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Zur Einführung
(2013)
This paper reveals the basic ideas of Erich Fromm’s analytical social psychology and shows links among work, character and education. Social changes may be better understood in the background of work evolution. Today the concept of waged work has been extended to unpaid activities. At the same time, the working life has been changed from a stable model to a flexible one. The work, its standards and social distribution, are also different now. Erich Fromm’s concept of "social character” clarifies the changes and explains the consequences of the social changes. The relations to work are also different. During these changes – unemployment included – concepts of the unconditional basic income were stud-ied. These concepts explain why it is possible for people without waged work to participate in community life and consumption, without being excluded. The author presents the basic social changes that affected many different subpopulation and age groups.
This paper presents some dimensions of Erich Fromm's analytical social psychology that can be related to consumer capitalism. In view of the limits of growth, the destructive consequences of the consumerist lifestyle are increasingly evident. A sane consumption is something we must develop. This new consumption would promote sustainable development as a counterweight to the commoditization of the consumer and of the world. The social character approach describes the social adaptation of the psychic powers of man to economic needs. At present this adaptive process has transformed education and learning, creating students who can be easily used by the economic system and who will be perfect consumers. To curtail a potentially meaningless life, production and consumption must be limited and cut to a reasonable level. More people must change their way of life. Erich Fromm's approach presents reasons why consumerism is a dead end for human development and he outlines life-saving solutions that involve change in our education systems.
Veränderungen in der kapitalistischen Produktionsweise in den westlichen Industrie-gesellschaften seit den 1920er Jahren lassen sich grob als Wechsel vom Industrieka-pitalismus zum Konsumkapitalismus beschreiben. Der Wechsel fällt in eine Zeit, in der in und außerhalb der sozialistischen Bewegung Zweifel an dem Fortbestehen eines revolutionären Subjekts formuliert wurden. Auch Fromms Beitrag zum Verhältnis von Psychoanalyse und Marxismus war von dieser Frage bestimmt. In der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts traten die veränderten Produktions- und Arbeitsbedingungen mit ihren Folgen für die Lebensweise deutlich in den Vordergrund. Das Doppelgesicht des Konsumkapitalismus zeigte sich in einem ungeheuren Zuwachs des Güterwohlstands auf der Grundlage der Massenproduktion und zugleich in sich zuspitzenden Formen von Verelendung, Armut und Unbehagen. Die Transformation des Konsumkapitalis-mus hin zu einer menschlichen Gesellschaftsform verlangt nach einer Lösung sowohl sozialer Probleme (Wohlstandsverteilung) als auch ökologischer Probleme (Ressour-cennutzung).