Informed by the writings of Frederic Marvin and Cesare Lombroso, Dr. Zingrone presents the “nagging presence of women who did not fit the mold—among them trance speakers and Spiritualist mediums.” By locating their books in the traditions in which they were written she demonstrates how each functioned to divest the medium of her paradoxical power, and by doing so,defend against the threat presented by any women who dared to venture beyond the boundary of her assigned sphere in society.