Pyschiana Man: A Mail-Order Prophet, His Followers, and the Power of Belief in Hard Times by Brandon R. Schrand (review)

This biography charts the life of Frank Bruce Robinson, a "wildly unreliable figure," and the rise and fall of his subscription mail-order spiritual system, Psychiana, headquartered in Moscow, Idaho, in the 1930s until Robinson's death in 1948 (p. ix). Psychiana repackaged popular New Thought and Christian Science philosophies and promised to put subscribers in touch with "God Power." Robinson harnessed the power of advertising to secure subscribers, lectured throughout the Pacific Northwest and in California, and, for a brief period, hosted a radio show. Robinson was a successful entrepreneur, whose system benefited a great many people by their own accounts, who was also a braggart prone to grandiosity and dishonesty. He created what Brandon R. Schrand calls in one chapter title a "faith factory" out of which employees, many of them women, sent out thousands of copies of Psychiana lessons, books, pamphlets, and other ephemera to national and international subscribers.

In sixty-one chapters, some less than a page in length, Schrand documents Psychiana and Robinson through an impressive array of archival and published materials, including two autobiographies (oddly seemingly both published in 1941), the writings of the very prolific Robinson, an unpublished family history by the subject's son, oral histories of Psychiana employees from the 1970s, and archival materials held at the Latah Historical Society and the University of Idaho. The latter included correspondence with followers, providing rich insights into the mail-order spiritual business from the perspectives of Robinson's followers.

Subscriber letters constitute the focus of many of the chapters. Schrand provides biographical information about their authors and quotes freely from their correspondence to showcase their interests in Psychiana. Schrand has carefully selected followers' letters to demonstrate their racial, gender, and socio-economic diversity, although without more data, it is unclear how diverse adherents were. Nonetheless, their letters present a unique opportunity to examine the role of spiritual practices in the lives of everyday Americans who often identified as Christians but also adopted spiritual practices outside of mainstream religion. Collectively, they sit at the intersection of mental and bodily health and self-help practices during a time when many Americans had inadequate access to traditional medicine, which often failed them when they did. Also revealed are desperation, hope, and a deep need to feel in control of one's circumstances during a tumultuous period in American history.

Schrand expected to find "disillusioned students writing in to voice their grievances and demanding their money back" in the surviving correspondence, but instead found that students were "faithful — ardently so" (p. xii). The question, then, is how to understand Robinson and Psychiana. Robinson was hounded by federal officials suspicious of his business. In 1937, the U.S. Immigration Service charged him after he lied about his place of birth on a passport application, which led to his deportation to Cuba, where he applied for a visa and quickly reentered the United States. The U.S. Postal Service also targeted Psychiana, even soliciting complaints from subscribers, many of whom wrote back in support of the system and of Robinson. Like other New Thought leaders who were similarly harassed, Robinson played up his persecution to his growing audience of followers.

Schrand deviates from the view of Psychiana's followers and aligns his with those of federal officials to decry Robinson as a charlatan and con. Robinson was surely a showman who twisted the truth about his background, borrowed heavily from other New Thought practitioners, and promised transformation to his followers. Yet, his teachings did transform the lives of many of his followers who found solace in them. While the specifics recounted here in great detail tend to suggest an unusual story of a conman, those he duped, and the officials who mostly unsuccessfully tried to stand in his way, the broad outlines of Psychiana parallel the teachings...