Becoming a Science

The scientific approach of “Volkerpsychologie” (roughly translated in English as “ethnic psychology”) as founded by Lazarus and Steinthal, and later by Wilhelm Wundt, was criticized early on by conservative protagonists in Germany, such as Houston Stewart Chamberlain and others. This article looks into how their criticism influenced and changed Volkerpsychologie in its two facets: Volkerpsychologie as a theoretical approach and as an “applied approach.” Furthermore, the consequences of this double concept and the change to Volkerpsychologie regarding its role and the meaning for political objectives are discussed. In contrast to Wundt’s theoretical Volkerpsychologie, which is based on the thesis that peoples’ development originally started with similar behaviors, the so-called applied or “differentielle Volkerpsychologie” implied that people are different, that they are devaluated, selected, and eventually separated as races from one another. Changing psychology by adding a more biological dimension and a...