Automatic writing, in spiritualism, writing produced involuntarily when the subject’s attention is ostensibly directed elsewhere. The phenomenon may occur when the subject is in an alert waking state or in a hypnotic trance, usually during a séance. What is produced may be unrelated words, fragments of poetry, epithets, puns, obscenities, or well-organized fantasies. During the late 19th century, at the height of popular interest in the phenomenon, inspiration for automatic writing was generally attributed to external or supernatural forces. Since the advent, around 1900, of theories of personality that postulate unconscious as well as conscious motivation, the inspiration for automatic writing has been assumed to be completely internal.

Modern psychodynamic theories of personality propose that traits, attitudes, motives, impulses, and memories that are incompatible with the person’s conscious awareness may be dissociated from awareness and rarely expressed overtly in the course of normal waking behaviour. These elements may be revealed, however, in the content of automatic writing.