Open access
FROMM’S CULTURAL PSYCHOANALYSIS AS VARIANT OF INTERPRETIVIST APPROACH
Maciej BACHRYJ-KRZYWAŹNIA1
Methodological Inquiries
Publication language: Polish
Journal article
Transformations No. 1-2 (68-69) 2011, Publication date: 12 May 2011
Abstract The aim of this article is twofold. In the first section the author presents the short philosophical debate and the assumptions that the interpretivist approach stems from. The main subject of this dispute is the nature and scientific status of social science in comparison with natural science. Two paradigms are presented: positivistic, concerned with explanation, assuming the unity of science as well as similar scientific rigour and methodological requirements for both natural and social sciences. The opposite, interpretive approach, is based on the assumption that ontology of social science is quite different if compared with natural science and requires fundamentally different procedures and methodology that focuses on understanding rather than casual explanation. Subsequent sections discuss the applicability of psychoanalysis as a theoretical background for the interpretivist approach. The author claims that phenomenological and hermeneutical elements, identified in psychoanalytic tradition by various scholars, renders it useful for the purposes of interpretive analysis. This is also the case of Fromm’s cultural approach. Several concepts are particularly relevant in this context: unconsciousness, individual and social character, psychological needs. The article ends with general clues on how such interpretive analysis, based on Fromm’s psychoanalysis, should proceed.
Zakład Europeistyki, Instytut Politologii, Wydział Nauk Społecznych Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego
E-mail: maciej.bachryj@uni.wroc.pl