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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of thought, this contributed volume aims to make the archives speak for themselves, to show the public the quantity of unpublished material still existing by the authors of the Critical Theory which are now in funds in different parts of the world (in Germany, in Italy, or in the United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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Historians, including intellectual historians such as myself, rely more on primary source research than philosophers. During the period 1992–2001, I conducted extensive research on both the Herbert Marcuse and Max Horkheimer Archives in Frankfurt, Germany. This essay describes my experiences working in these archives. I highlight, in particular, some of the most important discoveries I made in the archives and how the primary source documents shaped my understanding of Herbert Marcuse and Max Horkheimer’s crucial contributions to the development of Critical Theory. The essay also emphasizes the value of primary source research, especially for those working in the materialist tradition of the early Frankfurt School, which emphasizes the >Zeitkern der Wahrheit<, that is, the impossibility of separating ideas from a historically specific social context.
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.
In this paper >jealousy< and >envy< are discussed from a unique perspective: as therapeutic goals rather than as maladaptive mechanisms. Furthermore, I suggest that jealousy be regarded as a performance of love. Four states are distinguished here; two of them are >primal narcissistic<, and the other two are >intersubjective<. Intersubjective envy and jealousy should be embraced as a >welcome flag< that signals a couple's entry into the oedipal layers. Mutuality and shared unconscious are described by means of >recognition< as a central concept. This article views recognition as a form of identification that allows >me parts< to be found and reclaimed from the significant >other<. In favor of historical justice and clarity, I introduce a less familiar case of Freud (1933) – Herr. P, and conclude with my own case story.
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.