Parapsychology on the couch

The psychology of occult belief in Germany, c. 1870-1939

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4003792
AutoresHeather Wolffram (0000-0002-7596-3317, The University of Queensland, autor de correspondencia)
Año2006
Volumen42
Número3
Páginas237-260
Fecha de publicación2006-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0022-5061 • E-ISSN: 1520-6696
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/jhbs.20171
PMID16892450
OpenAlexW2022160364
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas13
Referencias citadas13

This article considers the attempts of academic psychologists and critical occultists in Germany during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to construct a psychology of occult belief. While they claimed that the purpose of this new subdiscipline was to help evaluate the work of occult researchers, the emergence of a psychology of occult belief in Germany served primarily to pathologize parapsychology and its practitioners. Not to be outdone, however, parapsychologists argued that their adversaries suffered from a morbid inability to accept the reality of the paranormal. Unable to resolve through experimental means the dispute over who should be allowed to mold the public's understanding of the occult, both sides resorted to defaming their opponent

Alternative medicine · Construct (python library) · Epistemology · Occult · Paranormal · Parapsychology · Psychoanalysis · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychedelics and Drug Studies · Psychology · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices · Social Psychology