The attempt by Arnason and Roberts to interpret Canetti’s work in the context of social theory is taken here as the point of departure to investigate Canetti’s view on the phenomenon of resistance. Resistance is explored in the context of Canetti’s reflection on power and transformation. Further, it is argued that through his substantive concern for crowds, an epistemological challenge emerges for social theory. Canetti gives us some precious insights on phenomena of ambiguous multiplicity, which are neither simple sums of (...) separate individuals nor an ontologized Durkheimian collective. Not only this, he resolutely ventures towards the contingency at the foundation of social order, the ‘just-thisness' of power, revealing its non-symbolic basis in gestures that impart affects. It is at this level that resistance can be best understood as a movement of liberation from the grip of power. (shrink)

This monograph contributes to the scientific misconduct debate from an oblique perspective, by analysing seven novels devoted to this issue, namely: Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (1925), The affair by C.P. Snow (1960), Cantor’s Dilemma by Carl Djerassi (1989), Perlmann’s Silence by Pascal Mercier (1995), Intuition by Allegra Goodman (2006), Solar by Ian McEwan (2010) and Derailment by Diederik Stapel (2012). Scientific misconduct, i.e. fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, but also other questionable research practices, have become a focus of concern for academic communities (...) worldwide, but also for managers, funders and publishers of research. The aforementioned novels offer intriguing windows into integrity challenges emerging in contemporary research practices. They are analysed from a continental philosophical perspective, providing a stage where various voices, positions and modes of discourse are mutually exposed to one another, so that they critically address and question one another. They force us to start from the admission that we do not really know what misconduct is. Subsequently, by providing case histories of misconduct, they address integrity challenges not only in terms of individual deviance but also in terms of systemic crisis, due to current transformations in the ways in which knowledge is produced. Rather than functioning as moral vignettes, the author argues that misconduct novels challenge us to reconsider some of the basic conceptual building blocks of integrity discourse. (shrink)

In Seminar XVII, entitled The reverse side of psychoanalysis, Jacques Lacan presents his famous theorem of the four discourses. In this rereading I propose to demonstrate that Lacan’s theorem entails a transferable dialectical method for studying processes of knowledge production, enabling contemporary scholars to develop a diagnostic of the present, notably scholars interested in issues such as the vicissitudes of knowledge production under capitalism, the crisis of the university and the proliferation of electronic gadgets. In short, I will argue that (...) Lacan’s theorem of the four discourses entails a dialectical diagnostic of technoscientific knowledge during late capitalism. First, the four discourses will be briefly outlined, emphasising the extent to which they entail, albeit in an ambivalent manner, a return or detour to the logic of Hegel. Subsequently, each discourse will be presented in more detail, emphasising how they allow us to come to terms with the current status of technoscientific knowledge. Special attention will be given to the political backdrop of the seminar: the crisis of the university. Finally, I will discuss the historical dimension, outlining both the predecessor of the four discourses and their current predicament under neoliberal/capitalist conditions. (shrink)

Bioethical discourse on organ donation covers a wide range of topics, from informed consent procedures and scarcity issues up to ‘transplant tourism’ and ‘organ trade’. This paper presents a ‘depth ethics’ approach, notably focussing on the tensions, conflicts and ambiguities concerning the status of the human body. These will be addressed from a psychoanalytical angle. First, I will outline Lacan’s view on embodiment as such. Subsequently, I will argue that, for organ recipients, the donor organ becomes what Lacan refers to (...) as an object a, the ‘partial object’ of desire, the elusive thing we are deprived of, apparently beyond our grasp. Within the recipient’s body an empty space emerges, a kind of ‘vacuole’, once occupied by a faltering organ. This space can only be filled by a ‘gift’ from the other, by an object a. Once implanted, however, this implant becomes an ‘extimate’ object: something both ‘external’ and ‘intimate’, both ‘embedded’ and ‘foreign’, and which is bound to remain an object of concern for quite some time, if not for life. A Lacanian analysis allows us, first of all, to address the question what organ transplantation has in common with other bodily practices involving bodily parts procured from others, such as cannibalism. But it also reveals the basic difference between the two, as well as the distance between the ‘fragmented body’ of Frankenstein’s ‘monster’—as an aggregate of replaceable parts—and the multiple organ recipients of today. (shrink)

In this paper, I will reread the history of molecular genetics from a psychoanalytical angle, analysing it as a case history. Building on the developmental theories of Freud and his followers, I will distinguish four stages, namely: (1) oedipal childhood, notably the epoch of model building (1943–1953); (2) the latency period, with a focus on the development of basic skills (1953–1989); (3) adolescence, exemplified by the Human Genome Project, with its fierce conflicts, great expectations and grandiose claims (1989–2003) and (4) (...) adulthood (2003–present) during which revolutionary research areas such as molecular biology and genomics have achieved a certain level of normalcy—have evolved into a normal science. I will indicate how a psychoanalytical assessment conducted in this manner may help us to interpret and address some of the key normative issues that have been raised with regard to molecular genetics over the years, such as ‘relevance’, ‘responsible innovation’ and ‘promise management’. (shrink)

Der Autor entwickelt ein eigenständiges Konzept von Eifersucht und betrachtet sie unabhängig von anderen Emotionen, doch verwoben mit ihnen. Um die vielen Facetten der Eifersucht zu berücksichtigen, schlägt er ein psychoanalytisches Prozessmodell vor, das den je individuellen Verlauf einer Eifersuchtsentwicklung in den Blick nimmt. Anhand von Beispielen werden die lebensgeschichtlichen Eifersuchts-Dreiecke mit den Verlaufsordnungen normaler und pathologischer Eifersucht, den unterschiedlichen Reaktionen auf Eifersucht und der Psychogenese eifersüchtiger Pathologie verknüpft. Den Mechanismus der Eifersucht sieht er, bei aller Komplexität, in einer unbewussten (...) Strategie: Äußerlich inszenierte Konflikte der Erwachseneneifersucht sollen dazu dienen, Kränkung und Scham zu bewältigen und die wachgerufenen Emotionen kindlicher, teils traumatischer Beziehungserfahrungen niederzuhalten. (shrink)

It is often suggested that people in large groups behave and act differently than when they are alone. More precisely, it is an often-repeated claim that they tend to act in a morally problematic or plainly reprehensible way. Still, a fully satisfying explanation has not yet been given for why this is the case. In this paper, I suggest that the phenomenon of shared moods may play a crucial role here. In order to explicate and support this thesis, first, I (...) will point out the problem in a more detailed way while also considering findings in social psychology. Second, I will give a sketch of how shared moods should be conceptualized as a special affective phenomenon by refering to the discussion of collective intentionality and emotions. Thirdly and finally, I will address concretely the question of what might make shared moods morally precarious by distinguishing also between collective and joint moods that both can change a person’s self-understanding as an actor. (shrink)

The paper critically reconstructs the crowd psychological heritage in phenomenological and social science emotion research. It shows how the founding figures of phenomenology and sociology uncritically adopted Le Bon’s crowd psychological imagery as well as what I suggest calling the disease model of emotion transfer. Against this background, it can be examined how Le Bon’s understanding of emotional contagion as an automatic, involuntary, and uncontrollable mechanism has remained a dominant force in emotion research until today. However, a closer look at (...) phenomenological descriptions and empirical investigations of how emotion’s spread shows that there is little evidence supporting Le Bon’s crowd psychological framework. Thus, I suggest that the disease model should be dismissed in favor of more plausible approaches to interpersonal emotion dynamics. (shrink)

Sigmund Freuds »Jenseits des Lustprinzips« und die darin entwickelte Todestriebhypothese werden seit 100 Jahren kontrovers diskutiert, wobei die »zaudernde« Rezeption den im Text beschriebenen und vorgeführten »Zauderrhythmus« des Freud’schen Denkens abbildet. Die vorliegende Arbeit nimmt ausgehend von einer Skizze der Freud’schen Kernannahmen zum Todestrieb eine werkgeschichtliche Einordnung vor und stellt dann die Rezeptionsgeschichte einschließlich der Vorschläge zur Modifikationen in verschiedenen psychoanalytischen Denklinien vor (Klein-Bion, Lacan und andere französische Autoren, Bedeutung der Aggression). Neuere Ansätze werden unter dem Blickwinkel dialektischen Denkens und (...) des Einbezugs von Objektverlust betrachtet und Bezüge zur Sozialpsychologie und Kulturphilosophie dargestellt. Geendet wird in einer Diskussion der Konzeptualisierung »jenseits« des Lustprinzips, des Status des Todestriebs als Trieb sowie der Frage nach einem Triebmonismus. (shrink)

Psychological traumatisation, as we understand it today, was—in terms of the history of ideas—anticipated by various approaches which have had a lasting impact on modern psychiatry, psychotherapy, and psychosomatic medicine. On the one hand, there is the traditional concept of possession and exorcism with its impressive psychodynamics. On the other hand, there is the theory of the imagination, of an illusion in the sense of a pathogenic infection. Especially the pathological teachings of Paracelsus (sixteenth century) and Johann Baptist van Helmont (...) (seventeenth century)—the latter having advanced the former’s alchemist approach—demonstrate the extent to which demonological, parasitological, and psychological ideas were amalgamated in their ontological notion of a disease. Only the introduction of hypnotism in the middle of the nineteenth century made possible a psychological or psychodynamic understanding of psychological trauma in the modern sense. Hypnotism was striving to strictly dissociate from the magical and natural philosophical speculations of mesmerism and its theory was quite compatible with the model representations of scientific medicine. Sigmund Freud was able to tie in his ideas of hysteria and neurosis with this concept and especially to define repression of (infantile) sexuality as the cause of a culturally ineluctable psychological trauma. Finally, a brief survey of medical history is given to explore artificial trauma as a healing factor. (shrink)

Egoism and altruism are unequal contenders in the explanation of human behaviour. While egoism tends to be viewed as natural and unproblematic, altruism has always been treated with suspicion, and it has often been argued that apparent cases of altruistic behaviour might really just be some special form of egoism. The reason for this is that egoism fits into our usual theoretical views of human behaviour in a way that altruism does not. This is true on the biological level, where (...) an evolutionary account seems to favour egoism, as well as on the psychological level, where an account of self-interested motivation is deeply rooted in folk psychology and in the economic model of human behaviour. While altruism has started to receive increasing support in both biological and psychological debates over the last decades, this paper focuses on yet another level, where egoism is still widely taken for granted.Philosophical egoism is the view that, on the ultimate level of intentional explanation, all action is motivated by one of the agent's desires. This view is supported by the standard notion that for a complex of behaviour to be an action, there has to be a way to account for that behaviour in terms of the agent's own pro-attitudes.Psychologicalaltruists, it is claimed, arephilosophicalegoists in that they are motivated by desires that have the other's benefit rather than the agent's own for its ultimate object. This paper casts doubt on this thesis, arguing that empathetic agents act on other people's pro-attitudes in very much the same way as agents usually act on their own, and that while other-directed desires do play an important role in many cases of psychologically altruistic action, they are not necessary in explanations of some of the most basic and most pervasive types of human altruistic behaviour. The paper concludes with the claim that philosophical egoism is really a cultural value rather than a conceptual feature of action. (shrink)

Admiration and adoration have been considered as emotions with the power to change people, yet our knowledge of the specific nature and function of these emotions is quite limited. From an interdisciplinary perspective, we present a prototype approach to admiration and what has variously been labelled adoration, worship, or reverence. Both admiration and adoration contribute to the formation of personal and collective ideals, values, and identities, but their workings differ. We offer a detailed theoretical account of commonalities and differences in (...) the appraisal patterns and action tendencies associated with the two emotions. This analysis reveals that admiration motivates the internalisation and emulation of ideals embodied by an outstanding role model. Adoration motivates adherence to the teachings and expectations of a meaning maker and benefactor perceived as superhuman or sacred. Thus, the primary function of admiration is to promote individual learning and change, whereas adoration primarily serves to bind communities together. (shrink)

Der Beitrag fragt danach, was einem Subjekt durch ein psychisches Trauma angetan wird. In diesem Zusammenhang setzt er sich mit Tendenzen auseinander, die derzeit in der Psychoanalyse im Umgang mit Traumata zu beobachten sind: Steht ein Trauma im Zentrum ihrer Aufmerksamkeit, tendierten Psychoanalytiker dazu, darin ein für ihre klinische Arbeit spezielles oder gar außergewöhnliches Problem zu sehen, das nach »etwas Anderem« als der grundlegenden Methode der Psychoanalyse verlangt. Demgegenüber wird die Auffassung vertreten, dass ein Trauma untrennbar mit dem Seelenleben verwoben (...) ist. So etwas wie eine nichttraumatische Psychopathologie, so der Autor, gibt es nicht. Jede traumatisierte Psyche, unabhängig von der Intensität des Traumas, stehe darum im Grunde vor demselben Problem: Wie lässt sich der grundsätzliche Mechanismus der Wiederholung überwinden und eine ergebnisoffene Symbolisierung erreichen? Um diese Prozesse beschreiben zu können – die auch anhand einer Vignette illustriert werden –, schlägt der Autor die Unterscheidung zwischen »Subjektivität« und »Subjektalität« vor. (shrink)

Die Unvollkommenheit des Menschen zwingt ihn biologisch zu Kompensationen, die in den kulturellen Leistungen zum Ausdruck kommen. Psychologisch bedeutet diese Unvollkommenheit eine Offenheit hinsichtlich einer unendlichen Vielfalt schöpferischer Möglichkeiten. Während Alfred Adlers Überlegungen auf den Finalismus einer idealen Gemeinschaft als die noch zu vollendende Evolution zielen, stellen Sigmund Freud und Donald W. Winnicott die Unabschließbarkeit seelischer Entwicklungen heraus. Die Unvollkommenheit des Seelischen kann sich in alle Richtungen entfalten, muss aber dabei immer mit den unvermeidlichen Konsequenzen rechnen. Das Umgehen mit unserer (...) Unvollkommenheit kann durchaus misslingen und führt zu Abwehrmaßnahmen, durch die die Menschen gottähnlich werden wollen. (shrink)

Schlaglichtartig wird in die Biographie eines der wichtigsten Freud-Schüler eingeführt: Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957). Dass dieser aus einem – im Vergleich zu Freud – positiven Menschenbild radikalere Sozialkritik ableitete und offen politisch »links«, dann auch antifaschistisch agierte, trug maßgeblich zum Zerwürfnis mit Freud um 1930 und zur Ächtung Reichs in der IPA ab 1933 bei. Im selben Jahr veröffentlichte Reich seine Schrift »Massenpsychologie des Faschismus«. Dort baut er nicht nur auf Erkenntnissen Freuds auf, er führt diese auch weiter. Reich, der zur (...) Niederschlagung des ­Faschismus beitragen wollte, deckt die Entstehung und Wirkung jener typischen Charakterstrukturen auf, die die Basis der faschis­tischen Bewegungen in Europa bildeten. Ausführlich beschreibt er, wie diese Strukturen durch patriarchalische Sozialisierung, ins­besondere ­Sexualunterdrückung, hergestellt werden. Sein Augenmerk richtet er zudem auf das Wechselspiel zwischen Geführten und Führern: Im Unterschied zu Freud möchte Reich letzteren keine »eigene Psycho­logie« zubilligen, sondern versteht sie als austauschbare Gallionsfiguren, die die – nicht zuletzt neurotischen – Charakterstrukturen einer Masse besonders effizient repräsentieren. (shrink)

Dieser Aufsatz liest das während des Ersten Weltkriegs begonnene Lustspiel-Fragment Timon der Redner als einen Versuch Hofmannsthals, ausgehend von der Geldthematik und Figurentypik bei Shakespeare zu einer kritischen Inszenierung des modernen Massenstaates und dessen Sozialdynamiken zu gelangen. Hierbei stützte er sich auf sozialpsychologische Studien Sigmund Freuds und Gustave Le Bons sowie auf Max Webers Herrschaftssoziologie. Als Wirkungsabsicht hinter dieser Ironisierung des allegorisierten Masse-Führermodells zeichnet sich die Re-Etablierung von legitimen Autoritätsstrukturen im Faszinosum der Dichtung ab, welche das Politische authentisch gestaltet.

Zwischen 1920 und 1925 kam es nach Vorarbeiten von Jones, Abraham, Stärcke, van Ophuijsen und Alexander sowie in Abrahams Hauptwerk, dem Versuch einer Entwicklungsgeschichte der Libido, zu einer Veränderung der psychoanalytischen Theorie, die sich vor allem auf die Stellung der Aggression bezog. Die stärkere Gewichtung der präödipalen Aggression wurde in London in erster Linie von Abrahams Analysanden James und Edward Glover durchgeführt. Ihre Arbeiten bereiteten den Boden für die Rezeption von Melanie Klein, einer weiteren Abraham-Analysandin, die ihrerseits von Alix Strachey, (...) auch sie eine Analysandin Abrahams, sowie von Ernest Jones unterstützt wurde. Klein entwickelte in der Analyse mit Kindern eine Technik, die sich bevorzugt auf die Wahrnehmung und Deutung der Aggression in der Stunde bezog. All dies, ohne dass Freud die neue Linie begrüßt hätte, was aber seit dem Erstarken der lokalen Gruppen in Berlin und London nicht mehr so stark ins Gewicht fiel. Gleichwohl blieb die Frage nach der Stellung der Aggression in der Schwebe, während sich Freud bis zuletzt für das Primat des Sexuellen aussprach und sich von den Positionen der hier erwähnten Schüler zwischen 1920 und 1925 mehrere Male ausdrücklich distanzierte. (shrink)

Freuds Entwurf von »Trauer und Melancholie« vom Februar 1915, der 1996 publiziert wurde, steht im Zentrum der Untersuchung. Nach einer Zusammenfassung der Thesen des Entwurfs werden Ferenczis und Abrahams Reaktionen auf den Text sowie Freuds Kommentar zu ihren Stellungnahmen dargestellt. Freuds partielle Übernahme von Ferenczis Introjektion und seine Zurückhaltung gegenüber Abrahams »Munderotik und Sadismus« werden erörtert sowie die Frage, ob und inwiefern die Einwürfe der Schüler in die Endfassung von »Trauer und Melancholie« einflossen, insbesondere Abrahams theoretischer Ansatz. Abschließend wird der (...) Begriff der narzisstischen Identifizierung, der den Kern von Freuds Verständnis der Depression bildet, mit seinen aus der gleichen Zeit stammenden Ausführungen über die »Vorstufen der Liebe« zu einem Bild der narzisstischen Beziehung zwischen Subjekt und Objekt zusammengefügt, unter Betonung der klinischen Relevanz der von Freud entwickelten Differenz zwischen der narzisstischen und libidinösen Besetzung des Objekts. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung: Die politische Grenze, die in der Erzählung vom Goldenen Kalb schematisch gesetzt wird, ähnelt zeitgenössischen autoritären wie auch demokratischen Strategien, Macht durch gesellschaftliche Spaltungen auszuüben. In Bezug auf die Überlagerung politischer Differenzen mit moralischen und religiösen Werturteilen, die Verabsolutierung von Privilegien und die Verschleierung des Gesetzes scheint die in der Episode vom Goldenen Kalb erzählte Spaltung systematische Parallelen zu gegenwärtigen Praktiken innergesellschaftlicher Grenzziehung aufzuweisen. Die Aktualität der Berufung auf religiöse Erzählungen, rhetorische Polarisierungen oder antagonistische Symboliken macht die Kritik und (...) Analyse der politisch-theologischen Sakralisierung politischer Differenzen zu einem wesentlichen Gegenstand der Aufklärung über die religiösen Grundlagen politischer Gewalt. Der Artikel interpretiert mit Verweis auf textkritische Analysen der Erzählung die Abspaltung der Leviten vom restlichen Volk als kultisch inszenierte militärische Aktion zur Herstellung und Befestigung von Privilegien durch Grausamkeit, den Tanz um das Goldene Kalb als Strategie der Konsolidierung einer durch die Abwesenheit von Gesetz und Führung verunsicherten Gemeinschaft und die Konstruktion gesellschaftlicher Antagonismen als Kompensation für die Verschleierung des Gesetzes. Abschließend wird diskutiert, inwiefern diese Strategien auch in Demokratien zentrale Merkmale der Konstituierung kollektiver Identitäten, Privilegien und Gewaltbeziehungen sind und ob es in Demokratien auch Raum für die Neuverhandlung innergesellschaftlicher Grenzen gibt. (shrink)

In this article, the author examines different theories and approaches to mass movements in the historical process and their impact on the condition of Western culture. In the short introduction, the main historical, cultural and philosophical origins of the mass movements from antiquity to present time are described. This paper examines the question why the social and cultural influence of the man of mass is difficult to predict. To answer this question, the author demonstrates the continuing transition from the psychology (...) of the crowd to the structure of mass instinct and collective interaction. The first part exposes general psychological characteristics of the mob according to the ideas of Gustave Le Bon. Le Bon describes masses as emotional, irresponsible, uncritical and conservative, although marks heroism and sacrifice as their positive manifestations. In the second part, the author reflects upon the perspective of Gabriel Tard on this problem. Tard’s term “public opinion” deals with the representatives who – while living in separation – participate in the mass communication. In the third part, attestations of the mass such as humility, conformism and obsession are investigated based on the ideas of Sigmund Freud. The next point of the article is devoted to Jose Ortega y Gasset’s concept of the revolt of masses. Ortega captures the ambivalence of masses who express the power ambition and indifference to culture. From the point of view of Hannah Arendt, masses become terrible, self-satisfied, atomized, unstructured and anonymous. However, Elias Canetti defines masses as compressed and scattered, closed and open, fast and slow. Yet different parameters of the masses one can find in Siegfried Kracauer’s writing – namely aesthetics, technicism, ritual. Finally, in the last part, the author appeals to Jean Baudrillard’s approach to the problem who declares that masses became silent and indistinct. (shrink)

This essay focuses on the ongoing references made to the ban on graven images for the foundation of political aesthetics. In this tradition the image itself plays a significant role in the creation of a dichotomy in which the image becomes either “icon” or false appearance. The image in this tradition is a powerful agent and gains as such performative power. From the Bible to Kant and German idealism to Adorno and Deleuze, the prohibition of the image signals its power (...) and turns it into a strong magnet in political aesthetics, may it be affirmative or negative. (shrink)

Ausgehend von einem kurzem Blick in die Geschichte des Einfühlungskonzepts betrachtet der Beitrag zunächst dessen begriffliche Entwicklung in der Psychoanalyse. Empathie, so die These, sei als moderne Konzeption von Einfühlung unter dem Einfluss der Nachbarwissenschaften zu einem verkörperlichten Zugang für ich-syntone Anteile im anderen geworden. Vorgeschlagen wird, Empathie um psychoanalytische Verstehenselemente zu erweitern, um auch einen Zugang zum Unbewussten, Verdrängten, dem Ich Fremden zu finden, und dazu zum klassischen Begriff der Einfühlung zurückzukehren. Unter Rückgriff auf Waldenfels’ Phänomenologie des Fremden und (...) das von der Kleinkindforschung herausgearbeitete affektiv-kognitive Gedächtnissystem wird Einfühlung als kreative Antwort auf ein pathisches Ereignis im unmittelbaren Kontakt zum anderen spezifiziert. Dabei kann auch zwischenkörperlich gewonnenes Verstehen nach der hier vertretenen Auffassung immer nur subjektiv sein und seine transformative Kraft vor allem im korrigierenden Dialog entfalten. (shrink)

Der Autor entwickelt einige Überlegungen zu Hintergründen und Bestimmungen von Individual- und Massen­psychologie, wie sie Sigmund Freud in »Massenpsychologie und Ich-Analyse« gibt, und verfolgt nach, wie diese bei Theodor W. Adorno und Hans Kelsen aufgenommen werden.

The international research on teams, which is inspired by the input-process-output model, is mostly empirical. Researchers in this field look for causal explanations between independent (e.g., team size and team composition) and dependent (e.g., team performance) variables. Recently, some critics have pointed to the deficits in this model. Especially, the temporal, contextual, and dynamic aspects of teams need to be investigated further (multilevel approach). Emergent states, such as team cognitions, team emotions, and team hierarchies, comprise a promising field of study (...) that leads to a more comprehensive and holistic understanding of teams. These emergent states offer an opportunity to reconcile former concepts (Lewin’s gestalt, Koestler’s holarchy, and Cattell’s syntality) with topical team research. Therefore, the future of research on teams may partly lie in its past. (shrink)

This article explores the implications of Balibar’s strategic decision to add Freud to the series of the thinkers of the transindividual. This move, I argue, both illuminates the other philosophers’ contribution to our understanding of transindividuality, but also creates some tensions within the triad Spinoza, Marx, Freud. After exploring both aspects, the reciprocal tensions and the reciprocal illumination, I will move on to analysing the relationship between the transindividual and the imaginal, as both concepts signal a questioning of the dichotomy (...) ‘individual versus society’ and thus can be seen as the result of the same movement of thought. (shrink)

Die spekulative Anthropologie von Sigmund Freuds »Totem und Tabu« ist in »Massenpsychologie und Ich-­Analyse« in Form einer Selbstwiderlegung präsent, die von eminent politischer Natur ist. Denn das theoretische Aufkommen einer spezifisch trans­individuellen Struktur, aus der sowohl das Individuum als auch das Soziale hervorgehen, maximiert die Spannung mit dem Evolutions­mythos. Indem sie das Individuum zu einem Effekt der Masse macht, eröffnet Freuds neue Ontologie der Beziehung, die sich auf das Schema der Identifizierung stützt, zwei entgegengesetzte Interpretationswege. Der eine, regressive, identifiziert die (...) Entstehung der Masse mit der Wiederholung des ursprünglichen Vatermordes: Er denkt die Regression zur Ununterscheidbarkeit nach dem Modell der Hypnose. Die andere, repressive, setzt das Über-Ich als Ursprung der Schuld voraus, um die Individualisierung als Autonomisierung gegenüber der Masse zu denken. (shrink)

It could be conceivable that society is not an organism, that it has no structure, that it functions only temporarily or seemingly. The most obvious analogies are not the best. The Human Province, p.245 True, he [man] wants to “preserve” himself, but he also simultaneously wants other things which are inseparable from this.Crowds and Power, p. 293 The planning nature of man is a very late addition that violates his essential, his transforming nature.The Secret Heart of the Clock, p. 119 (...) Man, regarding himself as the measure of all things, is almost unknown. His progress in self-knowledge is minimal, every new theory obscures more of him than it illuminates. The Conscience of Words, p. 111. (shrink)

Social ontology is the study of the nature and properties of the social world. It is concerned with analyzing the various entities in the world that arise from social interaction. -/- A prominent topic in social ontology is the analysis of social groups. Do social groups exist at all? If so, what sorts of entities are they, and how are they created? Is a social group distinct from the collection of people who are its members, and if so, how is (...) it different? What sorts of properties do social groups have? Can they have beliefs or intentions? Can they perform actions? And if so, what does it take for a group to believe, intend, or act? -/- Other entities investigated in social ontology include money, corporations, institutions, property, social classes, races, genders, artifacts, artworks, language, and law. It is difficult to delineate a precise scope for the field (see section 2.1). In general, though, the entities explored in social ontology largely overlap with those that social scientists work on. A good deal of the work in social ontology takes place within the social sciences (see sections 5.1–5.8). -/- Social ontology also addresses more basic questions about the nature of the social world. One set of questions pertains to the constituents, or building blocks, of social things in general. For instance, some theories argue that social entities are built out of the psychological states of individual people, while others argue that they are built out of actions, and yet others that they are built out of practices. Still other theories deny that a distinction can even be made between the social and the non-social. -/- A different set of questions pertains to how social categories are constructed or set up. Are social categories and kinds produced by our attitudes? By our language? Are they produced by causal patterns? And is there just one way social categories are set up, or are there many varieties of social construction? -/- The term ‘social ontology’ has only come into wide currency in recent years, but the nature of the social has been a topic of inquiry since ancient Greece. As a whole, the field can be understood as a branch of metaphysics, the general inquiry into the nature of entities. (shrink)

The aim of this work is to illustrate the psychological contributions of Pragmatism and of the Original Institutional Economics (also referred to as OIE or institutionalism), and their relevance for improving the process of social valuing and, as a consequence, the effectiveness of policy action. As a matter of fact, both institutionalist and pragmatist theories were well acquainted with various strands of psychology, and some of them also provided relevant contributions in this respect. Moreover, these theories reveal, along with various (...) differences, significant complementarities, both between themselves and with important concepts of social psychology and psychoanalysis. The work will address the following aspects: (I) The main characteristics of pragmatist psychology with particular attention to their social implications. For space reasons, we will focus attention on the contributions of authors – John Dewey, William James and George Herbert Mead – more oriented to social sciences. (II) The psychological contributions of institutionalism. We will pay particular attention to Thorstein Veblen's theory of instincts and John Rogers Commons' theory of negotiational psychology. We highlight that these theories present, despite a number of differences, relevant complementarities. (shrink)

Este artigo tem por objetivo analisar se não seria o caso que o trato diferenciado dedicado a cidadãos nacionais e imigrantes seria discriminatório. A questão dos imigrantes internacionais aflora atualmente nos mais distintos campos da sociedade. Entretanto, o foco da discussão aqui não é somente o ato de cruzar as fronteiras – ponto central de grande parte das publicações filosóficas sobre imigração. O cerne é a diferença entre direitos e obrigações de imigrantes internacionais e cidadãos nacionais. Não se trata de (...) cidadãos de um ou outro país, mas da categoria ‘cidadão nacional’ frente à categoria ‘estrangeiro’, independentemente do país. Será discutido o conceito de discriminação, a fim de que, sobre o pano de fundo deste conceito, sejam debatidas as restrições aos direitos dos estrangeiros. Com isso, pretende-se demonstrar que este tratamento diferenciado caracterizaria uma discriminação, pois os argumentos que sustentariam a diferenciação são insuficientes para justificá-la. -/- This paper aims to analyze whether the differential treatment dedicated to national citizens and immigrants would be discriminatory. The issue of international migrants arises today in very different fields of society. However, the core of the discussion here is not only the act of crossing borders – focus of much of the philosophical publications about immigration. The focus of the analysis is the difference of rights and obligations between international migrants and national citizens. It is not about one country or another, but the discussion concern the category ‘national citizen’ in relation to the ‘foreign’, regardless of the country. We will discuss the concept of discrimination, in order to debate the restrictions over the rights of the strangers on the background of this conceptualization. Our goal is to show that this differential treatment would characterize as discrimination, because the arguments that support this differentiation are insufficient for justifying it. (shrink)

What does it mean to ‘make love?’ Or, rather, what are we doing when we ‘make love?’ This expression makes of love a praxis on which the history of philosophy, rather modest, has said little. Philosophy has certainly evoked love, but always as a passion, an emotion, a feeling, and rarely as an action, exercise or even as a test. It is this aspect of the issue that it is important to study in order to determine it. At bottom, only (...) a definition will be in question. (shrink)