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Freedom, Resonance, Interaction. Critical Theory and Creative Relations Between the Psyche and the Social

  • This chapter introduces a psychosocial strand of thinking that offers a way to conceive of creative relations between the psyche and the world. Whereas much current psychosocial theory stresses how anxieties are managed by defending the self against the world or fuel subjection to oppressive social norms, the theories we engage with here point to ways in which anxieties can be employed in the urge to bridge inner longings and external realities. These ideas took form in the early Frankfurt School, which despite their comprehensive integration of psychoanalytic and social theory until recently has been comparatively marginalized in Anglophone Psychosocial Theory.– The chapter presents and discusses three notions: Erich Fromm’s Freedom, Hans Loewald’s Resonance, and Alfred Lorenzer’s Interaction. Even though different in emphasis and outlook, these notions contribute to a shared intellectual project, namely, to point to potentially productive and non-antagonist interactions between the psyche and society. They do so not by virtue of some resistant part of unspoiled nature residing in the body or in the mind, but by virtue of being able to point to the more or less life-enhancing and life-impeding forms this interaction of psychic energies and societal needs may take.– We argue that these theorists and their notions of freedom, resonance and interaction, contribute to further developing the materialist conception of the psychosocial in ways that appear specifically urgent today. They enable us to theorize tensions within current society, between dynamics that drive instrumentalization and reification on the one hand, and more life-enhancing and mutually enriching interactions between human beings, social structures, and natural environments on the other.

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Metadaten
Author:Helene Aarseth, et al.
Parent Title (English):Frosh, S., Vyrgioti, M., Walsh, J. (Eds.): The Palgrave Handbook of Psychosocial Studies, Cham (Palgrave Macmillan) 2023, pp. 1-20. [Online ISBN 978-3-030-61510-9] [doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61510-9_53-1]
Document Type:Articles
Language:English
Year of first Publication:2023
Release Date:2024/04/04
Format:to purchase via publisher
IdNo:Aarseth_H_et_al_2023
Writings about Erich Fromm (Secondary Literature):Articles / Artikel
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Articles / Artikel
Licence (German):
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