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1. General Concept Whereas the relationship between the individual and God or the gods in tribal religion is determined by participation in group-specific rituals (Rite), individual relationships with God become possible in the so-called high religions. Hence the personal sense of religion in the narrower sense (American usage refers more frequently to “spirituality”; P. B. Vaill, 177–88) is associated with modern subjectivity. Against the backdrop of the separation of society and religion and the …

[English Version] Winnicott, Donald Woods (7.4.1896 Plymouth – 25.1.1971 London), Kinderarzt und Psychoanalytiker, prägte den Begriff des »Übergangsobjekts« im Zwischenstadium der Entwicklung, in dem erste, noch verschwommene Strukturen der Beziehung zw. dem sich bildenden Subjekt und Objekt sich in einem sog. »intermediären Raum« niederschlagen. Dieser Vorläufer des späteren eigentlichen Objekts ist ein vertrauter Gegenstand zum Zweck der Entlastung von (Verlassenheits-)Angst (Puppe, Teddy, Schmuse…

[German Version] Imprinting denotes that part of human personality (Personality/Personality psychology) for the shaping of which external factors are responsible. In behavioral research (Konrad Lorenz), imprinting refers to a learning process in a sensitive phase during which an instinctive action (a genetically determined, typal behavior) that is not innately set in motion is irrevocably linked to a triggering signal. One may also assume that the early phase of human life is characterized by a ne…

[German Version] A term in social psychology, first used by Kurt Lewin in an English publication in 1939, which refers, first, to the field of interactive processes occurring in a group, then to the investigation of these processes. In this regard, awareness of the processes, for example, through feedback, can alter the atmosphere of the group which makes group dynamics, third, into an instrument of social technique. Jacob Levy Moreno (1892–1974; Systemic therapy) developed the method of the socio…

[German Version] (Jun 15, 1902, near Frankfurt am Main – May 12, 1994, Harwich, MA), a Dane, lived in Germany and Austria until emigrating in 1933. An autodidact with no academic degree, he worked as artist and teacher after attending the academy of arts. He became familiar with Montessori education in Vienna and undertook psychoanalytic training with Anna Freud. In California after 1939, he worked in ¶ the area between anthropology, psychoanalysis, and society or culture, held various university teaching posts, and after 1960 was professor at Harvard. Beginning with child psychology, Erikson outgrew orthodox psychoanalysis by evaluating the ego process, connecting it with the forms of life in society and their educational practices, and bringing in post-oedipal development. Thus he came to a complex view of the personality in the context of a series of crises (the doctrine of phases, epigenetic theory), in which the identity forms itself and must constantly prove itself anew. His basic attitude is considered conservative, since he regarded identity as endangered by diffusion, and not through torpor, thus proposing, rather, the stabilization of a given order. Erikson's multidisciplinary approach led psychoanalysis beyond the framework of pathology and gave it relevance for social sciences and education. His concepts (primal or basic trust, iden…

[German Version] The interrelationship between personality in its relational character and religious symbolism as an expression of comprehensive relatedness allows pathological forms of religiosity to manifest themselves as disorders of the relationship between the individual personality and its social and physical context. Following Peter Szondi, Huth (1978, 728) views drug and alcohol addiction, neurosis, and insanity as negative attempts to solve the problem of participation, parallel to philosophy and belief. The definition of what is pathological (Sickness an…

[German Version] Psychic energy (libido) is always directed toward specific “objects” of drives (Drive, Drive theory). According to S. Freud’s theory of primary narcissism, it focuses initially on the self, not yet perceived as distinct from the mother. The interruption of the symbiosis between mother and child (narcissistic wound) compels the child to turn outward. Only by perceiving him- or herself as his own person, distinct from his first attachment figure, can the child build a relationship t…

[German Version] S. Freud’s psychoanalysis teaches that reality requires converting an unsatisfied sex drive (libido) into culturally valuable and socially approved modes of behavior (art, humor) as a compromise between the demands of the id and the superego developed in the process of socialization. This compromise is enabled by “defense mechanisms” (A. Freud), a series of behavioral strategies incl…

[German Version] (May 6, 1856, Příbor [Ger. Freiberg], Moravia – Sep 23, 1939, London), lived from 1860 until his emigration in 1938 in Vienna; the son of Jewish parents, with an orthodox upbringing, the themes of his life were strongly stamped by tensions with his patriarchal father. Freud began as a neurologist (student…

[German Version] The term, introduced by Eugen Bleuler as Tiefenpsychologie in 1910 as a synonym for Freudian psychoanalysis, is commonly used in Germany (less in the Anglo-Saxon countries) as a collective ¶ term for the sometimes heatedly feuding schools, such as psychoanalysis (S. Freud), individual psychology (A. Adler), analytical or complex psychology (C.G. Jung), existence analysis (Ludwig …

[German Version] In the terminology of psychoanalysis, the phenomenon of transference refers to the patient’s emotional attitude toward the therapist, analogous to the early and earliest relationship structures ¶ within the family. Love, affection, respect (positive transference) or hate, fear, humility (negative transference) are shown to the therapist without a concrete reason. If this does take place, the therapist may find him- or herself in a state of countertransference, in which he misjudges his relatio…

[German Version] In S. Freud's understanding, the ego, along with the id and the super-ego, represents one of the three entities in the psychic system ( Das Ich und das Es, 1923; ET: The Ego and the Id, 1927). Its origin is not yet sufficiently explained in Freud's writings. Increased observation of the healthy…

[German Version] (May 3, 1913, Vienna – Oct 8, 1981, Chicago) studied medicine in Vienna, after emigration training as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist in Chicago from 1939. He set an independent psychology of the self alongside psychoanalytical drive (Drive theory) and “I” (ego) psychology. At its center stands the question of how the capacity for object love and a healthy self-awareness can arise from the initially object-free human sense of self (primary narcissism). Secondary (structured) na…

[German Version] Personality denotes the uniqueness of each individual, who realizes his or her personhood (in the philosophical or theologi-¶ cal sense; Person) in the context of his or her genetic and historico-biographical contingency. While “understanding psychology” ( verstehende Psychologie: W. Dilthey) views the uniqueness of personality, which eludes explanatory regularities, as a meaningful unity, empirical methods have been used to study these very rules and regularities, since the 1930s increasin…

[English Version] bez. in der psychoanalytischen Terminologie (Psychoanalyse) das Phänomen der gefühlsmäßigen Einstellung des Patienten zum Therapeuten in Analogie zu frühen und frühesten (intrafamiliären) Beziehungsstrukturen. Liebe, Zuneigung, Achtung (positive Ü.) oder Haß, Furcht, Demut (negative Ü.) werden dem Therapeuten entgegengebracht, ohne daß dieser konkret dazu Anlaß gegeben hätte. Falls dieses dennoch geschieht, befindet …

[English Version] . Die psychische Energie (Libido) ist jeweils auf spezifische Triebziele (Trieb, Triebtheorie), »Objekte« gerichtet. Nach S. Freuds Lehre vom primären Narzißmus bezieht sie sich zunächst auf das eigene, von der Mutter psychisch noch nicht geschiedene Selbst. Durch das Zerbrechen der Symbiose zw. Mutter und Kind (narzißtische Wunde) wird das Kind genötigt, sich nach außen zu wenden. Erst indem es sich als eigene Person von der ersten Bezugsperson unterschieden wahrnimmt, kann es e…

[English Version] . Der Begriff, von Eugen Bleuler 1910 als Synonym für die Freudsche Psychoanalyse eingeführt, ist in Deutschland (weniger in den angelsächsischen Ländern) gebräuchlich als Sammelbegriff für die sich z.T. heftig befehdenden Schulrichtungen wie Psychoanalyse (S. Freud), Individualpsychologie (A. Adler), Analytische bzw. Komplexe Psychologie (C.G. Jung), Daseinsanalyse (Ludwig Binswanger, Medard Boss), Logotherapie (V. Frankl) u.a. (vgl. Wyss). Von der T. ausgegangen sind die humani…

[English Version] . Die Wechselbeziehung von Persönlichkeit in ihrem Beziehungscharakter und rel. Symbolik als Ausdruck dieses umfassenden Bezogenseins läßt pathologische Formen von Religiosität als Störungen der Beziehung zw. der Persönlichkeit und ihrem sozialen und gegenständlichen Kontext erscheinen. Huth (1978, 728) sieht im Anschluß an Peter Szondi Sucht, Neurose und Wahn als negative P…

[English Version] . Persönlichkeit (P.) bez. die Einmaligkeit eines Menschen, der im Rahmen seiner genetischen und gesch.-biogr. Bedingtheit sein Personsein (im philos. bzw. theol. Sinn; Person) verwirklicht. Während die Verstehende Psychologie (W. Dilthey) die der gesetzmäßigen Erklärung sich entziehende Einmaligkeit der P. als eine sinnhafte Einheit betrachtet, werden mit empirischen Methoden eben diese Gesetzmäßigkeiten untersucht, seit den 30er Jahren vermehrt unter dem Gesichtspunkt des Verhältnisses von Anlage und U…

[English Version] . Die Realität erfordert im Sinne der Psychoanalyse S. Freuds die Umwandlung des unbefriedigten Sexualtriebs (Libido) in kulturell wertvolle und sozial anerkannte Verhaltensweisen (künstlerische Tätigkeit, Humor) als Kompromiß zw. den Ansprüchen des Es und dem im Sozialisationsprozeß ausgebildeten Über-Ich. Diesem Kompromiß dienen die »Abwehrmechanismen« (A. Freud), eine Reihe von Verhaltensstrategien, zu denen die S. neben Verdrängung, Substitution, Konversion, Projektion u.a. a…