a necessarian. |
2. One who is subject to automatism; a medium; in Art, one whose technique is based upon automatism (sense 5). Also attrib.
| 1885 Myers in Proc. Soc. Psychical Research III. 41, I have seen an automatist writing page after page in ordinary handwriting, and then a page in mirror-writing. a 1901 ― Human Personality (1903) I. 28 The ordinary consciousness of the automatist appears to be suspended; he passes into a state of trance. 1920 W. B. Yeats in If I were Four & Twenty (1940) 43 He gathered the opinions, as he believed, of spirits speaking through a great number of automatist and trance speakers. 1959 Listener 2 July 26/2 Exhibitions by their own artists, in the international idioms of pure Abstract, Abstract-Concrete, Tâchiste, Automatist [etc.]. |