Optimal Marginality: Innovation and Orthodoxy in Fromm’s Revision of Psychoanalysis
- The sociological study of intellectual innovation has long been polarized between romantic notions of the creative marginal intellectual & competing accounts stressing the benefits of national, organizational, & network centrality in the production of knowledge. I offer the concept of >optimal marginality< as an attempt to move beyond this longstanding but increasingly stale debate. The relationship between a certain type of marginality & intellectual creativity is discussed in the context of a case study on innovation within psychoanalysis. German psychoana-lyst Erich Fromm's contributions to the modern revision of Freudian theory is high-lighted to illustrate the conditions under which marginality is likely to lead to innova-tions within theoretical systems & intellectual organizations. What types of margin-ality lead to innovation? Under what conditions does marginality lead to insight, & when does it lead to marginal ideas? Four ideal types are outlined & a research agenda is called for that operationalizes & tests these theoretical ideas in the con-text of comparative sociological analysis of intellectual creativity.
MetadatenAuthor: | Neil McLaughlin |
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Parent Title (English): | The Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 42 (No. 2, 2001), pp. 271-288. |
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Document Type: | Articles |
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Language: | English |
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Year of first Publication: | 2001 |
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Release Date: | 2012/12/13 |
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Format: | PDF-file to download |
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IdNo: | McLaughlin_N_2001a |
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Writings about Erich Fromm (Secondary Literature): | Articles / Artikel |
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Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive: | Articles / Artikel |
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Licence (German): | |
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