Initially sceptical of the perspectives of the “psychology of religion”, but influenced by Friedrich von Hügel and by Emile Boutroux’s presentation of William James (in the preface to the 1906 French edition of The Varieties of Religious Experience), Henri Bremond gradually and in an ironic way integrates the thinking of the American author into his own view of the nature of mystical experience : moving from François de Sales’s “fine pointe”, the ultimate locus of interiority and will, towards James’s “subconscious” or “subliminal” mind, he in turn successfully develops his spiritual portraits in two stages, first a psychological analysis, then the inner life of prayer. Finally, in similar fashion, he evaluates W. James’ own spirituality from a French perspective.