Marcello Haugen

Abstract

This article focuses on the well-known clairvoyant Marcello Haugen (1878–1967), who from the early 20th century until his death built a significant practice as an advisor, folk healer, and naturopath. Haugen’s entry into the public sphere coincided with a period of major cultural and technological transformation. The rise of newspapers as a mass medium in the decades preceding Haugen’s career reshaped the medical marketplace and enabled his meteoric rise as a miracle doctor. The article shows how the press portrayed Haugen as a highly versatile and multifaceted figure. In many ways, he served as a transitional character as he continued a centuries-old tradition of folk medicine while also drawing on new intellectual currents, including naturopathy and alternative medical approaches. Haugen skillfully leveraged this duality in crafting his public persona as an exceptional healer. The ana­lysis is based on a close reading of early 20th-century Norwegian newspaper coverage of Haugen and examines how he adapted himself to journalistic formats and news values, and how this shaped his public authority. Using Haugen as a case study, the article sheds light on a largely neglected aspect of the cultural and medical history of alternative healing practices and challenges the prevailing assumption that media-created folk healers are a recent phenomenon tied to the mediatization of society from around 1970 onward.