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A Science for the Soul: Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern
Germany's painful entry into the modern age elicited many conflicting emotions. Excitement and anxiety about the "disenchantment of the world" predominated, as Germans realized that the triumph of science and reason had made the nation materially powerful while impoverishing it spiritually. Eager to enchant their world anew, many Germans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries responded by turning to a variety of paranormal beliefs and practices―including Theosophy, astrology, psychical research, graphology, dowsing, and spirit healing. No mere fringe phenomenon, the German occult movement had a truly national presence, encompassing hundreds of clubs, businesses, institutes, and publishers providing and consuming occult goods and services. In A Science for the Soul , historian Corinna Treitel explores the appeal and significance of German occultism in all its varieties between the 1870s and the 1940s, locating its dynamism in the nation's struggle with modernization and the public's dissatisfaction with scientific materialism. Occultism, Treitel notes, served as a bridge between traditional religious beliefs and the values of an increasingly scientific, secular, and liberal society. Drawing on a wealth of archival materials, Treitel describes the individuals and groups who participated in the occult movement, reconstructs their organizational history, and examines the economic and social factors responsible for their success. Building on this foundation, Treitel turns to the question of how Germans used the occult in three realms of Theosophy, where occult studies were used to achieve spiritual enlightenment; the arts, where occult states of consciousness fueled the creative process of avant-garde painters, writers, and dancers; and the applied sciences, where professionals in psychology, law enforcement, engineering, and medicine employed occult techniques to solve characteristic problems of modernity. In conclusion, Treitel considers the conflicting meanings occultism held for contemporaries by focusing on the anti-spiritualist campaigns mounted by the national press, the Protestant and Catholic Churches, local and national governments, and the Nazi regime, which after years of alternating between affinity and antipathy for occultism, finally crushed the movement by 1945. Throughout, A Science for the Soul examines German occultism in its broadest cultural setting as a key aspect of German modernism, offering new insights into how Germans met the challenge of pursuing meaningful lives in the modern age.
- GenresOccultNonfictionHistory
Hardcover
First published March 9, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 18, 2019
A great book which focuses on the rise, allure, and intrigue of occultism. Many of the elements that this work deduces are deeply meshed into our culture. This work also looks at the cultural, social, economic, and political context.
April 19, 2026
This book is a somewhat patchy effort at deciphering the post-Schopenhauerian 19th-century turn towards the "mysterious". While this book has attracted praise for its writing on Goodreads, to my mind it commits many sins typical of historical non-fiction: tendency to devolve into listing names, text that progresses by ultimately unappetizing mini-biographies of relevant figures and a general impression that this could be an edited collection of articles by many authors. However, Corinna Treitel makes up for this by bringing to attention somewhat surprising and understudied facets of the phenomenon of German irrationalism.
While the title mentions the concept "occultism", which was also used by some magazines of the time, the contents of the book deal mostly in phenomena such as dowsing, animal magnetism, clairvoyance and seances. Treitel explores the ferment of these "spiritualist" types of fashions in the cultural climate of late 19th to early 20th-century Germany, in a time where any categorization of these things was still somewhat hazy. In terms of _occultism_, the most relevant reference point here is Theosophical Society which also partook of these more sensationalistic phenomena in incorporating Blavatsky's telepathic channeling of messages from the Mahatmas to its ideological framework. For example, it is telling that Carl Kellner and Ordo Templi Orientis are completely bypassed even though it fits precisely in the middle of the time period depicted by this book. Theosophy, too, is addressed too mostly from the angle that is relevant to what came to be known as parapsychology, without taking into account other aspects involved with it. An entire chapter is devoted to a case of fraudulent materialization performance along with other similar incidents which, on the other hand, are completely detached from Theosophy. Of course, occultism is a term that has been adopted for many different purposes but the particular eccentricity conveyed by this book relates it strongly to parapsychology, excluding OTO while including Anna Rothe. Based on how I understand the word, OTO would seem closer to the essence of occultism.
The peculiar extension assigned to the term "occult" is partially explained by Treitel's focus on the 19th century as a transformative period for various demarcations in the field of science. While the tendency towards materialism and mechanical objectivism were accelerated by industrialization, the study of psychology remained somewhat controversial. While now-mainstream reductionist voices were certainly not unknown at that time, there was considerable resistance to the idea that all mental issues could be explained by material means. Psychology was only beginning to emerge as an established science: Carl Jung's doctoral thesis was about mediumistic phenomena and Sigmund Freud studied under the mesmerist-hypnotist Jean-Martin Charcot. There was a big focus on unusual experiences, often female hysterics, which also became emblematic of the difficulty of observing the human mind through the nearly ascetically mechanical standards that were emerging in place of Enlightenment science that tended towards an aesthetically grounded natural philosophy. The emergence of mechanically producible images, discovery of electromagnetism and remote communication all contributed to this phenomenon together with social aspects of rapid modernization and urbanization in Germany.
There seem to have been many layers to the process of demarcating psychological science - and study of the mysterious subconscious in particular- as the exclusive purview of experts as opposed to its sensationalistic manifestations among the enchantment-seeking masses. In a way, the separation has not been perfectly successful: many HRs use Myers-Briggs personality tests and people identify with the labels and classifications within that system. However, before that problem even emerged, parapsychology separated from a post-Schopenhauerian philosophizing approach in an attempt to gain scientific credibility as a natural study instead of interpreting the aberrant behaviours in terms of a spirit realm beyond the realm of representation. The post-Schopenhauerian philosopher Carl Du Prel thought that these experiences, trance states and behaviours emanated from the transcendental subject, by Kant's terminology, while Albert von Schrenck-Notzing attempted study paranormal phenomena and hypnotism experimentally. The latter thought the likes of the former brought embarrassment to what was a promising scientific endeavour. Later, the emergence of psychiatry usurped liminal figures like Schrenk-Notzing because they were occupied with studying cases of manifestation, some of which turned out to be fraudulent. The explanation of these states was ascribed to the unconscious and medicalized as pathology, as the emerging movement of psychiatry was trying to consolidate its expert authority in opposition to superstitions of the masses. Modern psychometrics was likewise forged in the same battle, asserting itself in the field of graphology over against the intuitive style of graphology, opting instead for quantitative correlation.
The concept of superstition was conceived anew in this climate. Over and above against simple Enlightenment anti-religiousness, the authority of science had to assert itself against a type of spirituality which was already half-scientific in that it did not necessarily include consolidation of power through transcendent conceptions and supernature. Carl Du Prel was hardly an exemplary Christian yet even his brand of transcendentalizing fell out of favour. The often fraudulent events were not necessarily conceived as miracles denying natural law but could be conceived as expressions of hidden aspects of it. Rapid modernization had seemingly secularized Germany deeply and church attendance was remarkably low; so what is now recognized as "alternative spirituality" emerged very recognizably. The remarkable thing about this spirituality is that even as it asserted itself against disenchantment it preserved some of its aspects and fetishes: we can point out obvious analogies between the increase of machinic mode of life and ideas about people controlled by unknown forces, manifesting perhaps most blatantly in the obsession over automatic writing. The medium may have contorted as did the mystics but it is very important that she was a _medium_ and not a mystic - we are dealing with encounters with one's dead relatives, telepathic messages from physically existing Mahatmas, or travels to Mars. These were basically mundane aspects of reality that were only accidentally hidden: the idea of telepathy is no more incredible than long-distance phone calls in principle, whereas communing with God would be incredible by definition. The medium was simply analogized as a kind of human radio transmitter - an example in the annals of historical objectification of women.
The fact that all this tended to psychometrics so easily betrayed another facet of German modernity: obsession with self-improvement to counter the ills of rapid change. There are many striking analogies to our own current age due to the many media revolutions that have taken place. Germany experienced a major movement called Lebensreform that aimed to improve health and often connect with the Earth in some way: the dowsing phenomenon is reflective of this transformation, as is naturopathy and various anti-Christian naturalisms. The self-improvement aspect was also reflected in the character of the spiritualist movements which emphasized the mastery of one's destiny through the use of various spiritual or occult means. It is strange to find a preponderance of such "liberal" orientations in Germany, a country that is usually portrayed as the illiberal alternative to Britain in the usual history writing. It is indeed one of the greatest merits of Treitel's book that it manages to extricate the spiritualist-occultist ferment in Germany from being invariably Ariosophic: in fact, it was the National Socialists who cracked down on the various occult and theosophical organizations, forcing them underground. Amidst all the obsession with Nazi Occultism and Tibet it is often forgotten that Hitler and Goebbels hated occultism and ideologues like Mathilde and Eric Ludendorff reflected a staunchly anti-occultist ideology that came to be influential when considering which groups to classify as enemies of the state in National Socialist Germany. The multiplicity of different kinds of occultist groups was considered to be a threat on account of the idea that their plurality and potential inclusivity might detract from dedication to the national body, in line with organicist philosophy of government. It is a common, comforting explanation that National Socialism emerged from the brutish nonsense of occultism- a kind of British colonial "savage" trope - but what is forgotten is the far more prevalent, hard side that rejected it as escapism and distraction from the biologically conceptualized state-cult.
There is also an interesting undercurrent of class and gender-based issue running through the book. Many mediums were lower class women who sought to assert authority in this zone, while their patrons were often aristocratic or bourgeois men. Their performances ended up having significant impact on world history, with much ink spilled over the interpretations of their actions and behaviours. These women stimulated entire scientific fields and led to the conception of the subconscious through the attempts to comprehend their hysteric states. It was Sartre who most clearly saw the superstitious aspect behind the notion of the subconscious - the very notion prided by the science who sought to distance itself from such lowly performers. One could argue Freud communicated as much esoterically by analogizing subconscious impulses to demons - is the point that "demonic" states are merely subconscious or that subconscious impulses are on the level of the demonic as a concept? The psychological science monopolized this demonology and ventured into ever more bizarre theories - although Freud flew too close to the sun in attributing hysteria and dissociative states, also relevant in mediums, to incestuous abuse and the impossibility of expressing the reality of it in a patriarchal society. The resulting poetics created many movements and sciences - and further illusions when facts were written over by yet more subconscious demonologies in the form of "complexes".
In summary, this book provides a glimpse into the instability of negotiating epistemic standards amidst momentous changes in forms of life - the tantalizing interconnections between as disparate ideas as, for example, the hylic spiritualism of the ether idea and Freud's circumnavigation of female pathology. We are also faced with the inevitable question, by combining Treitel's history with the case studies of Freud: is the phenomenon of female mediums explicable by opportunistic prostitution of her idolized-fetishized sensitivity, in a triumphant subversion against the patriarchy, or is it just another facet of hysteria, a language for living with unspeakable facts imposed upon them by dark figures in the subconscious?
While the title mentions the concept "occultism", which was also used by some magazines of the time, the contents of the book deal mostly in phenomena such as dowsing, animal magnetism, clairvoyance and seances. Treitel explores the ferment of these "spiritualist" types of fashions in the cultural climate of late 19th to early 20th-century Germany, in a time where any categorization of these things was still somewhat hazy. In terms of _occultism_, the most relevant reference point here is Theosophical Society which also partook of these more sensationalistic phenomena in incorporating Blavatsky's telepathic channeling of messages from the Mahatmas to its ideological framework. For example, it is telling that Carl Kellner and Ordo Templi Orientis are completely bypassed even though it fits precisely in the middle of the time period depicted by this book. Theosophy, too, is addressed too mostly from the angle that is relevant to what came to be known as parapsychology, without taking into account other aspects involved with it. An entire chapter is devoted to a case of fraudulent materialization performance along with other similar incidents which, on the other hand, are completely detached from Theosophy. Of course, occultism is a term that has been adopted for many different purposes but the particular eccentricity conveyed by this book relates it strongly to parapsychology, excluding OTO while including Anna Rothe. Based on how I understand the word, OTO would seem closer to the essence of occultism.
The peculiar extension assigned to the term "occult" is partially explained by Treitel's focus on the 19th century as a transformative period for various demarcations in the field of science. While the tendency towards materialism and mechanical objectivism were accelerated by industrialization, the study of psychology remained somewhat controversial. While now-mainstream reductionist voices were certainly not unknown at that time, there was considerable resistance to the idea that all mental issues could be explained by material means. Psychology was only beginning to emerge as an established science: Carl Jung's doctoral thesis was about mediumistic phenomena and Sigmund Freud studied under the mesmerist-hypnotist Jean-Martin Charcot. There was a big focus on unusual experiences, often female hysterics, which also became emblematic of the difficulty of observing the human mind through the nearly ascetically mechanical standards that were emerging in place of Enlightenment science that tended towards an aesthetically grounded natural philosophy. The emergence of mechanically producible images, discovery of electromagnetism and remote communication all contributed to this phenomenon together with social aspects of rapid modernization and urbanization in Germany.
There seem to have been many layers to the process of demarcating psychological science - and study of the mysterious subconscious in particular- as the exclusive purview of experts as opposed to its sensationalistic manifestations among the enchantment-seeking masses. In a way, the separation has not been perfectly successful: many HRs use Myers-Briggs personality tests and people identify with the labels and classifications within that system. However, before that problem even emerged, parapsychology separated from a post-Schopenhauerian philosophizing approach in an attempt to gain scientific credibility as a natural study instead of interpreting the aberrant behaviours in terms of a spirit realm beyond the realm of representation. The post-Schopenhauerian philosopher Carl Du Prel thought that these experiences, trance states and behaviours emanated from the transcendental subject, by Kant's terminology, while Albert von Schrenck-Notzing attempted study paranormal phenomena and hypnotism experimentally. The latter thought the likes of the former brought embarrassment to what was a promising scientific endeavour. Later, the emergence of psychiatry usurped liminal figures like Schrenk-Notzing because they were occupied with studying cases of manifestation, some of which turned out to be fraudulent. The explanation of these states was ascribed to the unconscious and medicalized as pathology, as the emerging movement of psychiatry was trying to consolidate its expert authority in opposition to superstitions of the masses. Modern psychometrics was likewise forged in the same battle, asserting itself in the field of graphology over against the intuitive style of graphology, opting instead for quantitative correlation.
The concept of superstition was conceived anew in this climate. Over and above against simple Enlightenment anti-religiousness, the authority of science had to assert itself against a type of spirituality which was already half-scientific in that it did not necessarily include consolidation of power through transcendent conceptions and supernature. Carl Du Prel was hardly an exemplary Christian yet even his brand of transcendentalizing fell out of favour. The often fraudulent events were not necessarily conceived as miracles denying natural law but could be conceived as expressions of hidden aspects of it. Rapid modernization had seemingly secularized Germany deeply and church attendance was remarkably low; so what is now recognized as "alternative spirituality" emerged very recognizably. The remarkable thing about this spirituality is that even as it asserted itself against disenchantment it preserved some of its aspects and fetishes: we can point out obvious analogies between the increase of machinic mode of life and ideas about people controlled by unknown forces, manifesting perhaps most blatantly in the obsession over automatic writing. The medium may have contorted as did the mystics but it is very important that she was a _medium_ and not a mystic - we are dealing with encounters with one's dead relatives, telepathic messages from physically existing Mahatmas, or travels to Mars. These were basically mundane aspects of reality that were only accidentally hidden: the idea of telepathy is no more incredible than long-distance phone calls in principle, whereas communing with God would be incredible by definition. The medium was simply analogized as a kind of human radio transmitter - an example in the annals of historical objectification of women.
The fact that all this tended to psychometrics so easily betrayed another facet of German modernity: obsession with self-improvement to counter the ills of rapid change. There are many striking analogies to our own current age due to the many media revolutions that have taken place. Germany experienced a major movement called Lebensreform that aimed to improve health and often connect with the Earth in some way: the dowsing phenomenon is reflective of this transformation, as is naturopathy and various anti-Christian naturalisms. The self-improvement aspect was also reflected in the character of the spiritualist movements which emphasized the mastery of one's destiny through the use of various spiritual or occult means. It is strange to find a preponderance of such "liberal" orientations in Germany, a country that is usually portrayed as the illiberal alternative to Britain in the usual history writing. It is indeed one of the greatest merits of Treitel's book that it manages to extricate the spiritualist-occultist ferment in Germany from being invariably Ariosophic: in fact, it was the National Socialists who cracked down on the various occult and theosophical organizations, forcing them underground. Amidst all the obsession with Nazi Occultism and Tibet it is often forgotten that Hitler and Goebbels hated occultism and ideologues like Mathilde and Eric Ludendorff reflected a staunchly anti-occultist ideology that came to be influential when considering which groups to classify as enemies of the state in National Socialist Germany. The multiplicity of different kinds of occultist groups was considered to be a threat on account of the idea that their plurality and potential inclusivity might detract from dedication to the national body, in line with organicist philosophy of government. It is a common, comforting explanation that National Socialism emerged from the brutish nonsense of occultism- a kind of British colonial "savage" trope - but what is forgotten is the far more prevalent, hard side that rejected it as escapism and distraction from the biologically conceptualized state-cult.
There is also an interesting undercurrent of class and gender-based issue running through the book. Many mediums were lower class women who sought to assert authority in this zone, while their patrons were often aristocratic or bourgeois men. Their performances ended up having significant impact on world history, with much ink spilled over the interpretations of their actions and behaviours. These women stimulated entire scientific fields and led to the conception of the subconscious through the attempts to comprehend their hysteric states. It was Sartre who most clearly saw the superstitious aspect behind the notion of the subconscious - the very notion prided by the science who sought to distance itself from such lowly performers. One could argue Freud communicated as much esoterically by analogizing subconscious impulses to demons - is the point that "demonic" states are merely subconscious or that subconscious impulses are on the level of the demonic as a concept? The psychological science monopolized this demonology and ventured into ever more bizarre theories - although Freud flew too close to the sun in attributing hysteria and dissociative states, also relevant in mediums, to incestuous abuse and the impossibility of expressing the reality of it in a patriarchal society. The resulting poetics created many movements and sciences - and further illusions when facts were written over by yet more subconscious demonologies in the form of "complexes".
In summary, this book provides a glimpse into the instability of negotiating epistemic standards amidst momentous changes in forms of life - the tantalizing interconnections between as disparate ideas as, for example, the hylic spiritualism of the ether idea and Freud's circumnavigation of female pathology. We are also faced with the inevitable question, by combining Treitel's history with the case studies of Freud: is the phenomenon of female mediums explicable by opportunistic prostitution of her idolized-fetishized sensitivity, in a triumphant subversion against the patriarchy, or is it just another facet of hysteria, a language for living with unspeakable facts imposed upon them by dark figures in the subconscious?
July 9, 2018
Almost everyone is interested in the occult. This interest can range from skepticism and a desire to debunk various forms of clairvoyance and psychic phenomena, to government-funded research into applied occultism (mostly for war and espionage), all the way down to those at the other end of the spectrum who devote their lives to the search for some philosopher's stone/ultimate knowledge they hope to acquire by parsing esoterica ranging from astrological signs to the Kabbalah.
The place of the occult in German History is especially complex and thorny for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there is Germany's much-discussed Sonderweg ("Special Path") by which (contra other Western European nations) the German society, civilization, and psyche both resisted the Enlightenment and plunged deeper into its meaning (and consequences). Probably going all the way back to Goethe, the borders between science and religion, the material and the metaphysical, vexed German thinkers, artists, scholars, and scientists for several generations, sometimes to the point of madness (and arguably to the point of genocide). The way the German occult supposedly dovetailed with Nazism also makes the subject a minefield, which, it must be said, Corrinna Treitel does her best to navigate.
You can see then, why Dr. Corrina Treitel has her work cut out for herself in "A Science for the Soul." She makes a concerted go of it, and while the book is intermittently brilliant (particularly in the final third) the work doesn't quite cohere as a whole. Some sections would make good scholarly articles; others would be good subjects for seminars and conferences. Taken in Toto, though, "A Science for the Soul" is unfocused, sometimes tedious, long-winded, and yes, boring.
How does one manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of what should be an inherently-exciting and fascinating maw of wonder? Part of the problem, I think, is that academics and scholars have so much fear of the stigma that comes with treating the occult, that they feel the need to underplay their own fascination (and wonder) with the subject, in order not to seem like one of the hapless rubes who takes this stuff seriously. The philosopher Colin Wilson, for example, is an object lesson in how quickly one can fall from grace with the beautiful people in intelligentsia when they go from something deemed serious (Existentialism in Wilson's case) to something not-quite-serious (the occult, in Wilson's case).
I don't blame Treitlel for her circumspect treading, but in those passages where I sensed her heeding the call of some stronger pull, one can see the chrysalis for a much more exciting book on the subject. Understand, it isn't skepticism that I protest (I'm a skeptic myself); it's just the dryness of what is perhaps the juiciest of all subjects for all of us, lay or professional. Still, kudos for trying to scale a heck of a mountain and maintaining her equipoise high up there in the strange stratosphere.
The place of the occult in German History is especially complex and thorny for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there is Germany's much-discussed Sonderweg ("Special Path") by which (contra other Western European nations) the German society, civilization, and psyche both resisted the Enlightenment and plunged deeper into its meaning (and consequences). Probably going all the way back to Goethe, the borders between science and religion, the material and the metaphysical, vexed German thinkers, artists, scholars, and scientists for several generations, sometimes to the point of madness (and arguably to the point of genocide). The way the German occult supposedly dovetailed with Nazism also makes the subject a minefield, which, it must be said, Corrinna Treitel does her best to navigate.
You can see then, why Dr. Corrina Treitel has her work cut out for herself in "A Science for the Soul." She makes a concerted go of it, and while the book is intermittently brilliant (particularly in the final third) the work doesn't quite cohere as a whole. Some sections would make good scholarly articles; others would be good subjects for seminars and conferences. Taken in Toto, though, "A Science for the Soul" is unfocused, sometimes tedious, long-winded, and yes, boring.
How does one manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of what should be an inherently-exciting and fascinating maw of wonder? Part of the problem, I think, is that academics and scholars have so much fear of the stigma that comes with treating the occult, that they feel the need to underplay their own fascination (and wonder) with the subject, in order not to seem like one of the hapless rubes who takes this stuff seriously. The philosopher Colin Wilson, for example, is an object lesson in how quickly one can fall from grace with the beautiful people in intelligentsia when they go from something deemed serious (Existentialism in Wilson's case) to something not-quite-serious (the occult, in Wilson's case).
I don't blame Treitlel for her circumspect treading, but in those passages where I sensed her heeding the call of some stronger pull, one can see the chrysalis for a much more exciting book on the subject. Understand, it isn't skepticism that I protest (I'm a skeptic myself); it's just the dryness of what is perhaps the juiciest of all subjects for all of us, lay or professional. Still, kudos for trying to scale a heck of a mountain and maintaining her equipoise high up there in the strange stratosphere.
August 31, 2023
One of the most beautifully written (but not overwritten) and well-researched books I have read in a long, long time. My new role model for my own writing.
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