Graduate Student, Science and Technology Studies
PhD student
Thesis Title: Crossing the boundaries of mind and science: Carl du Prel (1839-1899), psychical research, and the demarcation problem
About
Recent works in cultural history have identified philosopher and psychical researcher Carl du Prel as a hitherto obscure key figure in the intellectual scene of fin de siècle Germany. Du Prel, an initial follower and protégé of Eduard von Hartmann, received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Tübingen in 1868 for a philosophical study of the metaphysical implications of temporal divergences in dreams. From 1872, he pursued a career as a private scholar and began publishing a large number of articles and essays on philosophy, aesthetics, astronomy, and psychical research, many of which were subsequently compiled in book form. He became an influential author on the psychology and phenomenology of hypnotism and dissociation, the psychology of dreams and the subconscious mind. Du Prel, whom Sigmund Freud called “that brilliant mystic”, was widely read by psychologists such as Freud himself, Carl Gustav Jung, Carl Stumpf and Frederic W. H. Myers.
While Carl du Prel has been rediscovered as a source of inspiration for artists such as Wassily Kandinsky and Rainer Maria Rilke, his importance in the history of science still awaits assessment. Using the example of du Prel as a popularizer of the 'deviant science' of psychical research, my research (funded by a Wellcome Trust PhD studentship) aims to contribute to current discussions in Science Studies on the demarcation problem, intellectual freedom, and the importance of contributions by academic outsiders to scientific and medical knowledge.
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