View source for The Psychology of the Occult

{{short description|1952 book by psychologist D. H. Rawcliffe.}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2019}}
{{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          = [[Occult]], [[psychology]]
| genre            =
| publisher        = London: Ridgway / New York: [[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 [[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 [[Dover Publications]]. Biologist [[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 [[Frank Podmore]], [[Joseph Jastrow]] and [[Ivor Lloyd Tuckett]] dealing with the "fallacies underlying psychical research". Rawcliffe critically examines claims of the [[occult]], [[parapsychology]] and [[Spiritualism (beliefs)|spiritualism]] concluding that they are best explained by psychological factors such as [[hallucination]], [[hysteria]], [[neurosis]] and [[suggestion]] as well as "delusion, fraud, prestidigitation, and limitless credulity."<ref>[[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 [[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 (journal)|Nature]]'' 170: 176–177.</ref>
The book offers rational explanations for diverse phenomena such as [[automatic writing]], [[dowsing]], fire-walking, lycanthropy and [[stigmata]].
==Reception==
[[Daniel Loxton]] has described the book as an important skeptical work written many years before the founding of [[CSICOP]]. He noted that "Much as [[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>[[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==
* ''[[Why People Believe Weird Things]]''
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Pseudoscience}}
{{Spiritualism and spiritism|state=expanded}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Psychology of the Occult, The}}
[[Category:1952 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Anomalistic psychology]]
[[Category:Books about the paranormal]]
[[Category:Critics of parapsychology]]
[[Category:Occult books]]
[[Category:Popular psychology books]]
[[Category:Scientific skepticism mass media]]