The problem of psychoanalytical identity is discussed under the aspects of psychoanalysis: (1) as the history of a charismatic movement shaping the organizational and career patterns in a specific direction; (2) as a science with the difficulties of defining the correlations of interpretative, clinical-empirical and >scientistic< dimensions inherent in its basic assumptions.
This is the first full-scale intellectual biography in English of Erich FROMM, perhaps the most widely read psychoanalyst after Freud, whose contributions to clinical and social psychology and the history of the psychoanalytic movement have long been underrated.... As a member of Freud's >loyal opposition< with strong leanings toward the >dissident fringe<, he helped effect the transfer of productive ideas from the periphery to the mainstream of the psychoanalytic movement. Daniel Burston's meticulous elucidation of these ideas unravels the numerous strands--philosophical, literary, and social--that formed a part of Freud's own work and of FROMM's sympathetic, but not uncritical, reaction to Freudian orthodoxy. / Burston's eloquent, evenhanded reassessment of FROMM's life and work cuts through the ideological and political underbrush to reveal his pivotal role as a theorist and a critic of modern psychoanalysis. It leads readers back to Freud, whose theoretical and clinical contributions FROMM refracted and extended, and on to controversies that remain a vital part of contemporary intellectual life. – Index: The man and his work – Freudo-Marxism and matriarchal theory: Early methodological perspectives – FROMM's clinical contributions – FROMM's existentialism – Studies in social character – Consensus, conformity, and false consciousness: >The pathology of normalcy< – Appraisals of FROMM by psychologists and psychiatrists – FROMM's contribution to the history of psychoanalysis – Oedipus, instinct, and the unconscious in the FROMM-Marcuse debate – Epilogue – Notes – References. (from the jacket)
On Face-Work
(1993)
>On the Present Escalation of Violence: Causes, Connectivities, and Containment Strategies<: The current increase in youthful crimes of violence mainly directed against foreigners is often put down to defective education. This essay will have none of such simplifying explanations, pointing instead to a connection between >direct< (youthful) violence, >structural< violence (in the public sphere and the economy), and >cultural< violence (in the media). As to the psycho-social genesis of youthful crimes of violence, Helmut Johach distinguishes a >classically asocial< socialization type, mainly restricted to the lower class, from a >narcissistic< deviance syndrome that more characterizes the middle class. An alteration in socialization conditions, affecting both types equally, has been brought about by television more and more replacing primary social experiences in the family. The fact that youthful violence by skinheads and other rightist groups is mainly directed against foreigners is seen as being due to a post-reunification >drift to the right< in German public life and society at large – a drift also manifested in e.g. the asylum-seeker debate in the bundestag. Finally, the author locks horns with the thesis that the >anti-authoritarian upbringing< propagated in the aftermath of the 1968 student revolts has led to a >value decay< in today's younger generation. The ideological function of such pronouncements is to attract attention away from the real causes of the crisis, which are in the nature of the capitalist economic system. Helmut Johach concludes that calls for a >strong state< are quite wrongheaded if the aim is to combat rightwing radicalism; what is needed instead is a more energetic commitment to maintaining a democratic and socially concerned framework.
Die Mauer in uns selbst
(1993)