Editing Magic (supernatural) (section)

=====Emotionalist approach=====
{{Further|Magical thinking|Psychological theories of magic}}
The emotionalist approach to magic is associated with the English anthropologist [[Robert Ranulph Marett]], the Austrian [[Sigmund Freud]], and the Polish anthropologist [[Bronisław Malinowski]].{{sfn|Cunningham|1999|p=23}}

Marett viewed magic as a response to stress.{{sfn|Cunningham|1999|p=24}} In a 1904 article, he argued that magic was a cathartic or stimulating practice designed to relieve feelings of tension.{{sfn|Cunningham|1999|p=24}} As his thought developed, he increasingly rejected the idea of a division between magic and religion and began to use the term "[[magico-religious]]" to describe the early development of both.{{sfn|Cunningham|1999|p=24}} Malinowski similarly understood magic to Marett, tackling the issue in a 1925 article.{{sfn|Cunningham|1999|pp=28–29}} He rejected Frazer's evolutionary hypothesis that magic was followed by religion and then science as a series of distinct stages in societal development, arguing that all three were present in each society.{{sfn|Cunningham|1999|p=29}} In his view, both magic and religion "arise and function in situations of emotional stress" although whereas religion is primarily expressive, magic is primarily practical.{{sfn|Cunningham|1999|p=29}} He therefore defined magic as "a practical art consisting of acts which are only means to a definite end expected to follow later on".{{sfn|Cunningham|1999|p=29}} For Malinowski, magical acts were to be carried out for a specific end, whereas religious ones were ends in themselves.{{sfn|Bailey|2006|p=4}} He for instance believed that fertility rituals were magical because they were carried out with the intention of meeting a specific need.{{sfn|Cunningham|1999|p=29}} As part of his [[Structural functionalism|functionalist]] approach, Malinowski saw magic not as irrational but as something that served a useful function, being sensible within the given social and environmental context.{{sfn|Davies|2012|p=22}}

[[File:Sigmund Freud, by Max Halberstadt (cropped).jpg|upright|thumb|Ideas about magic were also promoted by Sigmund Freud.]]
The term magic was used liberally by Freud.{{sfn|Davies|2012|p=61}} He also saw magic as emerging from human emotion but interpreted it very differently to Marett.{{sfn|Cunningham|1999|p=25}}
Freud explains that "the associated theory of magic merely explains the paths along which magic proceeds; it does not explain its true essence, namely the misunderstanding which leads it to replace the laws of nature by psychological ones".{{sfn|Freud|Strachey|1950|p=83}} Freud emphasizes that what led primitive men to come up with magic is the power of wishes: "His wishes are accompanied by a motor impulse, the will, which is later destined to alter the whole face of the earth to satisfy his wishes. This motor impulse is at first employed to give a representation of the satisfying situation in such a way that it becomes possible to experience the satisfaction by means of what might be described as motor [[hallucination]]s. This kind of representation of a satisfied wish is quite comparable to children's play, which succeeds their earlier purely sensory technique of satisfaction. [...] As time goes on, the psychological accent shifts from the ''motives'' for the magical act on to the ''measures'' by which it is carried out—that is, on to the act itself. [...] It thus comes to appear as though it is the magical act itself which, owing to its similarity with the desired result, alone determines the occurrence of that result."{{sfn|Freud|Strachey|1950|p=84}}

In the early 1960s, the anthropologists Murray and [[Rosalie Wax]] put forward the argument that scholars should look at the magical worldview of a given society on its own terms rather than trying to rationalize it in terms of Western ideas about scientific knowledge.{{sfn|Davies|2012|pp=25–26}} Their ideas were heavily criticised by other anthropologists, who argued that they had set up a [[false dichotomy]] between non-magical Western worldviews and magical non-Western worldviews.{{sfn|Davies|2012|p=26}} The concept of the magical worldview nevertheless gained widespread use in history, folkloristics, philosophy, cultural theory, and psychology.{{sfn|Davies|2012|p=27}} The notion of [[magical thinking]] has also been utilised by various psychologists.{{sfn|Davies|2012|p=107}} In the 1920s, the psychologist [[Jean Piaget]] used the concept as part of his argument that children were unable to clearly differentiate between the mental and the physical.{{sfn|Davies|2012|p=107}} According to this perspective, children begin to abandon their magical thinking between the ages of six and nine.{{sfn|Davies|2012|p=107}}

According to [[Stanley Tambiah]], magic, science, and religion all have their own "quality of rationality", and have been influenced by politics and ideology.{{sfn|Tambiah|1991|p=2}} As opposed to religion, Tambiah suggests that mankind has a much more personal control over events. Science, according to Tambiah, is "a system of behavior by which man acquires mastery of the environment."{{sfn|Tambiah|1991|p=8}}