Inner weaker self
The term inner weaker self describes - often as a reproach - the allegory of weak will , which prevents a person from performing unpleasant activities, although they are either seen as ethical (e.g. to tackle problems, to expose themselves to danger, etc.) or for the person in question makes sense (e.g. following a diet). The allegory can thus be brought into direct connection with motivation ; and it is a metaphorical description of akrasia .
Most of the time, people talk about overcoming their weaker self , in order to make it clear that personal inclination is not decisive for completing a certain task, but rather self-discipline . This connection also suggests a point of view according to which ultimately everyone has an inner weaker self and the flaw is only to give in to this reluctance.
etymology
The word component pig dog was already known in the student language of the 19th century as a rough swear word and goes back to the pig dog used for wild boar hunting . Its tasks such as chasing , tiring and holding on were transferred to the character traits of vicious people. The word only exists in German and cannot be translated literally.
use
The expression inner weaker self was already in use during and after the First World War (General Kurt von Schleicher ), as the journalist Werner Sonntag pointed out ( column in "RunnersWorld", March 2003). Its use in the German Reichstag by the SPD -Abgeordneten Kurt Schumacher on 23 February 1932, a call to order . Schumacher used it in the sense that the National Socialists appealed to the weaker self, that is, to the lowest motives of the people. He said that National Socialism "succeeded in completely mobilizing human stupidity for the first time in German politics." A short time later, on July 26, 1932, von Schleicher, then Reichswehr Minister , used the term in a radio address in the current sense with military virtues. Thereupon Leon Trotsky wrote that all communists should “adopt the soldier formula”, referring to the domestic opponent, the National Socialists .
During the Second World War it was general Landserdeutsch and afterwards it was used for a long time by trainers and gymnastics instructors as “defeating one's weaker self ”, that is, overcoming laziness and a lack of discipline. Lately the "inner weaker self " has been used melioratively . Dog caricatures serve to illustrate motivation books in which methods for dealing with weak wills are formulated.
The writer Ingvar Ambjørnsen thinks that the "bastard" is well known in Scandinavia. The German occupiers constantly use this word in comics there, which have the Second World War as their motif. The similar Danish expression Indre Svinehund means the malicious, hateful urge that hides behind a person's seemingly friendly and tolerant appearance.
See also
Web links
- Books and recordings on the subject of the pig dog in the catalog of the German National Library
- Minutes of the Reichstag speech by Kurt Schumacher from 1932
- Sound document of Schumacher's speech
Individual evidence
- ↑ den indre svinehund - Den Danske Ordbog. Retrieved March 30, 2018 (Danish).
