The crazy scientist? – The interest of Frederik van Eeden (1860-1932) in spiritism and psychical research

Frederik van Eeden (1860-1932) does not immediately conjure up the image of an outsider. As a writer, he was one of the famous Tachtigern, he was one of the founders of the Nieuwe Gids and his books such as De kleine Johannes (1884) and Van de koele meeren des doods (1900) are still of great interest today. But he was also a physician and psychiatrist. While working on his thesis in Paris, he came into contact with Georges Debove, an internist who experimented with hypnosis. This impressed Van Eeden more than the feeding of delirium tremens, which was to be the subject of his thesis. The remarkable hypnotic phenomena led him into the realm of what is often considered a somewhat darker side of his intellectual activities: his interest in spiritism and the resulting investigations labelled ‘psychical research’ or parapsychology.

Van Eeden can be considered the most important Dutch pioneer of parapsychology. He was one of the first Dutch intellectuals to become actively involved in the investigation of spiritism phenomena such as spirit perception and mind reading. Van Eeden's interest in these phenomena caused many problems for his biographer Jan Fontijn. Although he was still willing to forgive Van Eeden his critical interest in spiritism in the early period of his life, he was disappointed by the uncritical attitude of Van Eeden's son after his death in 1913.

Van Eeden's interest in the supernatural can be well understood in a broader cultural context and in the light of his philosophical views on science.

Multifaceted representative of the fin de siècle (end of the century)

His interest in spiritism and ‘supernatural’ research was only one of Van Eeden's many interests. He was not only a famous writer, but also a pioneer in the field of psychotherapy when he opened a practice for hypnosis treatments together with the general practitioner Albert Willem van Renterghem in 1887. Van Eeden left the practice in 1893 and thereafter devoted himself increasingly to philosophical and socio-critical projects, such as the founding of the utopian farming community Walden. Later, Van Eeden was one of the first in the Netherlands to actively engage in psychoanalysis. Frederik van Eeden's ideas and efforts were not without controversy even in his own time.

His literary work was much criticised, especially by Albert Verwey, his somewhat mundane Walden colony was frowned upon by outsiders, and his philosophical ideas about the human mind were not always taken seriously. However, thanks to his numerous essays and lectures and his ability to bring people together, Van Eeden became part of the intellectual elite in the Netherlands and beyond. In 1912 he founded the Forte Circle in Berlin, a society with the aim of forming a "World Council of the Wise", whose members included the philosopher Erich Gutkind, the businessman Walther Rathenau and the writer Henri Borel.

His circle of signifiers, founded in 1918, included leading Dutch scientists such as the mathematician Bertus Brouwer and the linguist Jacobus van Ginneken. Because of his eclecticism, historians consider Van Eeden alone to personify the entire Dutch fin de siècle. Whether it was the vegetarianism or antivivisectionism that emerged during this period, the relationship between theosophy and art in the late 19th and early 20th century or the interaction between literature and science, Frederik van Eeden was involved. His biographer Fontijn describes van Eeden as the prototype of the fin-de-siècle man, and rightly so.

Frederik van Eeden as a spiritist

Unlike his activities for Walden or the practice of hypnosis with Van Renterghem, Van Eeden was not so much concerned with spiritism and ‘psychical’ research in a practical or institutional sense. Although he was repeatedly asked to direct research on spiritism in the Netherlands, Van Eeden did not consider it necessary. He was mainly interested in the theoretical and philosophical implications of spiritism phenomena. Van Eeden gave several lectures and wrote several essays on the usefulness and importance of spiritism and ‘psychical’ research. When working with his patients, he recorded the paranormal phenomena they talked about and conducted experiments on them. He also investigated internationally known mediums.

In January 1890, Van Eeden and Van Renterghem held a spiritism séance with the medium Anna Eva Fay in their practice. This spiritism séance can be considered the first Dutch parapsychological research. He investigated whether Miss Fay was really able to move objects with her spirit at a distance. This experiment was an exact replica of the remarkably successful research carried out by the well-known British physicist William Crookes in 1875, but the 1890 experiment was not a success. The report of Charles van Deventer - then assistant to the famous chemist Jacobus Henricus van ‘t Hoff - concluded: ’The repetition of such a spiritism séance is not to be recommended.

In 1901, Van Eeden travelled to Britain to investigate the performances of the medium Thompson. In his successful spiritism séances with Thompson, Van Eeden agreed with her that they would meet in dreams after his return to the Netherlands. Van Eeden was very interested in dreams from a very young age. He kept diaries of his dreams and was determined to publish a comprehensive study of them. His interest in spiritism and ‘supernatural’ research is also reflected in his literary work, for example in Lied van schijn en wezen (1895), but also in De nachtbruid (1909). From 1915 to 1922, Van Eeden belonged to various spiritism circles in the Netherlands, which made communication with Fontijn particularly difficult.

In view of his prominent position in fin de siècle historiography and the continuing literary appreciation of his novels, it is difficult at first glance to recognise Frederik van Eeden as a ‘black sheep’. However, he devoted himself to spiritism and ‘psychical’ research, which later historians long regarded as aberrant. Fontijn believes that Van Eeden lost himself completely in absurd spiritism practices from 1913 onwards, which was a harbinger of a general spiritual decline. However, from the moment Van Eeden took his doctorate, he became interested in the supernatural. Therefore, a possible insanity in his later life is not enough to understand his devotion to spiritism practices.

There is no doubt that the death of his son further attracted Van Eeden to spiritism, but this only added a subjective dimension to what he was already rationally and scientifically convinced of: the fact that ‘everything’ is ultimately ‘spirit’. Van Eeden thus took a stand against materialistic science and the fearful image of a cold and disenchanted world that went with it. Van Eeden was not alone in this endeavour, at least internationally.

At the same time, (natural) science was achieving great successes, but at the same time, in the eyes of many, it seemed to be moving further and further away from the essence, the secret of life itself. This is where Van Eeden and his colleagues saw a task for the science of the soul, psychology. Such a science would ultimately prove the superiority and immortality of the spirit and thus even contribute to a better world. Research into supernatural phenomena had to be taken seriously. Van Eeden's interest in spiritism and ‘psychical’ research in the late 19th and early 20th century shows that ideas about what can or should be studied scientifically changed over time. Van Eeden's interest in psychology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries demonstrates that ideas about what can or should be studied scientifically changed over time.