Yearbook / Jahrbuch (1990-1995)
Schriften der Internationalen Erich-Fromm-Gesellschaft e.V.
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w06/1995m
w06/1995l
A Contribution to the Method and Purpose of an Analytical Social Psychology [originated 1937]
(1992)
w06/1995k
>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.
w06/1995j
Selbstverlustängste
(1995)
>Fears of Losing One's Self<: Fears of loss can be directed at specific objects, but at the human self no less so. When the latter occurs, we speak of fears of losing one's self – these are experienced as extremely threatening existentially, which explains why they mostly only emerge as defence mechanisms. Based on the social-psychological approach adopted by Frommian psychology of the self, the importance is first shown of inner images of both objects and the self, since these reveal fears of loss as ways of compensating for unstable personality cores. Then the various defence mechanisms in the service of the a priori relatedness to the self and others are analyzed in terms of Frommian social character orientations, and, in a second stage, systematized as compensation strategies against fears of losing one's self. After this attempt at a systematization in terms of character orientations and fears of losing one's self, the author proceeds to a heuristic analysis of both narcissistic defence strategies in terms of their psychological dynamism. Finally, he suggests ways and means of coping with these fears of losing one's self when such openly manifest themselves.
w06/1995i
Verlustängste und Möglichkeiten zu ihrer Überwindung bei Menschen mit >autoritäre,< Charakter
(1995)
>Fears of Loss and Some Treatment Suggestions with Reference to Persons of >Authoritarian< Character<: This essay deals with irrational fears grounded in social forces. The main analytic focus is on typical fears of loss in persons of >authoritarian< character. The author is also concerned to indicate possible counter- strategies. Starting from the basic psychic need for relatedness, Stefan Otto looks at authoritarian relatedness patterns and reveals their close links with fear. He also draws on the findings of a social-psychological study of the social character of men and women teachers, conducted by one of the International Erich Fromm Society’s study groups.
w06/1995h
>The Significance of Fear in Personality Development<: Fear is a part of life, of the developmental curve followed by human life. When it takes a concrete form, as specific fears, it indicates a threat to human life and launches survival strategies. Rainer Funk shows that without facing down fear there can be no human development. But fear is also a primary feature of psychic ailments. By means of case studies, Hans Hufnagel elucidates the full spectrum of fear-related ailments and goes on to show how pathologies in the capacity for objective relationships by those afflicted are at the root of phobic and fear-rooted neurotic ailments.
w06/1995g
>The Significance of Fear in Personality Development<: Fear is a part of life, of the developmental curve followed by human life. When it takes a concrete form, as specific fears, it indicates a threat to human life and launches survival strategies. Rainer Funk shows that without facing down fear there can be no human development. But fear is also a primary feature of psychic ailments. By means of case studies, Hans Hufnagel elucidates the full spectrum of fear-related ailments and goes on to show how pathologies in the capacity for objective relationships by those afflicted are at the root of phobic and fear-rooted neurotic ailments.
w06/1995f
>Myths of Femininity and the Splitting of Human Existence: Simone de Beavoir's Critique of the Religious Justification of >Femininity<: In her celebrated work, Le Deuxième Sexe, Simone de Beauvoir analyses factors that are constitutive of the life situations women find themselves in. Of particular importance here are male conceptions about how women are or should be, since in a patriarchal world men even possess the power to mould the life situations available to women. For centuries they have defined the essence and nature of women and set up ideals of femininity, these being invariably informed by the assumption that >women's essence is their (absolute) otherness<. Simone de Beauvoir interprets the representational forms of femininity thus set up as in reality myths, because (and in so far as) they can be decoded as hermeneutic nodes around which have collected male images of self, world, and God, i.e. as an expression of how men have come to see the conditio humana, of how they have attempted to come to terms with their own existential situation. In end effect, myths of femininity testify to an inability to authentically shoulder the burden of human existence in all its ambiguity. The Christian representational forms of femininity are only one exemplary area, though one that is of elemental importance in our culture because of its persistent influence. These theses by Simone de Beauvoir are expounded here in five steps. After sketching her biographical and philosophical background, the author goes into Simone de Beauvoir's notion of gender as a social category, then into the celebrated thesis of woman as the other sex, as simply the other – in order to lay the groundwork for a discussion of her religious critique. The author concludes her treatment by proposing eight interlocking theses.
w06/1995e
>Femininity and Biophilia: The Role of the Feminine in Frommian Socialpsychology<: In view of the crisis-proneness that is such a feature of today’s relations between the sexes and, also, the break-up of traditional family structures, the >gender question< is a particularly urgent one. Fromm’s various contributions to this topic are gathered together in Liebe, Sexualität und Matriarchat [= Love, Sexuality and Matriarchy], which was published early in 1994. Fromm attributed to the productive dissolution of primary bonds – the maternal and paternal bonds – a leading role in productive characterological development. The nature and mode of male-female relations in later life is heavily dependent on this occurring. Male-female transactions, as Fromm sees them, are specified by the matriarchal and patriarchal social structures as well as the dominant social-characterological orientations. Ever since the origins of patriarchy, ostensively biology-rooted gender differences – which Fromm saw as being essentially social in nature – have been misused in the interests of shoring up male rule. The current crisis our system finds itself in at all levels is an expression of the crisis of patriarchy, which has always kept down female identity and strength – nor have the great religions been spared its influence either. For in Christianity too, especially in the Protestant variant, specifically feminine values were always denied an outlet. By taking a hard look at Bachofen and his analysis of matriarchal cultures, at Freud and his deep roots in the patriarchal order, at the Old Testament and the Babylonian myths of creation – with their images of gods and goddesses – Fromm brings out the social constraints at work in forming male and female identity. Only when contemporary society succeeds in divesting itself of its lack of female identity models, of matriarchal values, can a conciliatory integration of male and female principles take place – only then can biophilia and the productive character be helped into life.
w06/1995d
>Mexikanische Zeit. Erich Fromm in Mexico<: Die Art, wie in Mexiko mit der Zeit umgegangen wird, unterscheidet sich beträchtlich von der westeuropäischen oder nordamerikanischen: Der Mexikaner >hat< oder >nimmt sich< mehr Zeit; die in der Ländern der protestantischen Arbeitsethik hochgeschätzte Tugend der Pünktlichkeit ist ihm fremd. In der >mexikanischen Zeit<, zu der viele Feste gehören, bekundet sich eine dem matrizentrischen Komplex zugehörige Art von Gesellschafts- Charakter. Man lebt unbekümmert in den Tag hinein, erwartet, dass immer genug zum Leben vorhanden ist, und sucht das verlorengegangene Paradies wiederzufinden. Wie kam Fromm mit dieser Art von Lebenseinstellung zurecht? Anfangs galt er – der aus Deutschland emigrierte Psychoanalytiker, der in den USA praktiziert und gelehrt hatte – bei vielen seiner Schüler als >autoritär<. Schon die Forderung nach pünktlichem Beginn und die Begrenzung der analytischen Sitzung auf 50 Minuten galten ihnen als unannehmbar. Mit der Zeit kam jedoch ein fruchtbarer Austausch zustande: Seine Schüler erlernten von Fromm nicht nur die psychoanalytische Technik, sondern sie waren auch zutiefst von der dahinterstehenden Persönlichkeit beeindruckt. Umgekehrt sind Fromms ganzheitliche Sicht des Menschen und seine biophile Grundhaltung nicht ohne die Erfahrungen, die er während seiner langjährigen Tätigkeit in Mexiko machte, zu verstehen. So trug die >mexikanische Zeit< viel zur Entwicklung der >humanistischen Psychoanalyse< bei.
w06/1995c
Zur Frage nach der analytischen Brauchbarkeit des Begriffs >Gesellschafts-Charakter< bei Erich Fromm
(1993)
>The Analytic Usefulness of the >Social Character< Concept in Erich Fromm’s Thought<: It is a weakness of traditional social research that it is able, at best, to supply accurate descriptions of the social status quo, but is quite at a loss to undertake any serious prognostication worth the name. Erich Fromm, with his theoretical analysis of >social character<, has developed an approach which might just allow us to predict social developments in the making. First, the author shows how the theory of an >authoritarian character<, originally propounded by Erich Fromm in his worker and employee investigations at the end of the twenties, was subsequently expanded and refined by him. By the time Fromm had finished, he possessed a highly differentiated theory of social character. For a researcher to critically scrutinize his own hypotheses is a rare enough undertaking. But just that was what Erich Fromm undertook to do after his relocation to Mexico – by conducting, for this express purpose, a comprehensive case study of a Mexican village. There the great estates had been broken up barely 40 years earlier, at the time of the Revolution, and the land redistributed to the peasants. Fromm wanted to know which expressions of social character would turn out to be readily adaptable and which would prove intractable. The questioning modalities developed by Fromm involving use of an interpretive questionnaire, and especially his methods of interpretation in terms of the biophilia/ necrophilia polarity, were painstaking in the extreme. That is why final publication of the protocolled findings took until 1970 to complete, thirteen years after the start of planning. Apart from the high qualitative and qualificational demands made on interviewers and analysts, the greatest difficulty probably lay in the ease with which related categories could be confused. Notwithstanding, the concept of social character proved an uncommonly fruitful theoretical approach for carrying out studies into a group’s mindsets and ethical qualities.
w06/1995b
w05/1994p
w05/1994n
>Does there exist a new Authoritarian Character?<: The current xenophobic violent acts in Germany have gained an new aura of sensitivity since reunification. Historical experience during the Weimar Republic, together with the strengthening of the National Socialism at that time would suggest the necessity to draw parallels to the current situation. The theories of the Frankfurt School regarding the authoritarian character according to Theodor W. Adorno and Erich Fromm are summarised. In addition, the current (empirical) theories of Heitmeyer, Maaz, Oesterreich and Fritzsche/Knepper to explain right-wing extremism, are analysed with regard to their sociopsychological, explanatory potential. At this point the differences in the political cultures in the reunified Germany are also discussed. The post-war waves of modernisation and individualisation would also suggest the necessity to return to the theory of narcissism. The >Macciavellian< strategies of interaction are taken to illustrate, that a new fear and escapism from freedom can lead to a modern authoritarianism of non-integrated individuals.
w05/1994m
>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.
w05/1994j
>Die Rolle der Angst in der Beziehung zu uns selbst und zu anderen<: Dieser Beitrag sucht zu zeigen, dass es nicht genügt, angesichts der Krise der moralischen und zivilisatorischen Werte, in der sich die Menschheit gegenwärtig befindet, in einer passiven Zuschauerrolle zu verharren. Die Krise hat zu destruktiven Prozessen geführt, in denen der moderne Mensch sowohl Subjekt, als auch Objekt ist. Es wird davon ausgegangen, dass die Wahrnehmung eines anderen menschlichen Wesens als fremd phylogenetisch erklärt werden kann. Das soll heißen, dass der Ursprung in der tierischen Vorgeschichte unserer Spezies zu suchen ist, in einer Zeit, als die menschlichen Lebewesen sich von anderen Lebewesen noch nicht sehr unterschieden und wie sie fürchten mussten, im Kampf ums Überleben von Fremden angegriffen und übermannt zu werden. Im Verlauf der Evolution erwarb der Mensch jedoch Vernunft, wodurch wir befähigt wurden, unsere >erste Natur< zu überwinden. Wir konnten unser instinktives und archaisches Verhalten korrigieren, zumindest in den Aspekten, die für das menschliche Leben dysfunktional sind und die individuelle soziale Entwicklung behindern – dies gilt z. B. für die Furcht vor dem Fremden. Menschliche Wesen können nicht auf einen tierischen Status regredieren, deshalb können sie nicht anders, als sich ihrer menschlichen Eigenarten bewusst zu werden und in Harmonie mit ihren Artgenossen, die den Erdball bevölkern, zu leben. Menschliche Wesen müssen nicht nach Herrschaft steben; vielmehr sollen sich Humanität und Demut unter ihnen durchsetzen. Sie können nicht länger das Recht für sich in Anspruch nehmen, über Leben und Tod anderer Lebewesen zu entscheiden oder auch darüber, wer auf diesem Planeten als Fremder zu gelten hat.
w05/1994i
>Die Rolle der Angst in der Beziehung zu uns selbst und zu anderen<: Dieser Beitrag sucht zu zeigen, dass es nicht genügt, angesichts der Krise der moralischen und zivilisatorischen Werte, in der sich die Menschheit gegenwärtig befindet, in einer passiven Zuschauerrolle zu verharren. Die Krise hat zu destruktiven Prozessen geführt, in denen der moderne Mensch sowohl Subjekt, als auch Objekt ist. Es wird davon ausgegangen, dass die Wahrnehmung eines anderen menschlichen Wesens als fremd phylogenetisch erklärt werden kann. Das soll heißen, dass der Ursprung in der tierischen Vorgeschichte unserer Spezies zu suchen ist, in einer Zeit, als die menschlichen Lebewesen sich von anderen Lebewesen noch nicht sehr unterschieden und wie sie fürchten mussten, im Kampf ums Überleben von Fremden angegriffen und übermannt zu werden. Im Verlauf der Evolution erwarb der Mensch jedoch Vernunft, wodurch wir befähigt wurden, unsere >erste Natur< zu überwinden. Wir konnten unser instinktives und archaisches Verhalten korrigieren, zumindest in den Aspekten, die für das menschliche Leben dysfunktional sind und die individuelle soziale Entwicklung behindern – dies gilt z. B. für die Furcht vor dem Fremden. Menschliche Wesen können nicht auf einen tierischen Status regredieren, deshalb können sie nicht anders, als sich ihrer menschlichen Eigenarten bewusst zu werden und in Harmonie mit ihren Artgenossen, die den Erdball bevölkern, zu leben. Menschliche Wesen müssen nicht nach Herrschaft steben; vielmehr sollen sich Humanität und Demut unter ihnen durchsetzen. Sie können nicht länger das Recht für sich in Anspruch nehmen, über Leben und Tod anderer Lebewesen zu entscheiden oder auch darüber, wer auf diesem Planeten als Fremder zu gelten hat.
w05/1994h
>Psychoanalytic Considerations on the Defences from Confrontation with the Stranger<: The conscious and unconscious are qualities of the contents of the psyche attributed, for the most part, to social processes, that are themselves unconscious. In this way the conscious area is largely an illusion. The total man, from the most distant past to the potential future, remains unconscious. One is a member of society, but also member of the human race and, as such, citizen of the world. Humanism is the antithesis of all xenophobic nationalism, all racism and all prejudiced thought. The repression of emotions, sentiments and thoughts which strike the family harmony are part of a strategy of survival adopted by the individual from the start of infancy. The operation of estrangement begins from oneself in order to conform with the family and social environment. Ostracism is avoided by directing it towards repressed and split parts of oneself and towards all aspects on the outside to which those parts allude, according to the defence mechanisms of identifiaation with the aggressor and the projection. Not only is >primordial man< estranged, but also and above all man in his potentiality of development, the >new man< who has overcome narcissism and the symbioticincestuous attachment. The revolutionary character is the strangest of all in today's Western society. The Author supports these positions by the analysis of two dreams and by a brief history of witch hunt.
w05/1994g
Attachment theory, as developed by Bowlby, and empirical research derived from it, beginning with Ainsworth's >Strange Situation< and the correlated home observations, are described. The studies of the transgenerational transmission of patterns and of the internal working models of the relationship, as well as longitudinal studies, are reported. The main focus of the paper is on cross-cultural studies, carried out in Germany, Israel and Japan. In North Germany, as compared to the U. S., there was a higher frequency of avoidant behavior in babies. This finding has been linked with the cultural demand for premature self-reliance. It is suggested that in the avoidant North German children we see the early ontogeny of the authoritarian character.
w05/1994f
>Narcissism and Violence against the Alien<: Not the increasing frequency of clinically relevant narcissistic disturbances alone, but also the wide dissemination of the narcissistic character as a new social type, explains why many people do not characteristically suffer passively from xenophobia, but react instead with hostility and aggression towards what is alien to them. As far as the narcissist is concerned, the more he is driven to indulge himself and stabilize his fragile sense of self with the help of grandiose phantasies, the more he projects the alien-inhimself onto others – with the result that he feels himself existentially threatened by others. The other person is made into the epitome of evil and weakness, of the wicked and the menacing. The narcissistic compensation is invariably associated with hostility towards whatever lies outside one's idealized self. This essay first demarcates narcissistic violence towards the alien from other social-characterological forms of violence towards the alien. Enlisting the reception of the Frommian conception of the self, as it was developed towards the end of the thirties, Rainer Funk distinguishes two different psychodynamics of narcissism; he then uses these to interpret violence towards the alien as an expression of wounded narcissism. Finally, the social causes behind the growth of narcissism in industrial cultures are reviewed.
w05/1994e
>Erich Fromms Humanismus und der Fremde<: Erich Fromms radikaler Humanismus mit seinem Glauben an die Gleichheit aller Menschen, in Frieden und Freiheit-zu, steht im Gegensatz zur Furcht vor dem Fremden (aufgrund von Rasse, Religion, ethnischer Zugehörigkeit, Nationalität etc.) und zu aller Fremdheit, die durch den Narzißmus des Penis, die unglaubliche Gier nach Geld und Macht und die doppelte Furcht vor Freiheit und Alleinsein erzeugt wird; wenn die Menschheit, anstatt sich von dieser doppelten Furcht jagen zu lassen, zur Individuation gelangen würde, so würde der Fremde – so Fromms Ansicht – zu einem Bekannten werden und das Fremde würde unsere Neugier, unser Interesse und unsere Fähigkeit zum Staunen hervorrufen und uns vertraut werden. Furcht und/oder Impotenz (manchmal ein Deckgefühl für erstere) sind die häufigsten und wichtigsten Ursachen für Wut, Ärger, Groll oder mörderischen Hass; eines dieser Gefühle spielt immer bei der Furcht vor dem Fremden eine Rolle. Viele Menschen fürchten und hassen auf diese Weise die Natur – so wenden sie sich künstlichen, kontrollierbaren Nachahmungen zu, so plündern sie die Natur und wünschen nur noch, sie um jeden Preis zu zerstören. Wir müssen hinzufügen, dass unsere Furcht unsere Fähigkeit zu wachsen behindert und so auch unsere Tendenz zur Destruktivität verstärkt. Unser Glaube und das Objekt unserer bewussten oder unbewussten Hingabe wird offenbar in allem, was wir in non-verbaler Kommunikation tun – auch dies ein >Königsweg< zum Unbewussten oder Nicht-Wahrgenommenen. Die Menschen handeln je nach Wahl, in zugänglichen Alternativen; deshalb ist es unbedingt erforderlich, die Einschränkungen unserer Wahrnehmung rückgängig zu machen und unseren Entscheidungshorizont zu erweitern, so dass wir in Bewusstheit und Freiheit wählen können. Für Fromm impliziert unsere Fähigkeit, kreativ zu sein, das Leben und alles Lebendige zu lieben, worin die Erde natürlich eingeschlossen ist, auch, daß wir uns weiterentwickeln und auf dem Weg zur Individuation voranschreiten.
w05/1994c
w05/1994b
w04/1993i
>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.
w04/1993h
>The Humanist Critique of School Education<: In a dialectical intellectual process, this critique of school education succeeds in elucidating those typical influence patterns that go into forming social character – which precede the school stage even. Not only diminished authority but a loss of psychic roots testify to the contradictory nature of children’s liberation. The school’s emphasis on individualization means that pupils are educated with the needs of the marketplace in mind. In the school itself, the production of >marketing< character structures is promoted by institutional mechanisms which, in essence, compel pupils to adapt to an authoritarian and hierarchical educational theory. As a counterweight to this >colonization< of schoolchildren, discussion here focuses on key proposals of how the school may have its humanity restored. Paramount here would be a new role for teachers, one involving restructured cognition processes, revised educational programs, and altered self-perspectives in pedagogical psychology. Also needed is a reform of instructional forms so as to make them more living, adventurous, and socially responsive. Growing educationaldifficulties also render essential an extension of counseling and supervision in matters related to pedagogical psychology. Finally, a number of leading categories are developed within which the humanization of the school can best proceed.
w04/1993g
>The Social Roots of Modern Science<: This discussion is predicated on the following theses: - Modern science, and especially physics as it has developed since Galileo and Newton, is not value-neutral. It is therefore not merely science’s practical outlets and technological spinoffs that embody the interests, values and weltanschauung of its practitioners. Rather its specific mode of grappling with nature is, both in its methodology and basic concepts, interest- and value-laden from the outset; moreover, science is rooted in a particular view of the world. The view of the world in which science is grounded, and hence also its fundamental concepts, are socially mediated historical developments. It is from basic social structures, especially those in the socio-economic sphere, that such scientific concepts as space and time, the knowing subject, and objectivized nature, have been won, i.e. they have derived from them central aspects and structural features of their interpretive edifice. The present attempt at a materialistic explanation of modern science seeks to answer the question of how scientific theory formation and experimentation,science’s characteristic mode of grappling with nature, can be construed as an historically conditioned way of conceiving nature. Here Alfred Sohn-Rethals’ theory, according to which economic modalities are >reflected< in human consciousness, proves too narrow an answer. This article mainly draws on Fromm’s pivotal concept of >social character<. Applying the latter to the problem of deriving the basic concepts of natural science, the author offers the following answer: To each specific historically conditioned mode of production there pertains a specific social character – the ego must accept what is incumbent on it, as a social actor, to secure the preservation of society. It is in need of an orientational framework, an object of reverence, an appropriate identity. As far as the ego’s relation to nature within a given production modality is concerned, the image of nature and the basic concepts of natural science communicate an orientational framework to the ego, together with the necessary means, to stabilize the identity required by the production modality.
w04/1993f
>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.
w04/1993e
>The Meaning of Work in a Market Economy<: Work has both an economic and a human value. The latter value is downplayed though in capitalist market economies, since these are based on the expropriation of labor, rather than on the self-fulfillment of the workforce. However, entrepreneurial manipulation of labor as a production factor is today tempered, to an extent at least, by an increased need for social integration within the firm or on the factory floor. From the worker's perspective too, work is not a matter a choice but of hard economic necessity. Most contracted activities performed by workers for remuneration are alienated (on several different levels). The author advances the thesis that proprietors are increasingly discovering an interest in having >self-determined< individuals on their staff. This development is, however, problematic if it means, in concrete terms, that individuals are now expected to internalize formerly external mechanisms of exploitation (a dominance-oriented culture, surveillance, ecological indifference, a technology-heavy approach). Yet this development has another aspect: it could also provide real gains in the struggle for greater onthe- job freedom. Both on the individual and collective level, it could end up giving workers greater room for maneuver.
w04/1993c
>Links between Work, Character, and Education<: The transformational processes presently occurring in the techno-economic bases of industrial life are, inevitably enough, accompanied by changes in social character. Though the significance of work for character formation has declined as other influences have moved to centerstage, >work< still remains an important dimension by which human beings define and anchor themselves in the world. Indeed, this >anchoring through work< allows the characterological status quo in the present to be read off. This essay takes the Frommian concept of social character as its departure point, asking what work experiences lead to what character structures and also what work ethic results from these characterological features. An analysis is given of the social-characterological conditions necessarily imported by workers into their job situations, simply in order to break even in an evolving industrial labor process marked by structural unemployment. More stringent vocational requirements, plus an increased release from the coercion of having to work for one's daily bread, pose a real danger for one's psychic balance and make flexibility an imperative. If the identity crisis brought on by the deprivation of work is to be mastered, new vocational outlets must be developed that are removed from financial remuneration and accountability – as an alternative to work in the traditional sense. At the same time, jobs and wages need to be uncoupled and a society-wide minimum income guaranteed. These transformational processes are giving rise to a >post-industrial character structure< principally characterized, in its productive variants, by flexibility andsocial competence; moreover, its behavior patterns are loosened up by quality-orientated, diversified job (or other vocational) requirements capable of appealing to the whole person.
w03/1992q