The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser (1812?-1833): A Psychosocial Approach

Abstract

Starting from a historical-cultural approach in Psychology, this work analyzes the development of Kaspar Hauser, a real and enigmatic character that didn't know how to speak, nor to walk and didn't behave as a human being when he was found in Nuremberg, in 1928, at supposedly age 15. Still today, his enigma remains: in spite of a lot of hypotheses and suspicions we have not yet discovered its origins. Leaning on studies of Vygotsky and Luria, which indicate that the perception depends, above all, on the social practice which is necessary to produce the cultural reference for the apprehension of reality, the author analyzes how language and thought are articulated in Kaspar Hauser's cognitive development and how he conceives the world that surrounds him, having been deprived from the filters and cultural stereotypes that stipulate the perception and knowledge.