PD Dr. Bernd-Christian Otto

This research project responds to recent research that tends to explain the 'survival' of magic(k) in the modern Western world by pointing to a process of psychologisation. From the 19th century onwards, it is asserted, practitioners, compelled by cultural dynamics of secularisation, increasingly moved away from explaining the effects of their practices by recourse to religionist ideas and patterns, instead focusing on the mind as the locus and prime mover of ritual efficacy.

The project revisits this narrative by analysing a selection of practitioners from the 19th to the 21st centuries. It tests the hypothesis that while psychologisation strategies were important for some practitioners of magic(k) to ‘come to terms’ with an – increasingly, or allegedly – disenchanted world, others have also relied on strategies of resacralisation, religionisation and traditionalisation to explain the effects of their practices. These potentially contradictory strategies were at least equally important.

The project will contribute to a better understanding of the strategies employed to adapt to, counter and cope with prevailing Western discourses of secularisation, rationalisation, and scientification. This should also result in a more nuanced narrative concerning the ongoing resilience – one might even say striking popularity – of magic(k) in the modern world.