Psychical research and the origins of American psychology Hugo Münsterberg, William James and Eusapia Palladino

Largely unacknowledged by historians of the human sciences, late-19th-century psychical researchers were actively involved in the making of fledgling academic psychology. Moreover, with few exceptions historians have failed to discuss the wider implications of the fact that the founder of academic p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in	History of the human sciences Vol. 25; no. 2; pp. 23 - 44
Main Author	Sommer, Andreas
Format	Journal Article
Language	English
Published	London, England SAGE Publications 01.04.2012 Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects	19th century Academic discipline Academic Disciplines Exceptions Fraud Historians Historiography History of science James, William James, William (1842-1910) Munsterberg, Hugo (1863-1916) Münsterberg, Hugo Palladino, Eusapia Parapsychology Psychologists Psychology Science Scientific research Scientific status Social Sciences U.S.A United States of America United States > US historiography popularization of science discipline formation fraud boundary-work
Online Access	Get full text
ISSN	0952-6951 1461-720X
DOI	10.1177/0952695112439376

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Summary:	Largely unacknowledged by historians of the human sciences, late-19th-century psychical researchers were actively involved in the making of fledgling academic psychology. Moreover, with few exceptions historians have failed to discuss the wider implications of the fact that the founder of academic psychology in America, William James, considered himself a psychical researcher and sought to integrate the scientific study of mediumship, telepathy and other controversial topics into the nascent discipline. Analysing the celebrated exposure of the medium Eusapia Palladino by German-born Harvard psychologist Hugo Münsterberg as a representative example, this article discusses strategies employed by psychologists in the United States to expel psychical research from the agenda of scientific psychology. It is argued that the traditional historiography of psychical research, dominated by accounts deeply averse to its very subject matter, has been part of an ongoing form of ‘boundary-work’ to bolster the scientific status of psychology.
Bibliography:	SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 14 ObjectType-Article-2 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 Andreas Sommer, MA, is a doctoral student at the Department of Science and Technology, UCL Centre for the History of Psychological Disciplines, University College London. His research uses the work of German philosopher and psychical researcher Carl du Prel (1839–99) to understand historical developments at the intersection between late-19th- and early-20th-century psychology and psychical research.
ISSN:	0952-6951 1461-720X
DOI:	10.1177/0952695112439376