Mind matters: Psychosurgical horror in The Great God Peter Pan and Peter and Wendy.

This article explores a connection between Arthur Machen's *The Great God Pan* and J. M. Barrie's *Peter and Wendy* through their shared engagement with late-nineteenth-century neurological research and the controversial practice of psychosurgery pioneered by Swiss psychiatrist Gottfried Burckhardt. Both texts depict brain manipulation—psychosurgical procedures—that unleash malevolent, mythic horrors associated with the pagan god Pan, implicating the surgeons Dr Raymond and Mrs Darling as agents of this terror. The article situates Machen’s and Barrie’s works within the fin-de-siècle neo-pagan and occult movements, arguing that Barrie’s children’s story contains a hidden horror structured by psychosurgical repression in the domestic sphere. This reading challenges conventional views by revealing how both authors use neurological and mythic motifs to explore the intersection of mind, body, and supernatural menace.