The world of deviance in the classroom: Psychological experiments on schoolchildren in Weimar Germany.

The article uses three case studies from the 1920s to explore how psychologists and elementary school teachers employed psychological techniques to gain knowledge about elementary school children and their milieu. It begins by describing the role of the elementary school and the elementary school teacher in the Weimar Republic. It then discusses the so-called "observation sheets" that were used in elementary schools in the 1920s to gain insights into the mental and moral characteristics of pupils. Third, it examines psychological experiments undertaken in elementary school classrooms based on the exemplar case of a single teacher/experimenter, before concluding with a comparison of the two practices. I argue that psychology gained in standing through this history, becoming recognized as a foundational science in the context of education. Teachers used the professionalization of observation techniques in school to enhance their socio-epistemic status.

Graphology in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s : Amateurs, Psychologists, and the Police on the Scientific Nature of Graphology.

In this article I examine how psychologists, amateurs and actors in the police and in juridical fields positioned themselves in the 1920s and 1930s on the scientific nature of graphology. Graphology, the study of the character from handwriting, was linked with the hope of providing reliable methods for the investigation of psychological states and dispositions. The essay argues that on an epistemic level two different models have been represented to support the scientific nature of graphology: for one thing resorting to the special individual skill, the "genius" of a graphologist; or rather depersonalized techniques predominantly based on statistics. Amateur graphologists used both of these forms.On a methodological level, I argue that in order to historicize the human sciences in general, and psychology in particular, it is useful to examine the translation processes that turn everyday interpretative practices (of facial expressions, dreams, handwriting) into scientific legitimate investigative procedures. In order to investigate precisely this translation process, it is useful to look at what Thomas Gieryn calls "boundary work" at the border between scientific and non-scientific interpretation practices, for which graphology is used here as an example. It is particularly illuminating to examine how representatives of the official sciences distinguish themselves from presumed "charlatans", which is why the article focuses on court cases and the demarcation strategies used by the police against fraudulent amateur graphologists.

[The French Revolution as Moral Shock : On the Political Dimension of the Research and Therapy of the Human Mind, ca. 1792-1806]. / Die Französische Revolution als moralischer Schock : Zur politischen Dimension der Erforschung und Therapie des menschlichen Geistes, ca. 1792­1806.

The paper describes how, in the context of the development of the French human sciences (sciences de l'homme) around 1800, the reference to the Reign of Terror was constitutive for the formulation and legitimation of a procedure, which was based on what Jean-Étienne Esquirol called "moral shocks" (sécousse morale). The psychiatric and pedagogical discussion of non-physical effects on the spirit (esprit) of human subjects and patients essentially dealt with the question: could people have been liberated by the shocking surge of the Revolution from the demeaning and dependent habits of the Old Regime (ancien régime), or could this violent revolution have had a pathological effect? This article shows that, after 1800, the latter interpretation became accepted. A professional self-image of psychiatric and pedagogical expertise formed in the relationship between physician and patient or teacher and student. This expertise justified employing shocks in professionally controlled settings, while the healing power of the revolutionary was negated. This article thereby distinguishes between four different perspectives on the pathological or healing effect of what was perceived as a "revolutionary shock": firstly, a positive perspective that interprets the shock of the Revolution as healthy, stimulating the vital forces of the people languishing in inactivity; secondly, a cautious perspective that emphasizes the necessity of curbing and controlling the passions of the people; thirdly, a perspective that recognizes in the outburst of passions an aberration from the natural state, and fourthly, a therapeutic perspective that recommends the use of passions by experts in very controlled spaces. Based on published texts and material from the Archives nationales as well as the Institut national de jeunes sourds, this article provides a political history of the development of moral shocks and argues that the development of epistemological and therapeutic technologies in the human sciences were essentially the result of a demarcation from revolutionary violence as well as the desire in the human sciences for a stable government.