View source for Unsolved:The Psychology of the Occult

{{short description|1952 book by psychologist D. H. Rawcliffe.}}
{{Infobox book
| name             = Occult psychology or Psychology of Occult
| title_orig       =
| translator       =
| image            = Illusions and Delusions of the Supernatural and the Occult.png
| caption    = Cover of ''Illusions and Delusions of the Supernatural and the Occult'', 1959.
| author           = Donovan Hilton Rawcliffe
| illustrator      =
| cover_artist     =
| country          =

| subject          = [[Philosophy:Occult|Occult]], [[Social:Psychology|psychology]]
| genre            =
| publisher        = London: Ridgway / New York: [[Social:Dover Publications|Dover Publications]]
| pub_date         = 1952, 1959, 1988
| english_pub_date =
| media_type       = psychology

| dewey            =
| congress         =
| preceded_by      =
| followed_by      =
}}

'''''The Psychology of the Occult''''' is a 1952 skeptical book on the [[Unsolved:Paranormal|paranormal]] by psychologist D. H. Rawcliffe. It was later published as '''''Illusions and Delusions of the Supernatural and the Occult''''' (1959) and '''''Occult and Supernatural Phenomena''''' (1988) by [[Social:Dover Publications|Dover Publications]]. Biologist [[Biography:Julian Huxley|Julian Huxley]] wrote a foreword to the book.<ref>Anonymous. (1959). ''The Psychology of the Occult''. ''Science Digest'' 46: 194.</ref>

==Content==

The book takes influence from the works of [[Biography:Frank Podmore|Frank Podmore]], [[Biography:Joseph Jastrow|Joseph Jastrow]] and [[Biography:Ivor Lloyd Tuckett|Ivor Lloyd Tuckett]] dealing with the "fallacies underlying psychical research". Rawcliffe critically examines claims of the [[Philosophy:Occult|occult]], [[Unsolved:Parapsychology|parapsychology]] and [[Unsolved:Spiritualism|spiritualism]] concluding that they are best explained by psychological factors such as [[Unsolved:Hallucination|hallucination]], hysteria, [[Medicine:Neurosis|neurosis]] and [[Unsolved:Suggestion|suggestion]] as well as "delusion, fraud, prestidigitation, and limitless credulity."<ref>[[Biography:Endel Tulving|Tulving, Endel]]. (1960). [http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/cep/14/4/286/ ''Review of Illusions and Delusions of the Supernatural and the Occult'']. ''Canadian Journal of Psychology'' 14 (4): 286–287.</ref> Rawcliffe found possible naturalistic explanations for all parapsychological experiments he investigated, noting that there is no scientific evidence for any paranormal power. He suggested that many of the results from [[Unsolved:Extrasensory perception|ESP]] experiments can be explained by what he termed ''endophasic enneurosis'' (unconscious whispering).<ref>Dingwall, Eric. (1952). [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v170/n4318/pdf/170176b0.pdf ''Psychical Research Dissected'']. ''Nature'' 170: 176–177.</ref>

The book offers rational explanations for diverse phenomena such as [[Unsolved:Automatic writing|automatic writing]], [[Unsolved:Dowsing|dowsing]], fire-walking, lycanthropy and [[Religion:Stigmata|stigmata]].

==Reception==

[[Biography:Daniel Loxton|Daniel Loxton]] has described the book as an important skeptical work written many years before the founding of CSICOP. He noted that "Much as [[Biography:Michael Shermer|Michael Shermer]] has done in recent decades, Rawcliffe attempted not merely to debunk these claims, but to explain the underlying psychology of why people believe weird things."<ref>[[Biography:Daniel Loxton|Loxton, Daniel]]. (2013). [http://www.skeptic.com/downloads/Why-Is-There-a-Skeptical-Movement.pdf "Why Is There a Skeptical Movement?"]. Retrieved 4 June 2017.</ref>

==See also==
* ''[[Unsolved:Why People Believe Weird Things|Why People Believe Weird Things]]''

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Pseudoscience}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Psychology of the Occult, The}}
[[Category:Books about the paranormal]]
[[Category:Critics of parapsychology]]

{{Sourceattribution|The Psychology of the Occult}}