Max Dessoir | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 8 February 1867 (1867-02-08) |
| Died | 19 July 1947 (1947-07-20) (aged 80) |
| Occupation(s) | Philosopher,psychologist,parapsychologist |
| Education | |
| Education | University of Berlin (Dr. phil., 1889) University of Würzburg (Dr. med., 1892) |
| Theses |
|
| Academic advisors | Wilhelm Dilthey,Adolf Eugen Fick |
| Philosophical work | |
| Institutions | University of Berlin (1897–1933) |
| Doctoral students | Heidrun Kaupen-Haas [de] |
Maximilian Dessoir (8 February 1867 – 19 July 1947) was aGerman philosopher,psychologist and theorist ofaesthetics.[1]
Dessoir was born in Berlin, into aGerman Jewish family, his parents beingLudwig Dessoir (1810-1874), "Germany's most admiredShakespearean actor",[2] and Ludwig's third wife Auguste Grünemeyer (died about 1924). Max earned doctorates from the universities ofBerlin (philosophy, 1889) andWürzburg (medicine, 1892).[3] He was a professor at Berlin from 1897 until 1933, when theNazis forbade him to teach.
An associate ofPierre Janet andSigmund Freud, Dessoir published in 1890 a book onThe Double Ego, describing the mind as divided into two layers, each with its own associative links[4] - its own chain of memory.[5] He considered that the 'underconsciousness' (Unterbewusstein) emerged in such phenomena as dreams, hypnosis, anddual personality.[6] His work was built on byOtto Rank in his study of theDoppelgänger.[7]
In an article of 1894, Dessoir published an account of the evolution of the sex instinct from undifferentiated to differentiated, which was taken up byAlbert Moll and Sigmund Freud.[8] Freud cites it approvingly in hisThree Essays on the Theory of Sexuality.[9]
Considered aNeo-Kantian philosopher Max Dessoir founded theZeitschift für Ästhetik und allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft, which he edited for many years, and published the workÄsthetik und allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft in which he formulated five primary aesthetic forms: the beautiful, the sublime, the tragic, the ugly, and the comic.
Dussoir was married to sopranoSusanne Dessoir. He died inKönigstein im Taunus at the age of 80.
In 1889, in an article in the German periodicalSphinx, Dessoir coined the term 'parapsychology' (actually in its German equivalent, 'Parapsychologie'): "If one ... characterizes bypara- something going beyond or besides the ordinary, than one could perhaps call the phenomena that step outside the usual process of the inner life parapsychical, and the science dealing with them parapsychology. The word is not nice, yet in my opinion it has the advantage to denote a hitherto unknown fringe area between the average and the pathological states; however, more than the limited value of practical usefulness such neologisms do not demand."[10]
Dessoir was a member of theSociety for Psychical Research.[11] He was highly skeptical of physicalmediumship. He was the author of the bookVom Jenseits der Seele: Die Geheimwissenschaften in kritischer Betrachtung (The "beyond" of the soul: occult sciences critically examined) that went through six editions. The book contained skeptical information on the mediumsJan Guzyk,Franek Kluski,Henry Slade and many others.[12] The 1930 sixth edition (reprinted in 1967) contained an exposure of the alleged poltergeist victim Eleonore Zugun. According to Dessoir she had performed the phenomena fraudulently.[12]
Dessoir was an amateur magician who had used the pseudonym "Edmund W. Rells". He was interested in the history and psychology ofmagic. He published a series of articles entitledThe Psychology of Legerdemain, which were printed in five weekly installments for theOpen Court journal from 23 March – 20 April 1893.[13]
His articlePsychology of the Art of Conjuring was included inH. J. Burlingame's bookAround the World with a Magician and a Juggler (1891).[14]
On magic
Translations to English
