The German Tradition Of Psychology In Literature And Thought, 1700-1840

This page intentionally left blank THE GERMAN TRADITION OF PSYCHOLOGY IN LITERATURE AND THOUGHT, 1700–1840 The beginnings of psychology are usually dated from experimental psychology and Freudian psychoanalysis in the late nineteenth century. Yet the period from 1700 to 1840 produced some highly sophisticated psychological theorising that became central to German intellectual and cultural life, well in advance of similar developments in the English-speaking world. Matthew Bell explores how this happened, by analysing the expressions of psychological theory in Goethe’s Faust, Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, and in the works of Lessing, Schiller, Kleist, and E. T. A. Hoffmann. This study pays special attention to the role of the German literary renaissance of the last third of the eighteenth century in bringing psychological theory into popular consciousness and shaping its transmission to the nineteenth century. All German texts are translated into English, making this fascinating area of European thought fully accessible to English readers for the first time. m a t t h e w b e l l is Senior Lecturer in German and Director of the Comparative Literature Programme at King’s College London. He is Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the English Goethe Society and author of Goethe’s Naturalistic Anthropology: Man and Other Plants (1994). CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN GERMAN General editors h . b . n i s b e t , University of Cambridge m a r t i n s w a l e s , University of London Advisory editor t h e o d o r e j . z i o l k o w s k i , Princeton University Also in the series j . p . s t e r n : The Dear Purchase: A Theme in German Modernism s e a´ n a l l a n : The Plays of Heinrich von Kleist: Ideals and Illusions w . e . y a t e s : Theatre in Vienna: A Critical History, 1776–1995 m i c h a e l m i n d e n : The German ‘Bildungsroman’: Incest and Inheritance t o d d k o n t j e : Women, the Novel, and the German Nation 1771–1871: Domestic Fiction in the Fatherland s t e p h e n b r o c k m a n n : Literature and German Reunification j u d i t h r y a n : Rilke, Modernism and Poetic Tradition g r a h a m f r a n k l a n d : Freud’s Literary Culture r o n a l d s p i e r s : Brecht’s Poetry of Political Exile n i c h o l a s s a u l : Philosophy and German Literature, 1700–1990 s t e p h a n i e b i r d : Women Writers and National Identity: Bachmann, Duden, ˝ zdamar O THE GERMAN TRADITION OF PSYCHOLOGY IN LITERATURE AND THOUGHT, 1700–1840 MATTHEW BELL King’s College London cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 2ru, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521846264 © Matthew Bell 2005 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2005 isbn-13 isbn-10 978-0-511-11573-8 eBook (NetLibrary) 0-511-11573-3 eBook (NetLibrary) isbn-13 isbn-10 978-0-521-84626-4 hardback 0-521-84626-9 hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. For Lou my light Neu Genieß ich nun durch dich das weite Licht Des Tages. facilis descensus Averno: noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis; sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras, hoc opus, hic labor est. Virgil, Aeneid, VI, 126–9 Conten