'McDougall, then, considered his investigations as contributing to a different, but similarly vitalist tradition of research as that in which Bergson had invested: like Bergson, he characterized the defining attribute of life as an activity (flow) rather than a structure such as the cell; like Bergson, he accorded a non-rational concept (‘instinct’ rather than Bergson’s ‘intuition’) a fundamental role in the psyche (McDougall 1908); and like Bergson, he was fascinated by what he characterized as the as-yet unknown potentialities of vital existence. It is notable in this later regard that both served as presidents of the Society for Psychical Research (Valentine 2012, 70-71, 81). By the time Bergson spoke at Oxford, McDougall had begun to actively promote the philosophy of the former amongst his scientific peers (McDougall 1911, e.g. 84). In so doing, he became one of the few British scientists to explicitly take up Bergsonian themes in his work.'