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Der Mensch ist kein Ding!
(1996)
>Anxiety and Apathy – And How to React to These<: Joblessness is one of the major social problems of of the day. As of 1994, the number of unemployed in western Germany and the new Federal lands stood at approximately 4 million. In the European Union as a whole it stands at some 17 million. Fear at losing one's job and eventually ending up as a social déclassé has come to characterize a society in which, despite the economic upturn after the last recession, growing numbers of people exist who are permanently excluded from the job sector and who increasingly fail to land in the >social net< erected by the welfare state. Basing its approach on Fromm's early research in the Worker and Employee Study (Erich Fromm, 1980) and the Marienthal Study (M. Jahoda et al., 1978) [the German titles are Arbeiter-und Angestellten-Untersuchung and Marienthaler Studie respectively], this book first attempts a detailed coverage of the various psychic effects of joblessness. In a novel interpretation updating Dieter Duhm's Fear in Capitalism (1974), the author is concerned to depict fear at the likelihood of losing one's job as a typical consequence of the capitalist economic system – more concretely, of the rationalization and competitive pressures that characterize industry. The focus is less on fear as a subjectively experienced, infrapsychic phenomenon, but rather on the reciprocal links between objective social developments, on the one hand, and subjective reactions in the form of fear and apathy on the other. Finally, measures for combatting joblessness are discussed, especially those based on proposals by the unions.
Vorwort (Preface)
(1994)
Vorwort – Preface
(1995)
>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.
Vorwort – Preface
(1993)
>The Humanization of Everyday Life. An Analysis of the Ethics of the Social Professions<: If ethical analysis is to be of any service in elaborating a theory of the social professions, it must not simply be based on the patron-client relationship. Of greater importance are rudimentary social-political and universal ethical maxims, both of which imply a demand for social justice construed as working towards a social state – together with Albert Schweizer's >reverence for life< and Erich Fromm's >biophilia< (in the sense of dealing considerately with nature). Since most social occupations in present-day society are located in the service sector, the influence of commodification (>commodities always come with a price tab attached<) must be as much reflected in the worker's relation to the client as the possibility of abuse and remaining in tutelage. Finally speaking, institutional ties to colleagues and co-workers (>teamwork<) – as well as >looking after oneself< (in the sense of preserving one's psychic balance), work on the >patron syndrome< (W. Schmidtbauer), and the prevention of >burn-out< – are also in need of consideration. In all of these, the goal of a practical ethic for the social occupations not only consists in promoting the most >mature< possible standards of professional behavior; it also involves freeing the way for a showdown with compulsions and deformations that are deeply rooted in the socially conditioned motivational and demand structure, i.e. Erich Fromm's >social character<. Emancipating oneself from these compulsions is, to be sure, not easy and never completely successful – but achieving insight is the first step to liberation.