روانشناسی خرافات

by Gustav Jahoda, محمدنقی براهنی (Translator)

در توضیح ناشر آمده است: «نویسنده ضمن طرح مطالبی درباره‌ی آداب و رسوم و عقاید پیشینیان سعی در بازنگری و بررسی اعمالی دارد که امروزه تحت‌عنوان خرافات از آن یاد می‌شود. وی بر این باور است که این اعمال در حقیقت اعتقادات، باورها، افسانه‌ها و فرهنگ یک ملت به‌شمار می‌روند که امروز معانی اصلی خود را از دست داده و فقط عمل بدون اعتقاد آنان باقی مانده است. علاوه‌براین مولف درباره‌ی چشم‌نظر و شیوه‌های رفع آن، تاثیرات دعاها و خاصیت مهره‌ها، گوهرها و خاتم‌ها مطالبی را بیان می‌کند.» در توضیحات پشت جلد آمده است: «اگر آدمیان قواعد مشخصی برای اداره‌ی تمام امور زندگی خود در اختیار داشتند یا بخت همیشه با آن‌ها یار بود، هرگزبه خرافات روی نمی‌آورند. اما چون اغلب به مشکلاتی برمی‌خورند که قواعد موجود پاسخگوی آن‌ها نیست و از سوی دیگر به سبب قطعی‌نبودن دستیابی به مواهب آزبرانگیز بخت، به‌طور رقت‌باری بین ترس و امید سرگردانند، در نتیجه اغلب سخت زودباورند. (اسپینوزا)»

Genres: Psychology, Philosophy, Nonfiction

271 pages, رقعی

First published January 1, 1920

About the author

He was educated in Vienna, then subsequently in Paris and London. He studied sociology and psychology at London University before obtaining a lectureship in social psychology at the University of Manchester. In 1952 he took up a post at the University College of the Gold Coast (now Ghana) in the Department of Sociology, where he carried out pioneering research into cross-cultural psychology. In 1963, he was invited to set up a new psychology department in the University of Strathclyde, although he continued to make field trips to West Africa. He retired in 1985 but he still retains the post of Emeritus Professor.

Reviews

[Kinga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Superstitions are a little hobby of mine. I have a wide array of my personal superstitions which I have developed and perfected over time. I am also always interested in hearing about other people's superstitions. And on this occasion, I decided to learn something about their roots.

Do I know now why I sometimes have to count to 7 before getting up (or a plane will crash somewhere in South America)? No, not really.

What Jahoda does here mostly is just rebut all the theories about the origin of superpositions proposed by the likes of Freud and Jung.

There is some funny shit there. For example, and I know this will come as a shock to you, Freud (or one of his disciples, can't remember now) linked superstitions with some repressed sexual desires. Knocking on the wood is actually a symbolical rape on your mother. Wood is the mother, your finger is the penis and number three (because you knock three time) represents male genitalia. Well, I usually knock twice only, so sadly my penis is half castrated. I should probably look into it, it might explain a lot of things.

Jung, on the other hand, was quite superstitious himself. He was a firm believer of things happening 'for a reason' and produced a completely maddening theory of synchronicity. Neither me nor Jahoda could make heads or tails of this theory, so I will just quote Wikipedia: Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events that are apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance and that are observed to occur together in a meaningful manner.

Still unsure? Let me illustrate with an example (again courtesy of Wikipedia):

"A young woman I was treating had, at a critical moment, a dream in which she was given a golden scarab. While she was telling me this dream, I sat with my back to the closed window. Suddenly I heard a noise behind me, like a gentle tapping. I turned round and saw a flying insect knocking against the window-pane from the outside. I opened the window and caught the creature in the air as it flew in. It was the nearest analogy to a golden scarab one finds in our latitudes, a scarabaeid beetle, the common rose-chafer (Cetonia aurata), which, contrary to its usual habits had evidently felt the urge to get into a dark room at this particular moment. I must admit that nothing like it ever happened to me before or since."

This is actually a quote from Jung's book on Synchronicity and it was quoted in 'The Psychology of Superstition' as well. Jung says it was the emotionally charged situation that caused the seemingly unrelated external event. It reminds me of that titmouse which knocked on the window of North Korean embassy to mourn Kim Jong Il.

Eventually Jahoda draws certain conclusions about superstitions, that they let us think we can control what we can't control and they help us believe it's not all just meaningless chaos.

My very own conclusion upon reading this book is that superstitions are very natural, inherent part of our nature and if I need to count to seven to stop planes from crashing, then so be it. This is my cross and I will bear it.

[Adrian Colesberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of four books that taught me critical thinking. The others are Shamans by Alice Beck Kehoe, The Causes of Rape by Lalumiere et al and The Subversive Family by Ferdinand Mount.
Jahoda's main point, as I remember, is that superstition doesn't really exist. It's a relative construct, just like heresy. One person's superstition is another person's belief just like on person's heresy is another person's true religion.
Fascinating book.

[Rovi / راوی · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book for those interested in the relation between myths and human nature. Short and gold, strictly recommended.

[Mehran Pourmousavian · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتاب خوبی برای دید کلی پیدا کردن درمورد تحقیقات گذشته پیرامون مسئله خرافات هست و حتی یک جاهایی به نظرات اسکینر، فروید و یونگ پیرامون این مسئله اشاره میکنه.