Abstract

Regulation of Behavior in the Period between the World Wars: Robert Musil and Kurt Lewin. The paper attempts to reconstruct the proto‐cybernetic concept of regulation which emerged in early 20th century both in biology and psychology, and was critically reflected in literature. The basic premise is that Kurt Lewin's field‐theoretical psychology played a crucial role in the development of behavioral self‐regulation concepts. The goal is to show (1) that Lewin's early experiments and theories were based on the idea of a dynamic process of self‐regulation determined by the actors and their personal motivation and interaction, (2) that this concept of self‐regulation functioned as a camouflage for power‐strategies that aimed to regulate and optimize the economic production and social reproduction processes, (3) that in Robert Musil's fragmentary, ‘fringing’ novel The Man without Qualities the attempt to optimize the social and economic behavior and to establish a homeostatic state proved to be a complete failure. As a notable result, this ‘literary test’ of behavioral self‐regulation revealed the violence and imbalance of power inherent in this concept of self‐regulation and its practical implementation.