{"id":1935,"date":"2013-08-14T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2013-08-14T09:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/berghahnbooks.com\/blog\/?p=1935"},"modified":"2025-06-10T10:50:55","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T10:50:55","slug":"the-rise-and-fall-of-volkerpsychologie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.berghahnbooks.com\/blog\/the-rise-and-fall-of-volkerpsychologie","title":{"rendered":"The Rise and Fall of V\u00f6lkerpsychologie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before there was cultural psychology, there was V\u00f6lkerpsychologie.\u00a0<\/i>This social science was used as a way of looking at cultures and trying to make sense of them\u2014an attempt often seen as stereotyping. But, in The Mind of the Nation: <\/em>V\u00f6lkerpsychologie in Germany, 1851-1955<\/em><\/a>, to be released this month, author Egbert Klautke gives the often-overlooked social science due credit. He shares his thoughts about the volume and this particular form of psychology below.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Berghahn Books: How would you define \u201cFolk Psychology\u201d and what drew you to the study of it?<\/p>\n

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Egbert Klautke: \u201cFolk Psychology\u201d is an awkward translation of the German term V\u00f6lkerpsychologie. Originally, it referred to attempts to study the psychological make-up of nations, and as such is a forerunner of today\u2019s social psychology. However, in today\u2019s common understanding, V\u00f6lkerpsychologie equals national prejudice: it is seen as a pseudo-science not worth considering seriously. <\/i><\/p>\n

My first book dealt with perceptions of the U.S.A. in Germany and France, and much of these views could be described as V\u00f6lkerpsychologie: clich\u00e9s and stereotypes about a foreign nation, which were of a surprisingly coherent nature. Back then, my rather na\u00efve idea was that there must be a general theory behind these perceptions, and I embarked on a study of V\u00f6lkerpsychologie.<\/i><\/p>\n

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BB: Did any perceptions on the subject change from the time you started your research to the time you completed the book?<\/p>\n

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EK: When I started my research, I shared the general view of V\u00f6lkerpsychologie as a flawed attempt to present national stereotypes as academic research, and was suspicious of its nationalist agenda and racist undertones. I also considered it typically German. Having completed the book, I have a much more sympathetic view of \u201cfolk psychology,\u201d at least of the early attempts by<\/i> (Moritz) Lazarus, <\/i>(Heymann) Steinthal and <\/i>(Wilhelm) Wundt<\/i>. Despite its flaws and shortcomings, V\u00f6lkerpsychologie was a serious and honorable attempt to introduce a social science to the university curriculum. As such, it influenced pioneers of the social sciences not only in Germany, but also around the world. <\/i><\/p>\n

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BB: What are some of the factors that led to the demise of this kind of psychology?<\/p>\n

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EK: Most importantly: the Third Reich. Even though the Nazis were not particularly interested in \u201cfolk psychology,\u201d after 1945 this approach was quickly associated with Nazi theories and race ideologies. The genuine weaknesses of \u201cfolk psychology\u201d contributed to its demise, but it was mainly the assumption that V\u00f6lkerpsychologie was part of Nazi thinking that contributed to this process. By the 1960s, the very term had become a taboo in the social sciences.<\/i><\/p>\n

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BB: What aspect of writing this work did you find most challenging?<\/p>\n

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EK: Personally, the biggest challenge was writing the book in English: I\u2019m a native of Germany, but have lived in the United Kingdom for more than ten years now. Still, writing in a language other than my mother tongue posed a particular challenge to me, and I hope the final result doesn\u2019t show it too much.<\/i><\/p>\n

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BB: To what extent do you think the book will contribute to debates among current and future academics within the field?<\/p>\n

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EK: The book forces us to rethink the origins not only of the history of psychology, but of the social sciences and humanities more generally. It should also raise doubts about the convenient assumption of German exceptionalism: in the field of intellectual history, V\u00f6lkerpsychologie might have been a German invention, but it was not part of a national Sonderweg. It was firmly anchored in international discussions and debates, and left its mark on the intellectual landscapes of countries outside Germany, from France to the U.S., and from Russia to Japan.<\/i><\/p>\n

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BB: Do you think there are aspects of this work that will be controversial to other scholars working in the field?<\/p>\n

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EK: I\u2019m not sure if my rather sympathetic reading of V\u00f6lkerpsychologie will be shared by many: its reputation has been damaged beyond repair. However, scholars interested in \u201ccollective identities\u201d and \u201cnational mentalities\u201d might be surprised to find out that what they doing today differs little from the \u201cfolk psychology\u201d of the nineteenth century. Very often, only the terminology employed by contemporary scholars has been changed, but the underlying questions and problems have remained the same.<\/i><\/p>\n

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BB: Who is one iconic figure featured in one way or another in your field of research, living or dead, for whom you have particular admiration and why?<\/p>\n

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EK: I wouldn\u2019t want to single out an \u201ciconic figure\u201d that featured in the study of \u201cfolk psychology.\u201d I deliberately chose to study lesser-known academics who do not feature in the \u201cgrand narrative\u201d of the history of the sciences. My aim was to show that, from a historical perspective, such figures, who tend to be forgotten very quickly, can provide more insight than an exhaustive study of the intellectual giants of the day, whose originality and influence can very easily get exaggerated in hindsight. For the \u201cfull picture,\u201d you need to know the \u201cdwarfs\u201d as much as the \u201cgiants.\u201d To give some names from \u201cThe Mind of the Nation\u201d: to genuinely appreciate Georg Simmel, Franz Boas or Emile Durkheim, you need to know something about Moritz Lazarus, Heymann Steinthal and Wilhelm Wundt.<\/i><\/p>\n

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Egbert Klautke<\/strong> is Lecturer in the Cultural History of Central Europe in the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at University College London. He is the author of Unbegrenzte M\u00f6glichkeiten: \u201cAmerikanisierung\u201d in Deutschland und Frankreich, 1900\u20131933<\/i> (2003).<\/p>\n

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Before there was cultural psychology, there was V\u00f6lkerpsychologie.\u00a0This social science was used as a way of looking at cultures and trying to make sense of them\u2014an attempt often seen as stereotyping. But, in The Mind of the Nation: V\u00f6lkerpsychologie in Germany, 1851-1955, to be released this month, author Egbert Klautke gives the often-overlooked social science… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,220,108],"tags":[656,299,1665,1669,120,188,224,841,109,204],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berghahnbooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1935"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berghahnbooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berghahnbooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berghahnbooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berghahnbooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1935"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.berghahnbooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21146,"href":"https:\/\/www.berghahnbooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1935\/revisions\/21146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berghahnbooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berghahnbooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berghahnbooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}