Carl August Wickland (born Carl August Wicklund, 14 February 1861 – 13 November 1945)Källhänvisning: Swedish Church Records Archive; Johanneshov, Sweden; Sweden, Indexed Birth Records, 1880-1920; GID Number: 100022.70.45400; Roll/Fiche Number: SC-1111; Volume: 66; Year Range: 1861. was a 20th-century Swedish-American psychiatrist and psychical researcher.

Life and career

Carl Wickland (Wiklund) was born in 1861 at Liden, Västernorrland Province, Sweden, to Anders Wiklund and Ingrid Brita Nilsdotter, and was one of nine siblings. According to Wickland, he emigrated from Sweden to St. Paul, Minnesota, married Anna W. Anderson and moved to

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, graduating from Durham Medical College in 1900. Wickland's own autobiographical sketch lists accomplishments as a general practitioner of medicine, member of the Chicago Medical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and chief psychiatrist at the State Psychopathic Institute of Chicago.Wickland, Carl. (1934). ''The Gateway of Understanding''. Los Angeles, California. Anna Wickland died on 3 March 1937, after a nine-month illness. Carl Wickland died in 1945, at the age of 84. Wing Anderson, an author of material dealing with sleep suggestion therapy for the correction of psychosomatic ills, purchased the copyrights to both of Wickland's books.

Psychical researcher

Wickland turned away from conventional medical psychology and toward the belief that psychiatric illnesses were the result of influence by

spirit Spirit or spirits may refer to: Liquor and other volatile liquids * Spirits, a.k.a. liquor, distilled alcoholic drinks * Spirit or tincture, an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol * Volatile (especially flammable) liquids, ...

s of the dead. Wickland came to believe that a large number of his patients had become possessed by what he called "obsessing spirits", and that low-voltage electric shocks could dislodge them, while his wife Anna acted as a

medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane *Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium of ...

to guide them to "progress in the spirit world".

Spiritualists Spiritualism is the metaphysics, metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and Mind-body dualism, dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spir ...

considered him an authority on "destructive spirits" and he wrote a book in 1924, ''Thirty Years Among the Dead'', detailing his experiences as a psychical researcher. Wickland was convinced that he was in contact with a group of spirits known as the "Mercy Band" who would remove the possessors, and help them in the spirit world. Psychologist Robert A. Baker listed Wickland and Arthur Guirdham as early psychiatrists who preferred to "ignore the science and embrace the supernatural". Baker, Robert A. (1996). ''Hidden Memories : Voices and Visions from Within''. Prometheus Books. p. 202. Wickland founded the National Psychological Institute in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

to study psychic phenomena. A letter published in a 1918 issue of the journal ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

'' criticized the institute's promotion of psychic research "under the name of

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

" as an example of "pseudo-psychology", adding that "the use of such a name involves bad taste and delusion."

Publications

*''Thirty Years Among the Dead'' (1924) *''The Gateway of Understanding'' (1934)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wickland, Carl 1861 births 1945 deaths American spiritualists Parapsychologists Swedish psychiatrists Swedish male writers