Yearbook / Jahrbuch (1990-1995)
Schriften der Internationalen Erich-Fromm-Gesellschaft e.V.
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w06/1995m
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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.
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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.
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>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.
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>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.
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>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.