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Discusses the relationship between individual psychopathology and sociocultural conditions. 4 basic problems are analyzed: (a) the nature of the changing sociocultural factors that influence personality, (b) how these factors directly affect the individual, (c) how interactive and internal factors produce psychopathology, and (d) how the expression of illness can be inhibited, facilitated, or modified by social mores. The theoretical contributions of Horney, Sullivan, FROMM, Kardiner, and other psychoanalysts to these issues are reviewed. Changing forms of neuroses and psychoses are related to corresponding shifts in attitudes and social norms, the influence of specific cultural factors on individual development are described, and the implications of these factors for social intervention and treatment are considered.
An attempt is made to determine what factors propel given individuals toward self-destruction, beginning with the classic work of Durkheim and his sociological analysis and classification of the 4 morphological types of self-annihilation. Although an act of suicide may appear to be precipitated by 1 specific cause, 1 stimulus alone is not sufficient to produce self-murder. theories of suicide are placed along a continuum from the strict social causation of Durkheim through the psychosocial formulations of FROMM, Reich, and Freud, to the psychoanalytic theories of unconscious volition of Abraham and Groddeck. All theorists agree that the personality structure of the individual is built during infancy and childhood and that later behavior is at least partially determined by this early formation. All concur that suicide must be consistent with the personality structure or it will not be considered. The socialization process, with its attendant repression of instinctual desires, is shown to cause a sense of guilt and frustration. If a reservoir of frustration accumulates, aggressive instincts emerge. Turned outward these take the form of destruction, sadism, or homicide. If not allowed external expression, these instincts are directed inward in a self-punitive manner leading to masochistic behavior, severe depression or perhaps, when the anxiety and tension become unbearable--to sucide. Psychoanalysts view suicide as a 'displacement' toward the self of the thwarted wish to murder another. Despite the difference in sociological and psychoanalytic explanations of causation, similarities were found. The theoretical discussion of the 4 kinds of suicide (anomic, egoistic, altruistic, and fatalistic) and their etiology is followed by a concise elaboration of indicators of potential suicide acts. Included is a section on specific behavioral clues of an impending suicidal attempt. Geared to the therapist or other human-service worker is a practical guide on 'techniques in intervention'.
Review Fromm, E.: The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973a, English): Why Are We so Destructive?
(1975)