During the ‘long’ nineteenth century in the Ottoman Empire, particularly the Second Constitutional Era (1908 – 1918), Ottoman intellectuals articulated a variety of ideas on the definition, nature, and use of psychology parallel with the transformations in cultural, political and social milieu. As Ottoman intellectuals envisioned a comprehensive social transformation, and discussed the limits of modernization as well as the role of religion in a future society, the components of human nature remained controversial. So did the use and nature of psychology. The opposition between materialism and spiritualism, mechanistic view of human nature as well as the approaches towards emotions and soul constituted the backbones of the controversy. This paper is concerned with the discourses on mechanistic view of human nature and mind training in the Ottoman Empire from 1908 to 1923. Broadly it aims to gain an insight into the relationship between science and religion within the context of Ottoman modernization. In order to do that, it will study the conflict and the midways between materialism and spiritualism via early books and journal articles on psychology which enriched the discussions on human nature. It will discuss the questions as to what extent the emphasis on mechanistic view of human nature can be seen as an attempt at managing human minds and to what extent the literature on the soul and emotions can be seen as a critique to top-down modernization.