HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Richard Noll (born 1959 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American clinical psychologist and historian of medicine. He has published on the history of psychiatry, including two critical volumes on the life and work of
Carl Gustav Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...
, books and articles on the history of dementia praecox and
schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social with ...
, and on anthropology on
shamanism Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spir ...
. His books and articles have been translated into fifteen foreign languages and he has delivered invited presentations in nineteen countries on six continents.


Early life and education

Noll grew up in the Belton-Mark Twain Park neighborhood in southwest
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
. In 1971, he relocated in 1971 to
Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, and the onl ...
, where he attended Brophy College Preparatory, a Jesuit institution. From 1977 to 1979, he lived in
Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...
and studied
political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions an ...
at the
University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...
. In the fall of 1978, he spent a National Collegiate Honors Council semester at the United Nations in New York, returning to complete his B.A. in political science in May 1979. In 1992, he received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the
New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NS ...
. His dissertation research was an experimental study of cognitive style differences between paranoid and nonparnoid schizophrenia. The chair of his dissertation committee was Nikki Erlenmeyer-Kimling of the New York State Psychiatric Institute.


Career

From 1979 to 1984, Noll was employed in the resettlement of Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian and Hmong refugees for both
Church World Service Church World Service (CWS) was founded in 1946 and is a cooperative ministry of 37 Christian denominations and communions, providing sustainable self-help, development, disaster relief, and refugee assistance around the world. The CWS mission is ...
and the
International Rescue Committee The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a global humanitarian aid, relief, and development nongovernmental organization. Founded in 1933 as the International Relief Association, at the request of Albert Einstein, and changing its name in 1 ...
in New York City. From 1985 to 1988, Noll was a staff psychologist on various wards at Ancora Psychiatric Hospital in
Hammonton, New Jersey Hammonton is a town in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, that has been referred to as the "Blueberry Capital of the World". As of the 2020 U.S. census, the town's population was 14,711, a decline of 80 from the 2010 census coun ...
. In 1981 he was a summer research student at the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man, the Institute of Parapsychology, in Durham, North Carolina. He was a research assistant for an unpublished study on the psychokinetic resuscitation of anesthetized mice under staff parapsychologists Marilyn Schlitz and Richard S. Broughton. In a "Reply" to comments to a 1985 article on shamanism, Noll revealed he had been a subject in the noted ''Ganzfeld'' parapsychology experiments conducted by
Charles Honorton Charles Henry Honorton (February 5, 1946 – November 4, 1992) was an American parapsychologist and was one of the leaders of a collegial group of researchers who were determined to apply established scientific research methods to the examination ...
at the Psychophysiological Research Laboratory in Princeton, N.J., probably in 1982. In November 1978 Noll experienced a purported anomalous "phantasmogenetic centre" event (a term coined by psychical researcher Frederick W.H. Myers) and donated a binder of documents relating to it to the Archives of the Impossible at Rice University in Houston in 2018 just prior to its formal opening. Before assuming a position as a professor of psychology at
DeSales University DeSales University (DSU) is a private Catholic university in Center Valley, Pennsylvania. The university offers traditional, online, and hybrid courses and programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Named for St. Francis de Sales, the u ...
in
Center Valley, Pennsylvania Center Valley is an unincorporated community located one mile north of Coopersburg, at the intersection of Pennsylvania State Routes 309 and 378 in Upper Saucon Township in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. It is part of the Lehigh Valley, which had ...
in August 2000, he taught and conducted research at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
for four years as a postdoctoral fellow and as lecturer on the History of Science. During the 1995–1996 academic year, he was a visiting scholar at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...
and a resident fellow at the
Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology The Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology (1992–2006) was a research institute established at MIT, and housed in a renovated building (E56) on campus at 38 Memorial Drive, overlooking the Charles River.Charles H. BallMIT to ...
. On December 25 2017, Noll was awarded a
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science The is an Independent Administrative Institution in Japan, established for the purpose of contributing to the advancement of science in all fields of the natural and social sciences and the humanities.JSPSweb page History The Japan Society for ...
Invitational Fellowship for Research in Japan. As a JSPS fellow, in June 2018 he delivered invited lectures on shamanism at the University of Shiga Prefecture in Hikone, the National Museum of Ethnology (MINPAKU) in
Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...
, and at the Research Institute of Islands and Sustainability at the
University of the Ryukyus The , abbreviated to , is a Japanese national university in Nishihara, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Established in 1950, it is the westernmost national university of Japan and the largest public university in Okinawa Prefecture. Located in the S ...
in
Naha is the capital city of Okinawa Prefecture, the southernmost prefecture of Japan. As of 1 June 2019, the city has an estimated population of 317,405 and a population density of 7,939 persons per km2 (20,562 persons per sq. mi.). The total area is ...
, Okinawa. Together with anthropologist Ippei Shimamura, he also conducted fieldwork among the indigenous female ''yuta '' (mediums/shamans in
Ryukyuan religion The Ryukyuan religion (琉球信仰), Ryūkyū Shintō (琉球神道), Nirai Kanai Shinkō (ニライカナイ信仰), or Utaki Shinkō (御嶽信仰) is the indigenous belief system of the Ryukyu Islands. While specific legends and traditions ...
) on Okinawa in the
Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yonagun ...
and the ascetic monastic ''yamabushi'' / ''shugenja'' community on Mount Omine in
Nara Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the northwest, Wakayama ...
who practice the form of
Esoteric Buddhism Vajrayāna ( sa, वज्रयान, "thunderbolt vehicle", "diamond vehicle", or "indestructible vehicle"), along with Mantrayāna, Guhyamantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, are names referring t ...
known as Shugendo. While at the Ominesan-ji temple they observed a ''goma'' fire ritual involving the ritual invocation of Fudō Myōō 不動明王. In June 2018, Noll was appointed honorary visiting professor at the University of Shiga Prefecture in Hikone, Japan.


Carl Gustav Jung scholarship

In February 1995 Noll, received an award for best professional/scholarly book in psychology published in 1994 from the
Association of American Publishers The Association of American Publishers (AAP) is the national trade association of the American book publishing industry. AAP lobbies for book, journal, and education publishers in the United States. AAP members include most of the major commercial ...
for his book, ''The Jung Cult: Origins of a Charismatic Movement''. The resulting controversy over the book made front-page headlines worldwide, including a front-page report in the 3 June 1995 issue of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''.
Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial s ...
submitted ''The Jung Cult'' to the
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had ma ...
competition that year, without success. The background to the controversy over Noll's research on Jung can be found in the "Preface of the New Edition" of ''The Jung Cult'' published in paperback by Free Press Paperbacks in 1997 and in an article he wrote for a Random House, Inc., promotional publication, ''At Random,'' in that same year. An August 2016 interview with Noll added new details. At the urging of the Jung family and estate, Princeton University Press cancelled the publication of a second book edited by Noll which had already made it into final page proofs form, ''Mysteria: Jung and the Ancient Mysteries: Selections from the Writings of C.G. Jung'' (). A pdf of the page proofs containing only Noll's contributions to the book is available online. A summary of his controversial conclusions was outlined in a short piece in ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' on 22 November 1996. Noll also summarized his views in a 7 October 1997 interview by Terry Gross on NPR's "Fresh Air." The full broadcast is available on the NPR website. In his intellectual history of the 20th century, historian Peter Watson noted that " oll'sbooks provoked a controversy no less bitter than the one over Freud . . . ."
Frederick Crews Frederick Campbell Crews (born 20 February 1933) is an American essayist and literary critic. Professor emeritus of English at the University of California, Berkeley, Crews is the author of numerous books, including ''The Tragedy of Manners: ...
lauded ''The Jung Cult'' as "an important study." Noll was praised for his "groundbreaking analyses" of Jung's life and work by cultural historian
Wouter Hanegraaff Wouter Jacobus Hanegraaff (born 10 April 1961) is full professor of History of Hermetic Philosophy and related currents at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He served as the first president of the European Society for the Study of ...
in his comprehensive 1996 study of New Age religion. In a recent work, noting the absence of any reference to Noll's scholarship on Jung in the publications of prominent Jung historians in the decade after the backlash to Noll ended after 2005, Hanegraaff remarked, "Unfortunately, Noll's historical scholarship is simply discarded along with the 'cult' thesis . . . ." This absence has also been noted by other critics of Noll's work. According to an article by Sara Corbett, "The Holy Grail of the Unconscious," published in ''The New York Times Magazine'' on Sunday, 20 September 2009, the Jung family's fear of "the specter of Richard Noll" was cited as a contributing factor in the decision to allow Jung's "Red Book" to be edited and published by W.W. Norton in October 2009. The most significant academic criticism of Noll's scholarship and conclusions came from the historian of psychology
Sonu Shamdasani Sonu Shamdasani (born 1962) is a London-based author, editor in chief, and professor at University College London. His research and writings focus on Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961), and cover the history of psychiatry and psychology from the mid-n ...
. In his 1998 book ''Cult Fictions,'' Shamdasani disputed the attribution and interpretation of a central item of documentary evidence adduced by Noll, and also challenged the claim that Jung established a 'cult'. However, documents deposited by Noll in 2014 in the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology in Akron, Ohio, reveal that prior to the publication of Noll's book in September 1994 Shamdasani and John Kerr held nearly identical views to Noll's concerning the cult hypothesis, the importance of Jung's deification experiences, and the interpretation of the contested document as authored by Jung. Shamdasani's letter to Noll of 29 July 1992 and Princeton University Press editor Eric Rohmann's fax to Shamdasani dated 11 March 1994 in the Cummings archives document this. Both Shamdasani and Kerr pressured Noll and the editors of Princeton University Press to remove the document prior to the publication of the book. "We cannot ask Richard to remove this document simply because you have also read it and interpreted it as being what Richard presents it as, i.e., the inaugural address at the Zurich Psychological Club," wrote Rohmann to Shamdasani. Having lost this battle, Shamdasani later argued that the document was actually authored by Jung's associate Maria Molzer. However, Noll himself had previously raised this as a possible alternative interpretation. In a letter to Noll from Shamdasani dated 29 July 1992, which resides in the collections of the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology in Akron, Ohio, Shamdasani wrote: " . . . in focusing on the deification experience and the forming of a cult, you are more right than you realise." This quote was referenced without full citation in a book by historian of religion Carrie B. Dohe. In a book review published on 17 January 2020 in the
Los Angeles Review of Books The ''Los Angeles Review of Books'' (''LARB'' is a literary review magazine covering the national and international book scenes. A preview version launched on Tumblr in April 2011, and the official website followed one year later in April 2012. ...
classicist Gregory Shaw credited Noll for being the first to document in 1994 that Jung's concept of "individuation" was actually a recipe for "deification." Further critics emerged among Jung's family, Jungian analysts and others who were self-identified Jungians. Franz Jung, the son of C.G. Jung, reportedly told a German journalist that Noll's work was ''"Mist"'' (bullshit). In 1999
Anthony Stevens (Jungian analyst) Anthony Stevens (born 27 March 1933) is a Jungian analyst, psychiatrist and prolific writer of books and articles on psychotherapy, evolutionary psychiatry and the scientific implications of Jung's theory of archetypes. A graduate of Oxford Uni ...
added an "Afterword" to the second edition of his book, ''On Jung,'' entitled "Jung's Adversary: Richard Noll." Using the term "adversary" as an allusion to the Biblical "Satan," Stevens wrote that it was necessary to counter "the gravest of Richard Noll's charges" because, "I believe . . . he has been so effective in promoting his ideas that there is a danger that they will enter public consciousness as received wisdom" and tarnish "Jung's memory" and "the whole tradition of psychotherapy practiced in his name." In a video of a 2014 classroom lecture on Jung posted on YouTube, University of Toronto professor and clinical psychologist
Jordan Peterson Jordan Bernt Peterson (born 12 June 1962) is a Canadian media personality, clinical psychologist, author, and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. He began to receive widespread attention as a public intellectual in the late 2010s ...
characterized Noll as "crooked." He also accused Noll of deliberately using "Nazi imagery" on the cover of his books to gain "economic utility,". In a 1998 interview Jungian analyst and "archetypal psychologist"
James Hillman James Hillman (April 12, 1926 – October 27, 2011) was an American psychologist. He studied at, and then guided studies for, the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich. He founded a movement toward archetypal psychology and retired into private pract ...
was asked by interviewer Cliff Bostock what he thought of Noll's books on Jung. "I hate them," Hillman replied. "I think he's a shit."


Criticism of American Psychiatry during the "Satanic Ritual Abuse" moral panic of the 1980s and 1990s

He was an early public critic of the American psychiatric profession's complicity in the
moral panic A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear, often an irrational one, that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue", usua ...
of the late 1980s and early 1990s concerning
Satanic ritual abuse The Satanic panic is a moral panic consisting of over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse (SRA, sometimes known as ritual abuse, ritualistic abuse, organized abuse, or sadistic ritual abuse) starting in the United States in th ...
. "Except for the work of very few mental-health professionals, such as psychologist Richard Noll and psychiatrists George K. Ganaway and Frank W. Putnam, what little psychiatric writing has emerged on survivors and their therapy has uncritically embraced the literal truth of survivors' claims." At the invitation of psychiatrist and researcher Frank Putnam, then the Chief of the Dissociative Disorders Unit at the
National Institute of Mental Health The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH, in turn, is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the prima ...
, Noll was one of four members on a plenary session panel that opened the 7th International Conference on Multiple Personality/Dissociative States in Chicago on 9 November 1990. In a ballroom filled with television cameras and more than 700 conference participants (including feminist intellectual
Gloria Steinem Gloria Marie Steinem (; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Steinem was a c ...
, who was a firm believer in the veracity of "recovered memories" of satanic ritual abuse) the members of the panel presented, for the first time in a public professional forum, a skeptical viewpoint concerning SRA reports. The panel cast doubt on the corroborating evidence for the thousands of claims from patients in treatment that they were recovering memories of childhood abuse at the hands of persons (often family members) who were members of satanic cults. Such satanic cults were claimed to be intergenerational in families and had been abusing and ritually sacrificing children in secret for almost 2000 years. When American psychiatrists published purported historical evidence supporting these beliefs in the peer-reviewed journal ''Dissociation'' in March 1989, Noll challenged their extraordinary claims in a subsequent issue. His December 1989 conclusion that SRA beliefs were "a modern version of (a) paranoid mass delusion -- and one in which all too many clinicians and law enforcement officials also share" was the first unambiguous skepticism of the moral panic to be published in a medical journal. It may have also been the first publication to explicitly link claims of recovered memory of satanic ritual abuse to claims of recovered memories of UFO abductions, the other cultural firestorm that was raging in American culture in the late 1980s. Noll continued his public skepticism elsewhere. Noll's 1990 panel presentation was an elaboration of this earlier published critique. Other members of the 1990 conference panel were anthropologist Sherrill Mulhern and psychiatrist George Ganaway. Noll's participation on the panel was viewed by SRA believers as part of a deliberate disinformation campaign by Frank Putnam, who was skeptical of the reality of satanic cults. This set Putnam apart from other prominent American psychiatrists who were less critical, such as conference organizer Bennett G. Braun, a member of the Dissociative Disorders work group for the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual, ''DSM-III-R'' (1987). According to an account based on interviews, "conference attendees characterized (Noll) as a professional expendable who had no idea he was being used. Through him, they contended, Putnam could cast doubt on the contentious issue of linking MPD to ritual abuse." However, Noll's skeptical presentation did have an effect: "Mulhern and Noll cut a line through the therapeutic community. A minority joined them in refusing to believe sacrificial murder was going on; the majority still believed their patients' accounts." ''Psychiatric Times'' published Noll's memoir of the 1990 conference online on 6 December 2013. However, after a week online the article was removed by the editors without explanation. The backstory to this controversial editorial decision was explored in blog posts by the author Gary Greenberg and psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John "Mickey" Nardo. The PDF of the published article is available on the web. Prompted by Noll's article, psychiatrist
Allen Frances Allen J. Frances (born 2 October 1942) is an American psychiatrist. He is currently Professor and Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. He is best known for serving as cha ...
, who was editor-in-chief of DSM-IV (1994) and who led the DSM-IV Task Force during the height of the satanic ritual abuse moral panic, formally apologized for his public silence during that era and explained his reasons for keeping MPD (as
Dissociative Identity Disorder Dissociative identity disorder (DID), better known as multiple personality disorder or multiple personality syndrome, is a mental disorder characterized by the presence of at least two distinct and relatively enduring personality states. The di ...
) in DSM-IV despite his belief it was a purely iatrogenic idiom of distress.> On 19 March 2014 the ''Psychiatric Times'' reposted Noll's retracted article under a different title and with text deletions selected by the editors. Along with the article was commentaries by three American psychiatrists who were discussed in the article as well a response from Noll. Allen Frances added additional comments reproducing his blog posts from other websites. In April 2014 Douglas Misicko (alias Doug Mesner, alias Lucien Greaves), co-founder of the international nontheistic religion and political activist organization
The Satanic Temple The Satanic Temple, often abbreviated TST, is a nontheistic religious organization that is primarily based in the United States, with additional congregations in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Co-founded by Lucien Greaves, the ...
, published a lengthy article on his website ''Dysgenics'' in support of Noll's stance against mental health professionals who promote satanic cult conspiracies and the discredited "recovered memory" psychotherapy. Mesner's initial formation of
The Satanic Temple The Satanic Temple, often abbreviated TST, is a nontheistic religious organization that is primarily based in the United States, with additional congregations in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Co-founded by Lucien Greaves, the ...
on a Facebook page in 2013 was inspired by his longstanding public opposition to SRA proponents and the fact they continued to exist long after scientific and legal challenges had discredited their claims. Along with religion scholars
Massimo Introvigne Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955, in Rome) is an Italian Roman Catholic sociologist of religionJason Horowitz"A Clash of Worldviews as Pope Meets Putin" ''The New York Times'', July 4, 2019. and intellectual property attorney. He is a f ...
and Joseph Laycock, on 14 July 2018 Noll participated in a panel discussion entitled "Scholars Confront The Satanic Temple" at the Salem Art Gallery in Salem, Massachusetts, and publicly affirmed his strong support for the Grey Faction and The Protect Children Project initiatives of TST. The controversy drew to a close in August 2014 with two letters to the editors of ''Psychiatric Times'' in response to an article by psychologist and attorney Christopher Barden who sharply criticized Noll for failing to address the "repressed/recovered memory" controversy and the fact that legal challenges in the courts effectively ended the ability of mental health professionals to perpetuate the moral panic. In 2017 science writer
Mark Pendergrast Mark Pendergrast (born 1948) is an American independent scholar and author of fourteen books, including three children's books. His books are mainly non-fiction and cover a wide range of topics, most notably repressed memories. He is a voluntee ...
, alarmed by the persistence of "the myth of repressed memory" and the resurgence of "recovered memory therapy" and satanic ritual abuse claims, published two books that opened with the following quote from Noll's ''Psychiatric Times'' article of 2014: "As our medical schools and graduate programs fill with students who were born after 1989, we meet young mental health professionals-in-training who have no knowledge or living memory of the Satanic ritual abuse (SRA) moral panic of the 1980s and early 1990s. But perhaps they should. Cautionary tales may prevent the recurrence of pyrogenic cultural fantasies and the devastating clinical mistakes they inspire." In 2022 Noll wrote a more detailed memoir entitled "Satanists, Aliens and Me" in which he provided further reflections on the convergence of SRA claims and claims of "recovered memories" of UFO abductions during the 1980s and 1990s.


Anthropological fieldwork

In 1994 Richard Noll and his colleague from Ohio State University, anthropologist Kun SHI, explored Manchuria (just south of the Amur river, the natural border with Russian Siberia) and Inner Mongolia and interviewed the last living Tungus Siberian shamans who had openly practiced prior to being forced to abandon their nomadic life and spirits after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. All visual media, fieldwork notes and other supporting correspondence and documents from this project became part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution's
Human Studies Film Archives The Human Studies Film Archives (HSFA) is a sister archive to the National Anthropological Archives within the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. HSFA preserves and provides access to ethnographic films and anthropological moving ...
in October 2014. The story of the life, initiatory illnesses, and shamanic training of the last living shaman of the
Oroqen people The Oroqen people (; Mongolian: ; also spelt ''Orochen'' or ''Orochon'') are an ethnic group in northern China. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. The Oroqen people are largely concen ...
, Chuonnasuan (1927–2000), was published in 2004 in the ''Journal of Korean Religions'' and is also available online. Noll's photograph of Chuonnasuan appears as the fronticepiece in ' (Paris:
Découvertes Gallimard (, ; in United Kingdom: ''New Horizons'', in United States: ''Abrams Discoveries'') is an Collection (publishing), editorial collection of Book illustration, illustrated monographic books published by the Éditions Gallimard in Pocket edition, ...
[], 2011) by anthropologists Charles Stépanoff (l'École pratique des hautes études, Paris) and Thierry Zarcone (also EPHE [Sorbonne], Paris). A second published report of this fieldwork concerning the life and training of the Solon Ewenki shamaness Dula'r (Ao Yun Hua) (born 1920) appeared in the journal ''Shaman'' in 2007 (15: 167-174). The Wenner-Gren Foundation supported the fieldwork that produced these reports. The rationale for the research was provided in a 1985 article in ''Current Anthropology'' which examined the ethnographic literature on shamanism from the perspective of cognitive science. Tanya Luhrmann, the Watkins University Professor of Anthropology at Stanford University, lauded Noll's 1985 article as a novel turning point in the anthropological study of religion. In June 2017 Noll and Canadian psychologist Leonard George of
Capilano University Capilano University (CapU) is a teaching-focused public university based in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, located on the slopes of the North Shore Mountains, with programming that also serves the Sea-to-Sky Corridor and the Sunsh ...
conducted fieldwork in Mongolia and observed the practices of shamans and Buddhist lamas who follow the Tibetan (Vadrayana) tradition and practice visualization meditations. Their fieldwork was conducted in both the
Ulaanbaatar Ulaanbaatar (; mn, Улаанбаатар, , "Red Hero"), previously anglicized as Ulan Bator, is the capital and most populous city of Mongolia. It is the coldest capital city in the world, on average. The municipality is located in north c ...
area and near
Sainshand Sainshand ( mn, Сайншанд; ) is the capital of Dornogovi Province in Mongolia. It is located in the eastern Gobi desert steppe, on the Trans-Mongolian Railway. Administration The territory of Sainshand sum consists of 5 ''bags'' (commune ...
in the southeastern Gobi Desert in
Dornogovi Province Dornogovi ( mn, Дорноговь, ''East Gobi'') is one of the 21 aimags (provinces) of Mongolia. It is located in the southeast of the country, bordering PR China's autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. Dornogovi is located in the Gobi desert ...
. Both Noll and George delivered presentations to the Institute of Philosophy of the
Mongolian Academy of Sciences The Mongolian Academy of Sciences (, ''Mongol ulsyn Shinjlekh ukhaany Akademi'') is Mongolia's first centre of modern sciences. It came into being in 1921 when the government of newly independent Mongolia issued a resolution declaring the establi ...
in Ulaanbaatar at the invitation of Chuluunbaatar Gelegpil, Mongolia's Minister of Education and Culture. Video clips by Noll of the multi-hour summer solstice "fire ritual" for the Ulaan Tergel (literally "Red Disk") performed by Mongol shamans which was held out on the steppes 15 km from Ulaanbaatar on 21 June 2017 can be found on YouTube Noll and George were invited to this event by Jargalsaikhan, the head of the Mongolian Corporate Union of Shamans. According to the Austrian Mongolist
Walther Heissig Walther Heissig (December 5, 1913 – September 5, 2005) was an Austrian Mongolist. Life Heissig was born in Vienna. He studied prehistory, ethnology, historical geography, sinology and Mongolian in Berlin and Vienna, and got his doctoral degre ...
(1913–2005), this same "renewal of life" ritual is recorded in the earliest historical reports concerning the Mongols from the 11th and 12th centuries and was performed by
Genghis Khan ''Chinggis Khaan'' ͡ʃʰiŋɡɪs xaːŋbr />Mongol script: ''Chinggis Qa(gh)an/ Chinggis Khagan'' , birth_name = Temüjin , successor = Tolui (as regent)Ögedei Khan , spouse = , issue = , house = Borjigin , ...
(1162-1227): "A great festival of religious character was the 'Day of the Red Disk,' the summer solstice on the sixteenth day of the first month of summer." Noll was introduced to both the scholarly study and techniques of shamanism in the fall of 1980 by the anthropologist
Michael Harner Michael James Harner (April 27, 1929 – February 3, 2018) was an anthropologist, educator and author. His 1980 book, ''The Way of the Shaman: a Guide to Power and Healing,''Harner, Michael (1980) ''The Way of the Shaman''. San Francisco: Harper ...
, then a professor at the New School for Social Research in New York City. "Noll has trained with me firsthand in the classic shamanic methods," wrote Harner.


Dementia praecox and schizophrenia scholarship

Noll's most recent book, ''American Madness: The Rise and Fall of Dementia Praecox'', was published by Harvard University Press in October 2011. A brief interview with Noll appears on the Harvard University Press Blog (30 January 2012). In April 2012 it was announced that ''American Madness: The Rise and Fall of Dementia Praecox'' was the winner of the 2012 Cheiron Book Prize from Cheiron, International Society for the History of the Behavioral and Social Sciences. On September 13, 2012, ''American Madness: The Rise and Fall of Dementia Praecox'' won a 2012 BMA Medical Book Award - Highly Commended in Psychiatry from the
British Medical Association The British Medical Association (BMA) is a registered trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom. The association does not regulate or certify doctors, a responsibility which lies with the General Medical Council. The association's headqua ...
. In March 2013, ''Scientific American Mind'' incorporated findings from ''American Madness'' in its print and online "timeline" on the history of schizophrenia. A brief favorable review of the book, along with a photo of its cover, appeared in the 27 October 2011 issue of ''Nature.'' "Tales of personal drama enliven Noll's story in a way that few would imagine possible for a historical account of nosology," said a reviewer in the ''American Journal of Psychiatry.'' According to sociologist Andrew Scull in the ''Journal of American History,'' "Richard Noll's ''American Madness'' is an important book that deserves a wide readership among those interested in understanding the development of American psychiatry between 1896 and the 1930s." In a September 2012 review in ''Isis'' historian John C. Burnham noted, "It is clearly written and is based on a remarkably thorough literature search and reading of primary sources. . . . Noll's book will become a useful narrative for much of the modern history of psychiatry in the United States." He further added, "the research and thinking that went into this book make it refreshing and valuable."


Collaborative biomarkers research on schizophrenia research

Since 2011, Noll has occasionally collaborated with an interdisciplinary group of schizophrenia researchers at the Bahn Laboratory at the University of Cambridge (UK) and the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam (the Netherlands). Their research program seeks to identify valid biomarkers that might serve as molecular endophenotypes of schizophrenia and become the basis of a valid biological diagnostic test for psychosis and its developmental risk factors. Since April 2019, Noll has been an affiliate member of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU). He is currently researching the history of claims of biological/medical/psychiatric sequelae of CEII-physiological cases.


References


Bibliography (selected publications)

* 1983 Shamanism and schizophrenia: A state-specific approach to the "schizophrenia metaphor" of shamanic states. ''American Ethnologist'' 10: 443-459. * 1985 Mental imagery cultivation as a cultural phenomenon: The role of visions in shamanism. ''Current Anthropology'' 26:443-461 (with commentary). * 1989 What has really been learned about shamanism? ''Journal of Psychoactive Drugs'' 21: 47-50. * 1990 ''Bizarre Diseases of the Mind; Real-Life Cases of Rare Mental Illnesses, Vampirism, Possession, Split Personalities, and More''(New York: Berkeley), * 1992 ''Vampires, Werewolves and Demons: Twentieth Century Reports in the Psychiatric Literature''(New York: Brunner/Mazel), * 1994 ''The Jung Cult: Origins of a Charismatic Movement'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press), * 1997 ''The Aryan Christ: The Secret Life of Carl Jung'' (New York: Random House), full text:
The Aryan Christ: The secret life of Carl Jung
* 1997 ''The Jung Cult: Origins of a Charismatic Movement'' (paperback) (New York: Free Press), * 1997 "A Christ Named Carl Jung," ''At Random'' (ISSN 1062-0036),Volume 6, Number 3, 56-59. * 1999 Jung the ''Leontocephalus
992 Year 992 ( CMXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Worldwide * Winter – A superflare from the sun causes an Aurora Borealis, with visibility as fa ...
'' in Paul Bishop (ed.), ''Jung in Contexts: A Reader'' (Routledge)
RICHARD NOLL , PhD , DeSales University, Pennsylvania , Department of Social Sciences
* 1999 Styles of psychiatric practice, 1906-1925: Clinical evaluations of the same patient by James Jackson Putnam, Adolf Meyer, August Hoch, Emil Kraepelin and Smith Ely Jelliffe. ''History of Psychiatry'' 10: 145-189. * 2004 Historical review: Autointoxication and focal infection theories of dementia praecox. ''World Journal of Biological Psychiatry'' 5:66-72. * 2004 ''Dementia Praecox Studies'' (letter to the editor and historical note). ''Schizophrenia Research'' 68: 103-104. * 2006 The blood of the insane. ''History of Psychiatry'' 17: 395-418

* 2006 Haeckel, Ernst Heinrich. In ''Encyclopedia of Modern Europe: Europe 1789 to 1914--Encyclopedia of the Age of Industry and Empire, Volume 2'', edited by John Merriman and Jay Winter (New York: Thomas Gale). * 2007 (with Kun Shi) A Solon Ewenki shaman and her ''Abagaldai'' shaman mask. ''Shaman: Journal of the International Society for Shamanistic Research'' (Budapest, Hungary) 15: 37-44. * 2007 ''The Encyclopedia of Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders, third edition'' (New York: Facts-on-File), * 2009 (with Kun Shi) The last shaman of the Oroqen people of Northeast China. ''Shaman: Journal of the International Society for Shamanistic Research'' (Budapest, Hungary) 17 (1 and 2): 117-140. * 2011 Sabine Bahn, Richard Noll, Anthony Barnes, Emmanuel Schwarz, Paul C. Guest. Challenges of introducing new biomarker products for neuropsychiatric disorders into the market. ''International Review of Neurobiology'', 101:299-327. * 2011 ''American Madness: The Rise and Fall of Dementia Praecox'' (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011) * 2012 Whole body madness. ''Psychiatric Times'' (print), 29(12):13-14
Whole Body Madness
* 2013 The bed makes gestures. ''Psychiatric Times'' (print), 30 (3): 25
The Bed Makes Gestures
* 2013 Suffering and sadness are not diseases. ''Harvard University Press Blog'' (28 May 2013

* 2013 (Spring) Tribal epistemologies. ''Bio/Politics'
Biopolitics -
* 2013 When psychiatry battled the devil


"When Psychiatry Battled the Devil," Psychiatric Times (6 December 2013) and story of its retraction: http://retractionwatch.com/2014/02/13/psychiatric-times-retracts-essay-on-satanic-ritual-abuse/
* 2014 NJM van Beveren, E Schwartz, Richard Noll, PC Guest, C Meijer, L de Haan and Sabina Bahn. Evidence for disturbed insulin and growth hormone signaling as potential risk factors in the development of schizophrenia. ''Translational Psychiatry,'' 4, e430; doi:10.1038/tp.2014.52 * 2016 (with Kenneth S. Kendler) Images in Psychiatry: Edward Cowles (1837-1919). ''American Journal of Psychiatry'' 2016 (Oct.), 173 (10): 967-968. * 2017 Psychosis. In Greg Eghigian (ed.), ''The Routledge History of Madness and Mental Health''(London and New York: Routledge, 2017), 331-349. * 2017 (with Colin G. DeYoung and Kenneth S. Kendler) Images in Psychiatry: Thomas Verner Moore. ''American Journal of Psychiatry'' 2017 (Aug), 174 (8): 729-730. * 2018 Feeling and Smelling Psychosis: American Alienism, Psychiatry, Prodromes and the Limits of "Category Work." ''History of the Human Sciences'' 2018 (April), 31 (2): 22-41.


External links


Richard Noll

Richard Noll , DeSales University - Academia.edu
*
RICHARD NOLL , PhD , DeSales University, Pennsylvania , Department of Social Sciences

Richard Noll - Google Scholar Citations

Richard Noll (0000-0001-8771-9920)

The team

Richard Noll, Ph.D.
* Chuonnasuan (Meng Jin Fu) and the village life of the Oroqen were filmed in 1992 by Chinese state television. At the 25:10 mark in the documentary, Chuonnasuan is seen officiating at a funeral and tree burial as well as—briefly—reenacting a ritual in full shamanic dres

{{DEFAULTSORT:Noll, Richard 1959 births Living people American psychologists DeSales University faculty The New School alumni Writers from Phoenix, Arizona Harvard University faculty University of Arizona alumni