Mind Reading as a Cultural Practice

Christian Kassung is Professor of Cultural Techniques and History of Knowledge at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany. He is vice director of the “Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik” and Principal Investigator of the Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity”.Laurens Schlicht is Research Assistant at Institut für Romanische Kulturwissenschaft und Interkulturelle Kommunikation at Universität des Saarlandes, Germany. He has been Research Assistant for the project “Mind Reading as Cultural Practice”, funded by the German Research Foundation at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany.Carla Seemann is Research Assistant at Institut für Romanische Kulturwissenschaft und Interkulturelle Kommunikation at Universität des Saarlandes, Germany. She has been a Master’s Student at the Department of Cultural History and Theory at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany, and co-researcher on the project “Mind Reading as Cultural Practice”.

• Introduction: Technologies of Mind Reading and Constellations of Testimony (Laurens Schlicht, Carla Seemann, Christian Kassung).- Section I: Technology and Mind Reading.- I.I Media.- Electrical Potential: Mind Reading as Collaborative Action (Melissa M. Littlefield).- The Omega Factor: The Revival of Mind Reading in the 1970s (Roger Luckhurst).- Imaging the Mind: Photography, Neurology, and Neuroscience (Anthony Enns).- I.II Magical Beliefs, Occult Practices.- ‘Occult Technologies’ for ‘Mind Reading’ – Hans Bender’s Experiments with the Scriptoscope (Eberhard Bauer).- How Stage Magic Perpetuates Magical Beliefs (Christine Mohr, Gustav Kuhn, Matthew Tompkins).- Section II: Reading and Interpreting the Criminal Mind.- II.I Practices of Policing.- Debating psychologische Tatbestandsdiagnostik (Heather Wolffram).- Reading the Criminal: Making Visible the Deviant Character in the Austrian School of Criminology (Christian Bachhiesl).- Reading Children’s Minds: Female Criminal Police and Psychology in Weimar Republic and Nazi Regime, the Cases of Maria Zillig and Berta Rathsam (Laurens Schlicht).- II.II Mind Reading, Totalitarianism, and Political Control.- Techniques of Mind-Reading in Spanish Juridical Psychology (Annette Mülberger).- Alienation of the Mind: Framing Mass Consciousness Through Show Trials in Early Soviet Ukraine (Yevhenii Monastyrskyi).- Knowing Men: Behavioral Knowledge and Medial Forms of Mimesis in the Former Ministry for State Security (Stasi) (Sophia Gräfe).

“This volume is a significant resource for scholars in cultural studies, history of science, psychology, and religious studies. Its exploration of how mind reading intersects with societal control, belief, and epistemology provides a relevant lens for examining contemporary debates in science and spirituality.” (Elena Popov, Religious Studies Review, Vol 51 (1), March, 2025)