Yearbook / Jahrbuch (1990-1995)
Schriften der Internationalen Erich-Fromm-Gesellschaft e.V.
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w05/1994p
w06/1995l
A Contribution to the Method and Purpose of an Analytical Social Psychology [originated 1937]
(1992)
w03/1992e
>Ein sozio-psychoanalytischer Interventionsprozeß in einem mexikanischen Bergarbeiterdorf<: Dieser Beitrag gibt Rechenschaft von den Wirkungen, die eine knapp 6jährige soziopsychoanalytische Arbeit in einem mexikanischen Bergarbeiterdorf, speziell bei der kindlichen Bevölkerung an einer Grundschule, gehabt hat. Zunächst wird in allgemeinen Begriffen die Struktur des >sozio-psychoanalytischen Prozesses< beschrieben, wie er im Anschluss an Erich Fromm konzipiert ist: Aus der erweiterten Perspektive einer Integration des Unbewussten wird nicht nur der Bezug zu unterdrückten Sexualimpulsen wiedergewonnen, sondern es wird auch aufgezeigt, inwieweit das Sozialsystem als solches diese verdrängt und so Charakterzüge ausprägt, die dazu beitragen, das System und seine sozio-ökonomische Struktur durch Rationalisierung und Ideologiebildung zu stabilisieren. Dir Bericht basiert auf der Auswertung von insgesamt 141 Fragebögen, die bei einer Zufallsstichprobe von Kindern 3 Jahre vor und 3 Jahre nach dem Anlaufen des Projekts erhoben wurden (hiervon umfasste die erste Stichprobe 73, die zweite 68 Fragebögen). In einer vom Mexikanischen Nationalen Rat für Wissenschaft und Technologie (CONACYT) geförderten Auswertung wurde zwischen beiden Stichproben ein systematischer Vergleich gezogen. Bei der Inhaltsanalyse der Antworten wurde besonders auf die Bildung von Charakterzügen und auf das moralische Urteil geachtet; die häufigsten Charakterzüge und die Differenzen zwischen den beiden Auswertungen werden beschrieben. Dabei stellt sich, was das Selbstbild der Kinder angeht, eine gewisse Besserung heraus, verbunden mit einer Verschiebung hin zu produktiven und biophilen Charakteren. Bei einer gründlicheren Auswertung des Materials tritt als ein spezieller Befund eine merkliche Verringerung im Ausmaß der physischen Misshandlung, die die Kinder zwischen der ersten und der zweiten Erhebung zu erleiden hatten, hervor. Dies weist darauf hin, dass der Prozess der sozio-psychoanalytischen Intervention eine hervorragende Möglichkeit von Gemeinwesenarbeit darstellt. Es scheint gelungen zu sein, selbsttätige Entwicklungsprozesse in Gang zu setzen, die vor allem bei den beteiligten Müttern der betroffenen Familien eine prophylaktische Wirkung zugunsten der geistigen Gesundheit der Kinder hatten, abgesehen davon, dass ihnen auch eigene Möglichkeiten der Partizipation zugänglich wurden.
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.
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.
w02/1991g
>The Search for an Up-to-Date Theoretical Recasting of Marxism. Sketches towards the Intellectual History of a Dominant Theme in the Early Critical Theory<: The Critical Theory in its early version conceived of itself as a form of Marxist theory, and endeavored to cast itself in an up-to-date theoretical form appropriate to its historical context – one which by the end of the first half of the 20th century had taken a dramatic turn for the worst. Thus the principal propounders of the Critical Theory found themselves departing more and more from orthodox Marxism and devizing provisional positions that were revisionistic in nature. This essay focuses on reconstructing the principal waystations this revisionistic logic passed through, placing the lapse from orthodoxy in its intellectual history context. The central object of attention is the change in status undergone by economic theory and its dialectical structure. Grossmann's law of disintegration exemplifies admirably the attempt to preserve the body of theory in its orthodox form, notwithstanding the deep-reaching changes in the social configurations of the times. Pollock, on the other hand, wishes to embark on a provocative new theoretical construction. Of central concern are his theses on state capitalism, against which Neumann once again mounts a very powerfully argued defense of the theoretical tradition (i.e. one going considerably beyond the Pollock- Neumann controversy of such great importance to fascism theory). In the light of this scrutiny, Fromm's own revisionistic effort, analytic social psychology, is revealed as essentially an addendum focusing on the decay and reconstruction of the revolutionary subject – and indeed emerges as being strikingly compatible with Horkheimer's own position. Horkheimer it was too who took Pollock's thesis of the primacy of politics and reworked it to yield the bizarre racket theory – which just went to show just how far the Frankfurt School had distanced itself from traditional Marxism (or at least this was the case prior to the Institute's return to Germany from its American exile).
w02/1991i
Auf der Basis von Persoenlichkeits- und Kommunikationstheorien (unter anderem von Karl und Charlotte Buehler, Erich FROMM, Joseph Luft, Elias Porter und Paul Watzlawick) werden Organisationsstrukturen in Institutionen und Unternehmen auf allen Ebenen einer Analyse unterzogen. Der Autor stellt den Uebergang von der Industrie- zur Bildungsgesellschaft fest und plaediert fuer eine >Lerngesellschaft< und kreatives Management. – Inhalt: (A) Das Ich entwickeln: Persoenlichkeits-wachstum. (1) Selbsterkenntnis des Managers und Ich-Staerke. (2) Soziales Lernen und Selbsterkenntnis. (3) Voraussetzungen fuer das Persoenlichkeitswachstum. – (B) Zum Du gelangen. (4) Kommunikation. (5) Architektur und Herrschaft. (6) Rede, Gespraech und Verhandlung: Formen und Techniken. – (C) Zum Wir gelangen. (7) Fuehrung und Motivation von Mitarbeitern. (8) Gruppe, Team, Entscheidung in Gruppen. (9) Organisation. (10) Interkulturelles Management und Globalisierung.
w02/1991k
>The Critical Theory’s contribution to cope with the crisis of contemporary society<: The crisis of industrial society is analysed and clarified by the interdiciplinary categories of the critical theory of the Frankfurt school. This article will attempt to make evident, that in the case of economic, ecological, legitimatorical and psychological problems analysis would fall short of its aim, if it omitted the definition of >humanism< and a utopic model of subjectivity. The utopic messianic expression of hope for the individual is elaborated, even under alienated social structures, in the oeuvre of Horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse and Fromm. The problem of negativ thinking in opposition to an aspired positive utopia is discussed in order to create an theory of society-related, emancipated acting, which is based on educational aims and political alternatives. Fromms significance is demonstrated in connection with the oeuvre of the Frankfurt school without neglecting the differences. It is the author’s aim to define Fromm’s Analytic Social Psychology as one amongst several equally traditional lines of the Frankfurt school, by using theoretic examples. Differences, parallels and points of contact will be emphasized for a productive dialogue within these different traditional lines of thought of critical theory. A promising possibility for discussion, especially in the comparison between Marcuse and Fromm is indicated here.
w03/1992n
Der kurze Beitrag >Der Einfluss gesellschaftlicher Faktoren auf die Entwicklung des Kindes< – aus einem in spanischer Sprache gehaltenen Vortrag entstanden – macht am Beispiel der Erziehung anschaulich, wie sich Fromm den Prägungszusammenhang von Gesellschaft und Charakter vorstellt und zu welchen Konflikten es zwischen den Erwartungen der Gesellschaft und den psychischen Bedürfnissen des Menschen kommen kann.