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- 2023 (189) (remove)
What is the real experience of war? How does our mind react to the sudden threats and losses of our lives, homes, and beloved objects? What understandings can it offer to make sense of the atrocities it witnesses? What adjustments can we carry out in these circumstances? Two colleagues from Kharkiv, Ukraine, and affiliated to the Ukrainian Psychoanalytic Study Group and the Institute of the Ukrainian Psychoanalytic Study Group help us to shed light on these questions by sharing their personal experience and understandings of the current war that started on February 24, 2022 when the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine. This contribution aims to report their voices and the emotional experience of encountering their stories in order to provide readers with an unsaturated and unmediated contact with at least some aspects of the reality of war.
Vita activa
(2023)
Vertrauen aufbauen
(2023)
Ungleichheit ist Unfreiheit – über Ueli Mäder. Lobrede zur Verleihung des Erich-Fromm-Preises
(2023)
Consulting has evolved significantly over the years. This is in response to the changing operating environment and the emerging needs of organizations. To enrich client-consultant relationships, this article explores the changing philosophical positions around consulting and some of the applied techniques to make consulting an instrument of help in organizations. To enhance understanding of the varying consulting approaches, the article covers consulting approaches from Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, Erich Fromm, and Patrick Trottier. The philosophical positions and insights from their work will support the emerging consultant in deepening transformational consulting. Through a review of the literature and reflecting on the author’s consulting practice, the article summarizes approaches to enhance transformational consulting. These approaches advance the humanistic paradigm and as such promotes the co-creation of solutions with the client system. The article positions the Use of Self and Action Research as fundamental to enriching consultants’ productive impact. In addition, the article highlights four strength-based models that enrich the design of client-centered solutions.
The author is primarily interested in violence in the form of joining Girard's persecution crowd. Thus, the text concerns violence not in the general sense as the use of force to break resistance, nor symbolic violence in the sense of Pierre Bourdieu, but in the sense of human disposition to retaliate and persecution – in other words, violence is analyzed here in terms similar to what Erich Fromm called malignant aggression – the tendency to destroy and gain unlimited control over other people and the world. In the text, the author radicalizes the question about the pedagogical context of violence, treating the tendency to hasty curricular and organizational changes (which often occur after events of escalating violence in schools), as well as the utilitarian search for effective preventive evidence-based measures, as illusions and part of the problem we face with violence. He recognizes that pedagogical reflection must go much deeper. He seeks knowledge about the sources of violence and the cultural formations that foster it in the works of the French anthropologist René Girard and the Czech philosopher Jan Patočka. The ideas of mimetic rivalry and the 20th century as war can give us insight into the phenomenon of violence and suggest the direction of educational transformation. The author conducts the analysis in several steps. After a critical introduction to the contemporary reaction of education to violence, he first outlines Girard's concept of the mimetic mechanism, then emphasizes three ideas present in it (with references to the nowadays): violence as an anthropological feature embedded in the human condition, unawareness of one's own violence and unanimity of the persecuting crowd. In the end, these three accents become the basis for the postulate of existential reorientation of education, based on Patočka's concept of forces of the day and the night.
The Work of Benign Aggression and Negativity Within a Frommian Framework. My Clinical Journey
(2023)
The characterisation of mass society in a society without God, as a mere mimetic, hypnotic and unstable phenomenon is clearly insufficient. For its rise, so cial, psychological and relational changes had to take place, both among people and between people and their environment. Many scholars in recent times who have tried to explain the phenomenon of mass society have undoubtedly linked it to individualism, especially to one of its characteristics that could be considered specifically modern: loneliness. The study entitled >The Spiral of Silence< is well known, in which Noelle-Neumann, taking up Tocqueville’s classic thesis, highlights the tremendous negative force – as a psychosocial agent – of individual behaviour in the face of social forces. As Erich Fromm forcefully points out: >Feeling completely isolated and lonely leads to mental disintegration, just as starvation leads to death<. The phenomenon of a worldwide pandemic has forced a rethinking of the concept of isolation and loneliness, theoretically displaced by virtual and telematic forms of communication. However, mimetic effects and mass behaviours have not disappeared with isolation, but have been transmuted into new psychological, behavioural and cognitive attitudes.
[Chinese abstract not available] The flourish development of scientific psychology in America was often understood as the necessary subsequence of the evolution of intellectual history in psychology, in which psychology separated itself from philosophy and gradually found its own scientific methods during the past centuries. However, as one of categories of culture, the history of psychology could not be understood without the considering of societies and people who live in it. According to Fromm’s social psychological studies, social change may form the social character of a given society, and the social character will initiate new thoughts or ideas which constitutes new culture and ideology. This new kind of culture and ideology will be easy to be accepted by the society, and solidify its social character in turn. So it will be interesting if we explore the process in which psychology in America committed to scientism from the perspective of social change and social character after World War II. There were a lot of changes after World War II in America society in terms of politics, economics, industrial structure, population, education, and belief. On the material level, America reached the so-called advanced industrial society and consumer society. On the mental level, the worship of knowledge gradually replaced the worship of god in America society. These changes formed the social character of America after World War II through pragmatism and individualism that were parts of American culture. The key trait of this kind of social character are one-dimensionality, pursuing of instrumental rationality, and individual priority. What this kind of social character looking forward in terms of psychology as a part of culture and ideology is the disenchantment of inner world, or we can say the secularization of mind, which will offer some kind of certainty for the working of American society.– World War II promoted the development of psychology on general, and also left abundant of problems for America society, such as psychic trauma of veteran, the need for mental health, how to avoid the reviving of totalitarianism, how the collective affect the behavior of individual, and how to train more scientists, professors, and engineers for America and finally win the competition with Soviet Union. All these needs from society led to the boom of clinical psychology, social psychology, developmental and educational psychology, and psychometrics in America. Not only the numbers of APA members and journals, but also the number of PHD in American psychology surged during three decades after World War II. The schools of psychology in America also changed during that time. New behaviorism declined after Hull and Skinner’s time due to its neglect of psyche. Psychoanalysis used to affect American psychology and evolved to ego psychology which could be seen as the product of Americanization. However, psychoanalysis was finally marginalized by scientific psychology in America because of the rise of evidence based medicine. The Third Force Psychology once made a noise in America, but it finally faded due to its attempt to connect psychology and philosophy again, and its complicated methods. It was cognitive psychology that became most popular and the main paradigm of American psychology. In a nutshell, the history of American psychology expressed its social character after World War II which called for the secularization of mind. The scientific psychology in America also plays its ideological role in maintaining the efficient work of American society in turn. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 7/2023]
[Chinese abstract not available] Starting from Fromm’s >freedom< theoretical system and based on Marx’s definition of the proletariat, Alice and Laura in >The Blind Assassin< are divided into proletarians objectified by the bourgeoisie. In the capitalist free market economy, Alice, as a representative of the proletariat, shifted her attitude towards freedom from >avoidance< to >pursuit<. Analyze the reasons for her self-awareness from passive avoidance to active pursuit of freedom in the context of the times, and come to the conclusion that in order to escape freedom, she tends towards authority and attachment. Although she can gain a sense of belonging, it also means the extinction of herself. Only by actively pursuing freedom can she truly achieve individual independence and integrity, and shape a healthy life. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 1/2024]
At the turn of the twentieth century, curiosity about paranormal events, in particular clairvoyance and telepathy through the state of hypnotic trance, spread widely throughout the Old World and the United States. The investigative interest in this field infected many psychoanalysts, including Freud. This paper intends to examine the pioneering articles which the creators of the psychoanalytical movement in Italy dedicated to this topic. A special place though rightly belongs to Emilio Servadio and to the founding father of Italian psychoanalysis, Edoardo Weiss. Weiss' experiences within the paranormal world are documented in a series of letters, some completely unpublished, which he exchanged with Paul Federn. The A. evaluates this correspondence, with the aim of transposing the discourse onto a theoretical level. Weiss' interpretations of his mediumistic experiences and Servadio's writings on telepathy and on paranormal dreams contains incredibly suggestive observations, which seemed to herald an expansion into the analytic field of the area of exchange between analyst and patient. They sensed some axioms which would only much later be theorised within the inter-subjective psychoanalysis and the field model.
We reflect on the concept of the setting in psychoanalysis, and how it has been radically reconsidered given the impact of the SARS-CoV-19 pandemic on human interactions and moving from face-to-face to online sessions. The rapidity of going from seeking interaction to a fear of possible contagion led some professionals to adopt a sudden change of setting. Although the concept of setting seems to come from the classical Freudian method, Freud never spoke about it explicitly, although it was subsequently developed from his writings. Only in the 1960s and 70s was the setting perceived as the very object of psychoanalytic exploration. Since the psyche in psychoanalysis is conceived as a spatially extended entity, this paper discusses the concepts of space and time (external setting) and the mental state of both the patient and analyst (internal setting). We investigate how these aspects have changed as a result of the use of technology. What changes have taken place at the perceptual level in the patient and analyst? What differences are there with respect to the presence/absence of the other’s body? We use our own reflections of our personal experiences of undergoing face-to-face and online sessions to reveal the differences between them.
The Courage of Disobedience
(2023)
Albert Camus, Emmanuel Levinas, Erich Fromm, Paulo Freire, and Mahatma Gandhi take issue, each in their own way, with the individualism and pessimism of Existentialist philosophy. They also question the ideological complacency and oversimplifications of social evolutionism. While these thinkers disagree on the role of God and rational thought in human affairs, they see courage as an important lever for resisting oppressive systems that undermine people’s freedom, their capacity for self-affirmation, their hopes for lasting peace, and their sense of humanity and ethical responsibility. The critical and progressive stance they take on the ravages of modern-day authoritarianism, colonialism, and imperialism is a world away from Hitler’s heinous call for the >courage of aggression< and the horrors that ensued.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main, in 1923, this book aims at shedding light on the archives of some of the key thinkers of Critical Theory of Society, also well known as >Frankfurt School<. To pay homage to this current of thought, this contributed volume aims to make the archives speak for themselves, to show the public the quantity of unpublished material still existing by the authors of the Critical Theory which are now in funds in different parts of the world (in Germany, in Italy, or in the United States), and to show that Critical Theory remains alive 100 years after its inception.– The volume starts by presenting the archives of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the thinkers who inspired Critical Theory, and the archives of the Institute for Social Research itself. Then it dedicates separate sections to the archives of Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Friedrich Pollock, Herbert Marcuse, Leo Löwenthal and Jürgen Habermas. The book is composed of chapters written by researchers and editors who worked in the different fonds, as well as chapters written by or interviews with researchers who were or are in charge of some of the archives, or who are especially familiar with the material.– The Archives of Critical Theory will be an invaluable tool for researchers in many disciplines working with Critical Theory of Society, such as Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science, Philosophy, History, Education, Law and Cultural Studies, among others. Readers will find information about the content of each archive and the history of its constitution. The various contributions present many ways in which the materials may be explored and explain how such explorations affected or may yet affect the state of the research.
The title of this article encapsulates an approach to the notion of the analytic field where the contributions of the Barangers and Bion converge, opening up new perspectives that the author began to explore together with Antonino Ferro in the late 1980s and early 1990s. While the explicit formulation of a bipersonal field model should be credited to the Barangers, it is perhaps less widely known that the term “field” also features in Bion’s writings, with a meaning that is often generic but occasionally bears more specific connotations: for example, when he assimilates the analytic situation into a multidimensional field. In the light of Bion’s theory of thinking, the unconscious dynamics of the analytic field is determined not only by crossed projective identifications, but also by the dream-work of the couple, resulting from the alpha-function of both subjects. Thus, the Barangers’ concept of bastions can be combined with that of functional aggregates (Bezoari and Ferro), understood as animated holograms allowing a shared representation of the ongoing emotional experiences.
Alienation is described as encompassing individual psychological states and types of social relationships. In the context of this study, individuals experience profound feelings of disconnection and estrangement (Kalekin-Fishman, 1998). The objective of this research was to elucidate the diverse causes of alienation depicted in the novel >The Boy in the Striped Pajamas<. Analyzing the reasons for alienation in this literary work could provide deeper insights into how war and human atrocities impact an individual's mental well-being. It also contributed to a more comprehensive understanding of the theme of alienation in literary research. The research employed a literature study approach with a psychological perspective, drawing on Erich Fromm's concept of alienation. The primary data source for this study was the novel >The Boy in the Striped Pajamas< by John Boyne, focusing on character dialogues and the author's narration within the story units. The novel, published on 5 January 2006, consists of 216 pages. To analyze the data, the researcher collected, reviewed, identified, organized, and drew conclusions from the gathered information. The findings of this research reveal various causes of alienation present in the characters of Bruno and Shmuel in the novel. These causes included alienation arising from interactions with other people, alienation resulting from societal factors, and alienation stemming from internal struggles within themselves. The exploration of these aspects shed light on the complex psychological impacts of alienation amidst the backdrop of war and its atrocities in the narrative of >The Boy in the Striped Pajamas<.
Because psychology lacks a comprehensive theory of subjectivity that accounts for the entanglement of the social, cultural, historical, interpersonal, and personal, relevant elements for a theory of subjectivity are identified and presented. An important dimension for a theory of subjectivity is the reality of living everyday life, which includes working, relating, as well as self-processes. However, traditional psychology, including philosophical psychology, has neglected the role of work in mental life. It is argued that it is insufficient to address interaction and relationality or internal processes in the development of a theory subjectivity. Using Hannah Arendt’s and Nancy Fraser’s distinctions, it is argued that political-philosophical reflections on work remain important for understanding subjectivity. Consequences for an approach that includes work in a theory of subjectivity are discussed.
[Chinese abstract not available] With the rapid development of the Internet and the widespread use of mobile devices, short video applications have become widely available on people’s smartphones, playing an important role in their daily lives. Currently, short video technology is constantly changing and gradually improving its functions, which has greatly enriched people’s daily life, and browsing short videos has become an important way of leisure for people, and the number of short videos has grown geometrically with users, however, short video technology has also produced alienation in this process. This article, based on Marxist humanist thought, Marcuse’s theory of technological alienation, and Fromm’s humanization of technology, delves deeply into the related issues of short video technology alienation and its governance, providing important theoretical guidance and practical reference for the development of short videos.– The specific performance of short video technology alienation is mainly in the following four aspects: First, the thinking alienation caused by short video algorithm recommendation technology, which is mainly reflected in the gradual reduction of people’s logical thinking ability, the weakening of rational judgment ability and the increasing instrumental rationality; second, the aesthetic alienation caused by short video beauty technology, mainly manifested by the objectification of self-aesthetics, the convergence of individual aesthetics and the increasing vulgarization of the mass aesthetic; thirdly, the alienation of values caused by short video rewarding technology is mainly reflected in the formation of wrong career and consumption views by diversified values, the enhancement of utilitarian values and the prevalence of egoistic values; finally, the alienation of self-presentation caused by following technology is mainly reflected in the entertainment and homogenization of self-presentation and the confusion of real self and ideal self. The causes of the problem of short video technology alienation can be attributed to three main aspects. Firstly, on the technological level, the flawed design of short video technology, including structural elements, and the uncertainty of the consequences of its application, have led to the occurrence of short video technology alienation. Secondly, on the subject level, the blind pursuit of profit by the design subject, the value of flow prioritization by the production subject, and the lack of rationality by the application subject have all contributed to the problem. Thirdly, on the social level, the undesirable effect of short video pan-entertainment, the imperfect moral education of short video technology and the unsound social supervision all lead to the alienation of short video technology to a certain extent.– This article analyzes and summarizes the problem of short video technology alienation through the method of literature analysis and the combination of theory and practice. The following measures are proposed: first, technical governance of short video technology alienation by establishing the concept of human-centered design, improving the algorithm recommendation technology system and forming an information filtering ecological environment; second, for individual governance, it is necessary to strengthen the unity of designer’s rights and obligations, promote the unity of author’s subjectivity and initiative, and encourage application users to rationally evaluate technology; third, in terms of social governance, the leading role of values should be improved, the moral education of short video technology should be strengthened, and the social regulation system should be improved. These measures are expected to promote the progress of short video technology and create a healthy short video environment. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 1/2024]
Stowo wstepne redaktora
(2023)
Some lineages and resources of Critical and Radical Humanist Work and Organizational Psychology
(2023)
Critical work and organizational psychology is developing on an international scale. Against the background of this evolving scientific field, in this extended version of my opening speech at the first International Conference on Critical and Radical Humanist Work and Organizational Psychology, held from 11th to 13th of July 2022 at the University of Innsbruck, I aim to address the following three questions: (1) What concepts may be relevant for critical work and organizational psychology in analyzing established „mainstream“ (i.e., hegemonic) conceptualizations within work and organizational psychology? (2) Cui bono, critical work and organizational psychology? – To what ethical foundations do (or can) representatives of critical work and organizational psychology refer to when they intend to criticize theory and practice in work and organizational psychology? (3) What do we know about work and organizations beyond domination, subjectification and social alienation? – About fractals of a humanist, socially sustainable economy. Preliminary answers to these questions and implications for the future of critical work and organizational psychology will be discussed.
While many psychosocial theorists have drawn on psychoanalysis to explore conscious and unconscious connections between the psychic and the social, most such efforts have been in the realm of >applied psychoanalysis,< that is, the exploration of unconscious process in group relations, institutions, cultures, historical eras. Few, but increasingly more psychosocial psychoanalytic writers are taking up how socially shaped unconscious processes emerge and are worked with in the clinic.– In this chapter, I review some of the psychosocial psychoanalytic theory that has informed clinical work, including the work of Fanon, Fromm, liberation psychologists, psychoanalytic feminist theorists, and critical race theorists. My focus is on how concepts that bridge the psychic and the social, without reducing one to the other, have found their way into clinical theory and practice.– The chapter surveys a few different conceptualizations of what is meant by clinical social psychoanalysis and then focuses more specifically on what I have called >normative unconscious processes,< my own attempt conceptually to bridge these domains. Extending Fromm’s concepts of social unconscious and social character, I argue that a properly psychosocial psychoanalysis must account for the ways that patients’ and therapists’ intersectional social locations (e.g., class, race, gender, sexuality), as they are lived and enacted within particular power relations and histories, unconsciously and consciously emerge in the clinic, at times reproducing, and at times countering what Fromm called the >pathology of normalcy.< Given the current conjuncture, particular attention will be paid to neoliberal subject formations as they are met with in the clinic. The chapter concludes with a review of recent clinical papers that offer ways to counter the reproduction of normative unconscious processes.
This study presents an overview of the development of the main psychoanalytic conceptions regarding safety, an aspect that has received increasing attention within the psychoanalytic literature. After describing the hypotheses of Sigmund Freud, Joseph Sandler, John Bowlby, and Harry Stack Sullivan, the study focuses on the ideas proposed by Joseph Weiss and on control-mastery theory (CMT), a cognitive-dynamic relational theory of mental functioning, psychopathology, and psychotherapy. Unlike other models, CMT stresses that human beings need to feel that both themselves and the people they love are safe; each person, however, may need something different to feel safe. Two clinical vignettes are used to illustrate how the therapist can understand, from the outset of the therapeutic process, how to help the patient feel safe, stressing the case-specific nature of the conditions of safety.
A modern demokráciák sem oldották meg az >én< szabadságá nak kérdését, sőt a demokratikus berendezkedésű társadalmakban kialakult a szabadság előli menekülésnek egy teljesen sajátos útja. Fromm meglátása szerint (s ennek érvénye ma még erősebb, mint a könyv megírásakor volt): ahelyett, hogy az egyén megőriz né énje integritását, és spontán módon reagálna környezetére, inkább >megszűnik önmaga len ni, s teljes mértékben a kulturális minták felkínálta személyiségmodellt teszi magáévá.<
Novel berjudul >Kisah yang Pilu untuk Kita yang Ragu< karya Boy Candra menceritakan perjuangan tokoh Salim dalam mengejar cinta Birni. Konflik Salim tersebut dipadukan dengan kehidupan sosial Salim dengan tokoh lain yang mewujudkan berbagai macam bentuk cinta. Hal tersebut menjadi daya tarik novel untuk dikaji menggunakan teori psikologi Erich Fromm. Psikologi sastra pada penelitian ini digunakan untuk mengkaji novel dengan teori psikologi Erich Fromm tentang cinta. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan kelima objek cinta menurut teori psikologi Erich Fromm yaitu cinta sesama, cinta ibu, cinta erotis, cinta diri dan cinta Tuhan yang terdapat di dalam Novel Kisah yang Pilu untuk Kita yang Ragu karya Boy Candra. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah kualitatif dengan pendekatan psikologi sastra. Teknik analisis pada penelian ini adalah deskriptif analisis. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa 1) cinta sesama merupakan wujud dari kepedulian para tokoh sebagai dasar cinta sesama umat manusia; 2) cinta ibu kepada Salim memiliki peran begitu besar pada kehidupannya sebagai seorang anak; 3) cinta erotis tidak selalu tentang sebuah penyatuan melainkan ada unsur kerelaan yang didasari cinta itu sendiri; 4) cinta diri merupakan mencintai diri sendiri dengan mengekspresikannya melalui tindakan perhatian, tanggung jawab, rasa hormat dan pengetahuan terhadap orang lain; 5) cinta Tuhan menggambarkan kepercayaan umat manusia kepada Tuhan yang Maha segalanya. Kelima objek cinta tersebut diwujudkan melalui tindakan para tokoh dalam novel >Kisah yang Pilu untuk Kita yang Ragu< Karya Boy Candra.
Abidah El Khalieqy dalam karyanya yang berjudul >Geni Jora< menampilkan bentuk rekonstruksi dominasi budaya patriarki yang telah mengubah paradigma terhadap stereotip yang selama ini memenjarakan perempuan dalam penjara dominasi budaya patriarki. Artikel ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji bentuk budaya patriarki dan bentuk rekonstruksi dominasi budaya patriarki melalui upaya pemenuhan kebutuhan dengan menggunakan kajian psikoanalisis Erich Fromm. Data dalam penelitian dianalisis dengan metode deskriptif. Berdasarkan hasil kajian, ditemukan bahwa bentuk budaya patriarki yang muncul dalam novel >Geni Jora< antara lain: (1) stereotip/pelabelan negatif, (2) kekerasan terhadap perempuan, dan (3) subordinasi. Tindakan Kejora untuk merekonstruksi dominasi budaya patriarki tersebut dilakukan dengan upaya pemenuhan kebutuhan yang terdiri dari dua pemenuhan menurut Erich Fromm, yaitu: (1) kebutuhan kebebasan dan keterikatan (keterhubungan, kesatuan, dan pencipta), dan (2) untuk memahami dan beraktivitas (kerangka orientasi dan keefektifan).
In diesem Artikel wird die Bedeutung Künstlicher Intelligenz (Kl) aus der Perspektive humanistischer Psychologie beleuchtet. Ein besonderer Fokus wird dabei auf das wegweisende Werk von Erich Fromm gelegt. Einleitend wird aufgezeigt, warum das Thema Kl in der Pflege sowohl aus einer pflegewissenschaftlichen als auch psychologischen Perspektive relevant ist. Im Anschluss werden zunächst kritische Perspektiven herausgearbeitet, die sich den Gefahren des verstärkten Einsatzes von Kl für Pflege und Gesellschaft widmen. Dabei wird auf möglich negative Folgen für die Pflege wie z. B. eine Veränderung normativer Standards und eine zunehmende De-Humanisierung hingewiesen. Allerdings kann Kl auch als ein Hoffnungsträger angesehen werden und Unterstützung für die lebenslange Identitätsarbeit von Menschen bieten. Chancen und Risiken für die Identitätsarbeit werden anhand eines Modells hinsichtlich der Dimensionen Authentizität/Kohärenz, Zugehörigkeit/Anerken-nung sowie Kontrolle/Autonomie diskutiert. Abschließend wird ein kurzes Resümee gezogen, in dem die Wichtigkeit betont wird, das sozialwissenschaftlich verankerte Wissen in politische Diskurse und Technikentwicklung einzubringen.
The best way to reconstruct the history of psychoanalytic ideas is to begin from the study not of theories, but of the various authors and their contexts. Important contributions to the study of the ego in Europe had already come from Ferenczi and Fenichel, well before Hartmann founded Ego Psychology (EP), which became mainstream in North America. In Europe, before World War II, significant contributions to what here is called >psychoanalytic ego psychology< (Pep) (contrasted with Hartmann’s EP) came from Anna Freud, Paul Federn, and Gustav Bally. After World War II, contributions came from Alexander Mitscherlich, Paul Parin, and Johannes Cremerius in the German-speaking community, and from Joseph Sandler in the UK. If this is the case, we should then talk of >ego psychologies< in the same way as we talk of the various object relations theories. Pep – as it was described in the guiding principles formulated by Fenichel in the 1930s – keeps informing the clinical work of many psychoanalysts, even if they are not fully aware of it. For example, it represents the basic ingredient of the empirically verifiable >psychoanalytic therapy< formulated in detail by Helmut Thomä and Horst Kächele.
The Institut für Psychoanalyse Zürich-Kreuzlingen (IfP) was founded as a working group in 1972. Its founder Norman Elrod graduated from the Carl-Gustav-Jung-Institute in Zurich and followed a politically and philosophically reflected psychoanalysis. In addition, he was engaged in the treatment of psychotic patients. Quite a few of his co-workers worked in the Psyichiatria Democratica in Italy as well as in institutions in Germany and Switzerland, where they also contributed greatly to psychoanalytically inspired multiprofessional care for severely ill individuals, including forensic patients.
During the lockdown, we, as analysts, had to face new situations, which disrupted our habitual mode of working and challenged our ability to adapt. I discovered that having a supportive relationship among colleagues became more important than ever. I will discuss the influence that the transition from in-presence sessions to the online modality during the pandemic has had on the therapeutic process and setting. The adoption of new relational working procedures instead of the usual in-person session has revived the centrality of those themes having to do with the body and sensoriality in psychoanalysis, including the possibility of recognizing and integrating dissociated embodied traumatic experiences, ones that are non-verbalized, and not able to be verbalized. I will outline a clinical case to detail the difficulties encountered in my clinical practice, in which the contingency strategy, based on working remotely, continued to guarantee that sense of security necessary to enable the possibility of dreaming together and freely exploring – introducing, however, within the relationship, aspects of Ferenczi and Rank’s >active technique,< which would not have occurred in person, and which certainly impacted the process in a different way, while always permitting the identification and assimilation of dissociated experiences.
This article, based on the author’s keynote speech at the first International Conference on Critical and Radical Humanist Work and Organizational Psychology at the University of Innsbruck, draws on radical humanist theorizing on human productivity and the >pathology of normalcy< in demon-strating the importance of the contribution of Erich Fromm as a basis for Critical Psychology . The sociologist and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm (1900-1980) developed a social psychological method, the special significance of which is that it explicitly captures unconscious motivations and impulses. This makes it possible to identify strivings and behaviors, as well as common values and thought patterns, which, from a humanistic perspective, represent socially patterned mental >defects<. Based on Fromm’s concept of social character, what is perceived as >normal< and >reasonable< in a given society can be exposed as a potential >pathology of normalcy<. After briefly outlining major con-cerns of the project of Critical Psychology, Erich Fromm's social-psychoanalytical approach is in-troduced. The following sections are dedicated to the significance of character formation for ex-plaining social behavior, social repression and socially patterned defects. Next, some indications will be given regarding the meaning of human productivity according to Erich Fromm. Subsequently, the pathogenic impacts of social character orientations will be illustrated based on the exemplary types of the authoritarian and the contemporary marketing social character. The article concludes with a short summary of Erich Fromm’s contribution to Critical Psychology.
Postawa kreatywna
(2023)
Politics, psychoanalysis, and large group identity (https://doi.org/10.1080/0803706X.2023.2234682)
(2023)
Since Freud's contributions, psychoanalysis has devoted attention to group phenomena in the field of politics. Volkan and Kernberg stand out today for providing conceptual tools for analyzing political reality. Politicians' work has historically included a share of group manipulation, but today a strong trend towards populism is emerging from the right and the left. This offers a unique opportunity to examine in detail how leaders often promote primitive group dynamics, close to borderline personality organizations. The war in Ukraine offers an opportunity for a psychoanalytic exploration of unconscious conflicts. Some leaders' biographies and actions may offer clues, as well as group phenomena that express the need to protect a valuable identity. The current situation has generated an identity crisis in Europe and beyond. Autocratic tendencies have become stronger and we have lost leaders who sustained a more adult, less primitive European identity. The possible solutions lie in the abandonment of infantile maximalist positions and the adoption of a painful, frustrating, slow – and healthy – integrative attitude, perceiving nuances and shades of gray, both in our own group and in that which we consider Other. Psychoanalysis has the responsibility to put its knowledge at the service of society, also in politics.
Poczucie bezsilności
(2023)
To understand contemporary forms of social organization it is not enough to know the geopolitics that currently pertain; it is also necessary to enter the field of micropolitics and, particularly, the affections and sensibility modes that sustain the construction of social ties. In this field, psychoanalysis provides fundamental contributions to understand both the possibilities of adherence to forms of government and sociability, and as well as the construction of emancipation projects that aim to transform them. Different affections and sensibility modes will differently build social and political life. In distinguishing the language of passion from the language of tenderness, Ferenczi did not intend to have a political discussion, but we can use these notions to think about the current possibilities of political coexistence. Tenderness is the child's form of sensitivity, but also that of relationships of solidarity through dispossession. In this sense, the language of tenderness refers to the notion of vulnerability theorized by Judith Butler. It is not about defending a puerility or naivety, but a force of non-violence that, when affirmed, creates the possibility of a less unequal, fairer political coexistence, especially in countries immersed in a culture of hate such as Brazil.
One of the many divisions of security exposed in the literature dealing with it is the ambivalent division into positive and negative security, which sometimes, somehow combined and mutually limiting, manifest themselves in normal and real security. Starting from this distinction, I develop their descriptions based on Erich Fromm’s explanations of a healthy, sick, and normal society. Simultaneously, I argue that sick societies pursue negative security by preferring war and destruction, while healthy societies pursue positive security by preferring love, peace, and creative activity. It is a preference based on striving, in the case of a healthy society and positive security, >to be<, as Fromm states, and in the case of a sick society and negative security, >to have<, and finally, in the case of normal security, to mutually limiting >to have< and >to be<. I deepen this description by referring to the thought of Bertrand Russell, in which positive and good security is defined >as one that should be by itself<, and negative and bad >as one that should not be by itself<. On the other hand, by bolding and broadening this description, I associate positive security (based on >to be<) with the concept of >civilisation of love<, >civilization of life<, and >civilization of brotherhood<, while negative security (embedded in >to have<) with >civilisation of killing<, >civilisation of overkilling<, and >civilisation of death<, and finally, normal security (embedded on mutually limiting >to be< and >to have<) with the liberal civilisation of security and control.
Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy have evolved deeply over the past half century. This paper shows some the changes I have witnessed in them, and the challenges we face in this change of era, at the edge of the first quarter of the twenty-first century. Some the challenges are examined: knowing how to transmit in our daily practice the essential relationality of the human being; the relational essence of the process of change through psychotherapy; and a review of our contribution to our institutions being genuinely relational, that is, that we take more care of the space that the Other can inhabit than of preserving our own. We need hope: the hope to change and (again) be people, in connection with others, regaining confidence and being able to be ourself (to be ourselves with others). That is the meaning of our activity, what it is to be a psychoanalyst/psychotherapist today.
The >Buddhist< culture itself, as a subculture, is usually characterized by the coexistence of rationality and sensibility and the coexistence of aggressiveness and anxiety. The choice of “Buddhist” life for college students is an escape to a certain extent. They leave their families and come to a relatively free university. A sense of loneliness and powerlessness is generated, which leads them to defend themselves to relieve pressure, thus the psychological phenomenon of >escape from freedom< appears. However, there is a certain pragmatism while escaping. This seemingly free and easy >Buddha system< Mentality actually has a negative impact on the subjective well-being of college students. In Fromm’s view, freedom has dual meanings. These college students who advertise as >Buddhist youth< are in the predicament of freedom. However, in reality, some college students choose to escape from negative freedom to overcome their inner loneliness. This paper analyzes this phenomenon based on Fromm’s >Escape from Freedom<, and attempts to propose a path to achieve positive freedom and help college students pursue positive freedom. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 4/2023]
On Fromm's Virtue Ethics
(2023)
Fromm’s ethics can be viewed as a form of virtue ethics, which emphasizes the importance of developing one’s true self and reducing one's false self. By doing so, one can change their psychological state in terms of character and psychological tendencies, leading to an improved moral life and higher moral standards. While some criticisms have been raised about virtue theory, including its perceived inability to guide one on how to act properly, Fromm's virtue ethics is unique in that it does not focus on establishing universal rules for specific actions. Instead, it seeks to establish universal laws for human behavioural tendencies or trends. Through his unique social psychology, Fromm provides an in-depth analysis of the inner world of man, which can serve as a valuable guide to the general direction of human development and freedom. In addition, Fromm’s virtue ethics also highlights the importance of social relationships and the impact they have on our moral development. He argues that our relationships with others can have a profound effect on our psychological state and our ability to live virtuously. Overall, Fromm’s virtue ethics provides a unique perspective on human development and morality. By focusing on the development of one’s true self and the importance of social relationships, his approach offers a valuable guide to living a fulfilling and virtuous life.
O poczuciu bezradności
(2023)
To maintain complex civilisation within planetary boundaries, we must secure a whole >system of systems< transformation of our activities. In this article, based on the lecture notes for my keynote speech at the International Conference on Critical and Radical Humanist Work and Organizational Psychology, I explore the ethical dimensions of making organisations that can help us improve our collective decision-making and at the same time become persons whose acting and being is consistent with the sustainability imperative. I outline a human capability for ethical organising which is directed towards making organisations that generate life-value, or those resources by which we cultivate the relational and material conditions for stewarding and sustaining all living beings and things. The >value of meaningfulness< and >mutuality as an organising principle< afford conversion factors for translating our general >will to form< into a human capability for ethically desirable organising. Meaningful work provides action contexts for people to discover, protect and develop values that matter to them. The moral value of meaningfulness is also productive for breaking into vicious cycles of corporate alienation that prevent the emergence of organisations as collective moral agents, characterised by integrity and empathy. I conclude that we need a fresh democratic dispensation – one that covers our associational life across all fields of endeavour.
Learning >in the Hive<: >Social Character< and Student Wellbeing in the Age of Psychometric Data
(2023)
Growing societal concern about a crisis in the wellbeing of young people has prompted a range of responses from governments and corporations, predicated on an ideal of the resilient, self-reliant individual. Behavioural economists, data scientists and educational technology companies now offer a variety of psychological interventions based on psychometric data, aimed at ‘equipping’ individual students with the necessary skills and character to enable them to withstand the pressures of contemporary life. As a consequence, the critical importance of mutually supportive interpersonal relationships continues to be neglected in mainstream approaches to Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). This article draws on Fromm’s theory of social character and Zuboff’s analysis of >life in the hive< to challenge the assumptions about human behaviour underpinning data science and its application in digital tools for social and emotional learning and self-managed wellbeing. To improve students’ wellbeing, we need to begin with an understanding of why they are more likely to thrive within a network of mutually supportive social relationships than a digital >hive<.
The aim of the research is to discover effective tools to support and educate caregivers in the face of difficult situations, including from an ethical point of view, such as moral distress. A literature review devoted to the link between moral behavior and neuroscience was performed. Subsequently, the main models of Coaching with Ethical purposes were studied, as a progressive detachment from the Coaching model linked to Performance. Once the affinities were established, a philological research was carried out among the main authors of Humanistic Ethics to identify the authentic roots of a Health Coaching aimed at defining the fundamental principles of an enhancement of Well-being.
While respecting the ontological assumption of the unconscious, the author systematically critiques the concept of the death drive. It clashes with the dictates of contemporary biology, disrupting communication between disciplines. In clinical application, the death drive as metaphor demonstrates little utility. It also invites reductionism, risking oversimplification of extremely complex phenomena like aggression. Perhaps most importantly, the construct places the entire psychoanalytic project, already in an existential crisis, in peril. The author briefly introduces a complex alternative view of aggression, driven solely by eros but involving many complicated intrapsychic, interpersonal, and sociocultural factors. He suggests the death drive, however thoughtfully utilized, hinders the forward movement of psychoanalysis for reasons of consilience, incommensurability, clinical utility, cross-disciplinary communication, and political survival.
This article explores the relevance of the life and works of Kiyoshi Miki (1897 – 1945), a Japanese philosopher, to Maslovian humanistic psychology. Although Miki and Maslow differ in many respects, they shared a few common points that are important to examine. In his early articles, Miki equated philosophy with confessions of the soul and argued that individuality was impossible within the traditional framework of logic. His first main work on Pascal’s anthropology was an attempt to assimilate and synthesize the German existential/hermeneutic and the French moralist traditions he had learned in Europe in the early 1920s. Despite pioneering works by Wilhelm Reich and Erich Fromm, humanistic psychology has not exhausted the potentialities of Marxism. Maslow and other intellectuals sympathetic to this materialist philosophy were mutually disappointed. However, Maslow’s enlightened or eupsychian management may be an important step toward social revolution, compensating for a missing psychological viewpoint in traditional Marxism. Miki’s hermeneutic approach to this ideology offers two important points relevant to humanistic psychology: his concept of basic experience – later called Pathos – as the basis of any ideology, and the distinction between dialectic and organicism. His last years, during the War and fascism, raise important questions regarding what talented, self-actualizing intellectuals can do without freedom of speech and expression under a totalitarian and authoritarian regime. Finally, this article addresses how well Miki’s concept of utopia – on which he wrote an essay in the context of a dark age—corresponds to Maslow’s idea of eupsychia.
The societal changes of the last century, especially in the aftermath of World War II, have led thinkers to imagine philosophical anthropology centered on the concept of hope. From very different perspectives, authors such as Ernst Bloch, Erich Fromm, and Hannah Arendt understood that hope is deeply connected with the condition and destiny of humanity. Various sociologists have developed concepts closely linked with hope: action, social change, utopia, revolution, emancipation, innovation, and trust. However, a coherent and systematic analysis is yet to emerge. Taking up the threads of this rich but fragmented reflection, this paper intends to outline the traits of a >sociology of hope< as a tool for critically interpreting today’s society and the processes of change crisscrossing it, starting from some crucial questions: Who are the actors and historical bearers of hope? What are the main socio-historical forms of hope? What social, political, and cultural conditions favors the emergence and strengthening of this disposition? What are the effects and consequences on personal and social life?
Intrucción
(2023)
Interpretation in a >personal< field perspective (https://doi.org/10.1080/0803706X.2023.2210270)
(2023)
This is a revision and expansion of a classic paper that was first delivered as a speech, in October 1994, for the 10th National Conference of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society, and then published as a chapter of the seminal book >Emozione e Interpretazione. Psicoanalisi del campo emotivo< [Emotion and interpretation. Psychoanalysis of the emotional field], edited in 1997 by Eugenio Gaburri.
In his work, Francesco Corrao has addressed cutting-edge themes developed in psychoanalysis between the 1960s and the 1980s. A contemporary re-reading of his writings offers a valuable opportunity to highlight central themes in today’s psychoanalysis, such as the epistemological approach to the reality of the unconscious, the theory of the drives, countertransference, new and different perspectives on the transference, the centrality of the Oedipus complex, and the way in which digital technology has affected both culture and psychoanalysis. It seems particularly noteworthy that, while on the one hand Corrao’s thinking preserves and integrates a part of the more recent contributions, on the other hand it provides a more solid redefinition of the fundamental elements of psychoanalysis, showing both the tensions that emerge from contemporary developments in psychoanalysis and culture, and a number of potential solutions.
Humanistische Transformation. Bericht von der 3. Internationalen Erich-Fromm-Forschungskonferenz
(2023)
Human Relationships and Mental Health. Insights and Findings from Erich Fromm’s time in Mexico
(2023)
Human and animal comes into this world without consent and will. But unlike animal, human endowed by The Creator with mind and imagination. This endowment make human should think about his existence in order to make a difference with animal. In this case, Fromm creates a theory to solve the dichotomy between human as human and human as animal, which popular with human needs theory. Erich Fromm postulate five human needs that consist of relatedness, rootedness, transcendence, sense of identity, and a frame of orientation. In this research, the researcher uses human needs theory to analyse the main character in Okky Madasari’s >The Years of the Voiceless< which aims to show Sumarni’s human needs and the way Sumarni fulfils her human needs. This study uses a psychology of literature approach by paying attention to the soul aspects of the main character in the novel. The researcher collects the data in the form of narratives and dialogues related to research objectives. The results of this study indicates that Sumarni has all human needs that formulated by Erich Fromm, those are relatedness, rootedness, transcendence, sense of identity, and a frame of orientation. In the next stage, Sumarni succed to fulfill her human needs by submission, dominating, and love for relatedness; wholeness and fixation for rootedness; creativeness for transcendence; adjustment to a group and individuality for a sense of identity; rational goals for a frame of orientation.
Having introduced readers to the history of the reception of psychoanalysis in Italy, the author reconstructs the history of the Italian reception of the work of Harry Stack Sullivan (1892–1949) and Stephen A. Mitchell (1946–2000). Sullivan’s work played a fundamental role in adding to the >new Italian psychiatry,< founded by Franco Basaglia (1824–1980), the psychodynamic dimension it lacked, creating a new convergence between the social and psychological dimensions of psychiatry. Mitchell’s work played a fundamental role in the development of the Italian tradition of psychoanalytic psychotherapy originally articulated by Gaetano Benedetti (1920–2013) and Pier Francesco Galli, following their reception of Sullivan’s work. This phenomenon coincided, from an institutional point of view, with the emergence of a network of Italian institutes and societies affiliated to the International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies, which had been originally cofounded by the William Alanson White Institute – the institute founded by Sullivan in 1943, where Mitchell himself trained as a psychoanalyst at the end of the 1970s. Interpersonal and relational psychoanalysis also ended up finding a place in the work of several colleagues of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society, as well as allowing the foundation of several institutes and societies affiliated to the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. The author reconstructs this chapter of Italian psychoanalysis from both a historiographical and a personal point of view.
Hard lessons: (Critical) Management Studies and (Critical) Work and Organizational Psychology
(2023)
This short paper explores what lessons Critical Work and Organizational Psychology (CWOP) might learn from the rise of Critical Management Studies (CMS) thirty years ago. I begin by exploring the conditions of possibility for CMS, before providing a history of how it grew and institutionalized. Despite its >success<, I describe how partial, parochial and positional it was, and open a gap between its achievements within some Business Schools and its relative invisibility outside them. I conclude with some challenges for CWOP, in the spirit of learning from CMS.
Haben oder Sein: Leben statt Profit! Was mache ich aus dem, was die Gesellschaft aus mir macht?
(2023)
Grundeinkommen braucht Europa - Europa braucht Grundeinkommen, Berlin (Lit-Verlag), 2023, 215 pp.
(2023)
[Chinese abstract not available] Fromm analyzed the spiritual predicament of modern people after the two World Wars through the combination of Marxism and Freudian psychoanalysis, and pointed out that the spontaneous individualization had to be subject to social conditions, resulting in the gap between positive freedom and negative freedom. In order to escape the burden brought by such negative freedom, people would rather lose their freedom than gain security and survival. In modern society, there is a common psychology of escape from freedom, which presents different forms of expression, and eventually results in totalitarianism and unsound society. Fromm tried to eliminate the ills of modern society by finding a way to realize positive freedom. The escape from freedom emphasized by Fromm is a prominent manifestation of modernity. At present, in the background of modernization and globalization, through the critical thinking of Fromm’s thought of escape from freedom, it is still enlightening and useful for the development of Chinese modernization to pursue and surpass this kind of modernity. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 12/2023]