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This book uncovers the history of the concept of the soul in twentieth-century Europe and North America. Beginning in fin de siècle Germany, Kocku von Stuckrad examines an astonishingly wide range of figures and movements.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue: The Crisis of the Soul in the Twentieth Century
Part I: The Soul in Its Cultural Setting Between 1870 and 1930
1. Nature Research, Psychology, and Occultism in the Nineteenth Century
2. Fascination with the Soul in Religion, Art, Philosophy, and Science
3. The Mobilization of the Soul in Political and Nationalistic Settings
4. Carl Gustav Jung: Psychology as a Comprehensive Empirical Science of the Soul
5. Occultism, the Natural Sciences, and Spirituality Before 1930
Part II: From Europe to America and Back: The Soul Goes Mainstream
6. Transpersonal Psychology: The Soul’s Cosmic Potential
7. The Renaissance of Naturphilosophie: Quantum Mysticism, Cosmic Con-sciousness, and the Planetary Soul
8. The Soul as the Lodestar of New Spiritual Practices
9. The Soul as a Central Motif in Literature and Film
10. Ecological Movements, Scientific Aesthetics, and the Sacralization of the Earth
Epilogue: A Cultural Studies Soul Retrieval
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Summary
The soul, which dominated many intellectual debates at the beginning of the twentieth century, has virtually disappeared from the sciences and the humanities. Yet it is everywhere in popular culture—from holistic therapies and new spiritual practices to literature and film to ecological and political ideologies. Ignored by scholars, it is hiding in plain sight in a plethora of religious, psychological, environmental, and scientific movements.
This book uncovers the history of the concept of the soul in twentieth-century Europe and North America. Beginning in fin de siècle Germany, Kocku von Stuckrad examines a fascination spanning philosophy, the sciences, the arts, and the study of religion, as well as occultism and spiritualism, against the backdrop of the emergence of experimental psychology. He then explores how and why the United States witnessed a flowering of ideas about the soul in popular culture and spirituality in the latter half of the century.
Von Stuckrad examines an astonishingly wide range of figures and movements—ranging from Ernest Renan, Martin Buber, and Carl Gustav Jung to the Esalen Institute, deep ecology, and revivals of shamanism, animism, and paganism to Rachel Carson, Ursula K. Le Guin, and the Harry Potter franchise. Revealing how the soul remains central to a culture that is only seemingly secular, this book casts new light on the place of spirituality, religion, and metaphysics in Europe and North America today.
