Heather Wolffram Livres

The book explores the origins and evolution of forensic psychology in Germany from the late 1800s to World War II, emphasizing its interdisciplinary roots and the shift in focus over time. Initially aimed at understanding all individuals in criminal proceedings, the discipline gradually narrowed to concentrate on witnesses due to courtroom demands. Through in-depth analyses of the Berchtold and Frenzel trials, it examines the ongoing tensions among psychiatry, psychology, and law, questioning why a dominant approach in forensic psychology had not been established by 1939.

Leading the reader through the darkened séance rooms and laboratories of Imperial and inter-war Germany, The Stepchildren of Science casts light on the emergence of psychical research and parapsychology in the German context. It looks, in particular, at the role of the psychiatrist Albert von Schrenck-Notzing - a figure who fashioned himself as both propagandist and Grand Seignior of German parapsychology - in shaping these nascent disciplines. In contrast to other recent studies in which occultism is seen as a means of dealing with or creating "the modern", this book considers the epistemological, cultural and social issues that arose from psychical researchers' and parapsychologists' claims to scientific legitimacy. Focusing on the boundary disputes between these researchers and the spiritualists, occultists, psychologists and scientists with whom they competed for authority over the paranormal, The Stepchildren of Science demonstrates that in the German context both proponents and opponents alike understood psychical research and parapsychology as border sciences.

Die Entstehung und Entwicklung der forensischen Psychologie in Deutschland wird in diesem Buch von den späten 1800er Jahren bis zum Zweiten Weltkrieg analysiert. Es beleuchtet die interdisziplinären Anfänge und die umstrittene Evolution des Fachs, das ursprünglich eine ganzheitliche Betrachtung der Strafjustiz anstrebte. Der Fokus verlagerte sich jedoch zunehmend auf die Rolle des Zeugen im Gerichtssaal. Anhand von Fallstudien, wie dem Berchtold- und dem Frenzel-Prozess, wird die Konkurrenz zwischen Psychiatrie, Psychologie und Recht untersucht und die unklare Position der forensischen Psychologie bis 1939 thematisiert.