ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Representation of Metapsychology in Czech Scientific Discourse Around 1920

• In Event: Sciences and Spiritualism

English Abstract

Many early 20th-century Czech scientists were interested in metapsychology (also known as parapsychology), a field of study dedicated to investigating so-called psychic phenomena. Akin to what was believed by supporters of spiritualism (or spiritism), these phenomena were most often thought to be produced by mediums, who thus became central subjects of metapsychological experiments. Among these Czech scientists were both supporters and critics of metapsychology. The supporters believed it to be a fully fledged scientific discipline, part of the empirical sciences, aimed at verifying the authenticity (or falsity) of psychic phenomena through experiments and observations, and saw themselves not only as genuine scientists but also as pioneers of what they considered a future leading science. Conversely, the critics argued that metapsychology was not a legitimate science and that its representatives were either not scientists at all or, at best, misguided ones, as they harboured misconceptions about the workings of the world, believed in nonsense, and were easily deceived by fraudulent mediums. My paper, based on an analysis of selected Czech texts published mainly during the second decade of the 20th century, employs methods inspired primarily by Stuart Hall and Michel Foucault to examine how metapsychology was represented in the writings of both groups. The debate over the status of metapsychology, which indeed became a contested field of study at the beginning of the 20th century, serves as an example that I will use to examine the processes of defining what can be considered possible, scientific, true, and verifiable. By analysing representations of metapsychology, my paper investigates these processes, as well as how shared meanings and power relations are established and reinforced through expert discourse.

Author

• Nikola Plíšková, Charles University