Spiritualism and Psychology in Argentina: The Inception of Parapsychology in the Scientific Mainstream (1948–1955)

In the mid-1940s, Argentine spiritualism faced a crisis in the context of cultural changes where they sought to install parapsychology as a valid area of inquiry within the emerging psychology as a science. The 1950s represented a transformation of the intellectual field for the so-called “conjectural sciences” and a form of psychologization of spiritualism. In fact, the appropriation of J.B. Rhine's test results in the United States proved useful to spiritualists. However, in the late 1940s, enthusiasm emerged among mathematicians to learn about Rhine's statistical procedures and tests. The aims are to analyze the emergence of parapsychology and the controversies surrounding its acceptance/rejection, to examine the emphasis of parapsychology on distancing itself from spiritualism to integrate into the Argentine psychological community, and to evaluate the strategies of Argentine spiritualists to validate their theories based on the works of J.B. Rhine. A historiographic analysis will be conducted through the compilation of relevant documents, books, magazines, and correspondence with authors and researchers from the period between 1945 and 1953. A process of demarcation between psychology and spiritualism in Argentina sought to purify parapsychology towards a position less contaminated by belief systems, in favor of the application of statistical and mathematical procedures of Rhinean orientation.