title: Policing epistemic deviance: Albert Von Schrenck-Notzing and Albert Moll(1).
abstract: Shortly after the death of Albert von Schrenck-Notzing (1862-1929), the doyen of early twentieth century German para psychology, his former colleague in hypnotism and sexology Albert Moll (1862-1939) published a treatise on the psychology and pathology of parapsychologists, with Schrenck-Notzing serving as a prototype of a scientist suffering from an 'occult complex'. Moll's analysis concluded that parapsychologists vouching for the reality of supernormal phenomena, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis and materialisations, suffered from a morbid will to believe, which paralysed their critical faculties and made them cover obvious mediumistic fraud. Using Moll's treatment of Schrenck-Notzing as an historical case study of boundary disputes in science and medicine, this essay traces the career of Schrenck-Notzing as a researcher in hypnotism, sexology and parapsychology; discusses the relationship between Moll and Schrenck-Notzing; and problematises the pathologisation and defamation strategies of deviant epistemologies by authors such as Moll.
authors.affiliation: UCL Centre for the History of Psychological Disciplines, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK. a.sommer@ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sommer
mesh_terms: D005858:Germany; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D006990:Hypnosis / Q000266:history*; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D010268:Parapsychology / Q000266:history*; D044347:Sexology / Q000266:history*