Negotiating Free Will

Hypnosis and Crime in Early Twentieth-Century Germany

Bibliographic Data

ID8955802
AuthorsAnthony D Kauders, Anthony Kauders (Keele University, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume60
Issue4
Pages1047-1069
Publication date2017-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Historical Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0018246x16000601
OpenAlexW2604430467
LanguageEN
References cited44

The history of free will has yet to be written. With few exceptions, the literature on the subject is dominated by legal and philosophical works, most of which recount the ideas of prominent thinkers or discuss hypothetical questions far removed from specific historical contexts. The following article seeks to redress the balance by tracing the debate on hypnosis in Germany from 1894 to 1936. Examining responses to hypnosis is tantamount to recording common understandings of autonomy and heteronomy, self-control and mind control, free will and automaticity. More specifically, it is possible to identify distinct philosophical positions related to the question as to whether hypnosis could surmount free will or not. The article demonstrates that the discourse often centred on the perceived struggle, located within a particular ‘personality’, between an individual's ‘character’ or ‘soul’ and the infiltration by a foreign or hostile force. While one group (compatibilists) emphasized the resilience of the ‘moral inhibitions’, another group (determinists) doubted that these were sufficient to withstand hypnosis

Automaticity · Autonomy · Epistemology · Hypnosis · Negotiation · Political science · Redress · Sociology · Wrongdoing · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · Historical and Scientific Studies · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices · Social Psychology