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Psychiana Man: A Mail-Order Prophet, His Followers, and the Power of Belief in Hard Times
"Psychiana creator and mass-marketing genius Frank Bruce Robinson's biography traces the flamboyant false prophet's improbable rise and fall during the Great Depression. The voices of his unwavering followers-from a desperate dust bowl farmer to a former heavyweight boxing champion-paint an intriguing, intimate view of the power of belief"--
- GenresHistory
414 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2021
About the author
Brandon R. Schrand
3 books15 followersBrandon R. Schrand is the author of The Enders Hotel: A Memoir (forthcoming University of Nebraska Press), which won the 2007 River Teeth Prize for Literary Nonfiction, and is a 2008 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers summer selection. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Dallas Morning News, The Utne Reader, Tin House, Shenandoah, Colorado Review, Green Mountains Review, River Teeth, Ecotone, Oklahoma Review, Isotope, and numerous other publications. He has won the Wallace Stegner Prize, the 2006 Willard R. Espy Award, two Pushcart Prize Special Mentions, and his essay, The Enders Hotel, the title piece from his memoir, was a notable essay in the Best American Essays 2007. He lives in Moscow, Idaho with his wife and two children where he coordinates the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Idaho. Visit him online at www.brandonrschrand.com.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 9, 2021
There’s a little something for just about everybody in this book. Brandon Schrand compiled copious research about the life and times of Frank Bruce Robinson, a man of tremendous hubris, ambition, and determination. The book is less about the rather perplexing “inclusive faith” of Psychiana than it is about the hubris of the man behind a New Thought belief system— “the dynamic power in the universe—the power of the living God.”
The book spans Robinson’s life, from his 1886 birth in England to his death in the small western town of Moscow, Idaho in 1948. Robinson lived through two world wars and countless personal failures and scandals. He lived large upon the world. Many chapters are devoted to Robinson’s followers, who are always referred to as students rather than followers or believers. These individuals, who responded to Robinson’s highly effective marketing strategies, came from all walks of life and from locales around the world. Though many lived impoverished lives, they scraped together and borrowed money to pay for Psychiana’s installment, mail-order lessons. Their precious payments funded Robinson’s extravagant lifestyle. Each student chapter provides a glimpse into the troubles these folks encountered, mostly the consequence of national political or financial instability or personal ill health. These chapters provide mini-history lessons about the politics and economic conditions of America and the world. The reader travels vicariously from the Carlisle Indian School to Alexandria, Egypt, and many places in between.
Flamboyant to a fault, Robinson spent his life never far from default. He slipped through serious federal legal battles that included mail and tax fraud, and lying on a passport application. Expecting Psychiana students to reveal evidence of wrong-doing, esteemed Postal Inspector Stephen Morse instead observed that they “doubled down in their devotion and loyalty to a man so many others considered to be a pathological liar and con artist.” Conniving swindler he may have been. Robinson was a master of not just mail-order marketing, but brilliant spin that turned the reality of a sinking ship into the idea of lost opportunity. But Robinson was also a thinker, a dreamer, a schemer, and no one worked more diligently or longer hours than he did.
Be prepared to laugh out loud, thrill to nail-biting drama, quicken with anger at the personal damage an egomaniac can inflict on people in their most desperate times of need. Schrand’s writing employs brief but soaring descriptive passages about both people and place and he develops clever similes and metaphors to keep his commentary interesting and flavorful.
To be honest, there were so many stories and they were so similar in arc, if different in setting and circumstance, I found myself skimming large chunks of text that added nothing new to the analysis of prophet Robinson. One entire chapter was devoted to another conman who had contacted Frank from prison. I never really grasped the importance of this chapter. But the short chapters contributed to a reasonably fast pace. I did enjoy reading about this shady character who played such a huge role in the economy of Moscow, Idaho for over 15 years, but whom I’d never heard of before.
The book spans Robinson’s life, from his 1886 birth in England to his death in the small western town of Moscow, Idaho in 1948. Robinson lived through two world wars and countless personal failures and scandals. He lived large upon the world. Many chapters are devoted to Robinson’s followers, who are always referred to as students rather than followers or believers. These individuals, who responded to Robinson’s highly effective marketing strategies, came from all walks of life and from locales around the world. Though many lived impoverished lives, they scraped together and borrowed money to pay for Psychiana’s installment, mail-order lessons. Their precious payments funded Robinson’s extravagant lifestyle. Each student chapter provides a glimpse into the troubles these folks encountered, mostly the consequence of national political or financial instability or personal ill health. These chapters provide mini-history lessons about the politics and economic conditions of America and the world. The reader travels vicariously from the Carlisle Indian School to Alexandria, Egypt, and many places in between.
Flamboyant to a fault, Robinson spent his life never far from default. He slipped through serious federal legal battles that included mail and tax fraud, and lying on a passport application. Expecting Psychiana students to reveal evidence of wrong-doing, esteemed Postal Inspector Stephen Morse instead observed that they “doubled down in their devotion and loyalty to a man so many others considered to be a pathological liar and con artist.” Conniving swindler he may have been. Robinson was a master of not just mail-order marketing, but brilliant spin that turned the reality of a sinking ship into the idea of lost opportunity. But Robinson was also a thinker, a dreamer, a schemer, and no one worked more diligently or longer hours than he did.
Be prepared to laugh out loud, thrill to nail-biting drama, quicken with anger at the personal damage an egomaniac can inflict on people in their most desperate times of need. Schrand’s writing employs brief but soaring descriptive passages about both people and place and he develops clever similes and metaphors to keep his commentary interesting and flavorful.
To be honest, there were so many stories and they were so similar in arc, if different in setting and circumstance, I found myself skimming large chunks of text that added nothing new to the analysis of prophet Robinson. One entire chapter was devoted to another conman who had contacted Frank from prison. I never really grasped the importance of this chapter. But the short chapters contributed to a reasonably fast pace. I did enjoy reading about this shady character who played such a huge role in the economy of Moscow, Idaho for over 15 years, but whom I’d never heard of before.
Displaying 1 of 1 review