Ethnopsychoanalysis

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Ethnopsychoanalysis is a science that takes into account and complements psychoanalysis and ethnology . By examining two complementary disciplines, the ethno-psychoanalyst can improve in the practice of both and gain deeper insights into phenomena that are significant in behavioral science.

Origins

Ethnopsychoanalysis goes back to Sigmund Freud's Totem and Tabu . Paul Parin , his wife Goldy Parin-Matthèy and Fritz Morgenthaler developed it further on the basis of psychoanalytic studies in Africa with the Dogon and Agni tribes . Georges Devereux recommended in his work Fear and Method in the Behavioral Sciences (original 1967) a complementary approach to behavioral science topics. Mario Erdheim made the societal dependency of the production of unconsciousness a topic and explored the role of the unconscious in culture. Johannes Reichmayr published two overview works on ethnopsychoanalysis between 1995 and 2003. In Germany, ethnopsychoanalysis was mainly continued by Maya Nadig , a student of Paul Parin. She developed the ethno-psychoanalytical interpretation workshop as a method for evaluating data obtained in field research.

Method in general

Verobjektivierende representation in art: The signatories of the lying woman (woodcut by Albrecht Durer , 1525) - with this technical method is the question of the ambivalence of the feelings and the contrast between empathy versus objectivity provided

The most important source of data for the material from the field research is the researcher 's own experience, who conducts the research process in participatory observation . The researcher's experience is processed in the form of diary entries and records of conversations with psychoanalytic technology ( self-analysis , depth psychology , hermeneutics based on the analysis of transference and countertransference ). Only in a second step is this related to the cultural and economic living conditions of the researched persons. This should enable unprejudiced conclusions to be drawn about the subjective experience of the people to be researched. Such conclusions are more likely to be impaired by existing fantasies of omnipotence due to unconscious preconditions of the researcher determined by culturally or group dynamics ( ethnocentrism ). Based on this understanding of cultural and social conditions, existing and possibly new meanings can be discussed and, based on this, influence on the individuals themselves can be exercised and barriers overcome. Nevertheless, the empathy (appears empathy ) to convey a very immediate and purely personal impulse to act. The behavior of a person is evaluated as the sum of the previous life practice and the expectations of the listener. This expectation horizon should not only be determined by the acquisition of objective data (compare the illustration by Dürer), but in particular allow empathy a wide scope.

Pendulum movement between cultures

An essential tool of knowledge for ethno-psychoanalysis is what Mario Erdheim calls the “pendulum movement between cultures”. This consists in the fact that knowledge gained by means of psychoanalysis about a foreign culture has an effect on one's own culture and only thereby acquire their actual value. The peculiarities of a foreign culture only emerge when a reference is made to one's own culture. Conversely, certain elements of one's own culture can only be understood when they are linked to a foreign culture. "What it means to be Swiss only becomes clear to you when you want to understand what is foreign and come up against your own barriers."

The pendulum movement can take place on different levels and z. B. in addition to certain elements of culture also have an impact on the subjectivity of the researcher or on methodological findings that are developed in the research of the foreign culture and also applied to one's own culture. Paul Parin, Fritz Morgenthaler and Goldy Parin-Matthèy have already established this retrospectively in their first major African study, which is a pioneering work in ethnopsychoanalysis:

“The method of recognizing typical cultural conflicts with the help of psychoanalysis, as we tried with the Dogon, has proven itself here and there in the more complex conditions of industrialized states with a capitalist economic system. Psychological mechanisms in their connection with socialization and with social conflicts, which we have described with the Dogon, can also be uncovered in us. So we continue to examine critically the social and political wilderness in which we live.

As psychoanalysts, because of the vivid experience with Africans, we have become freer and more courageous, better able to respond to the social relationships of our analysands in Europe, and less inclined to view behavior that differs from our own as pathological. This also had an effect on our theoretical views. "

In more recent ethno-psychoanalysis, the pendulum movement between cultures is linked to certain topics that are considered to be particularly important. On the one hand, this involves examining the role of the unconscious in historical development. On the other hand, the phase of life of adolescence and its importance for cultural changes come to the fore.

Ethno-psychoanalytical process

The ethno-psychoanalytical process is a method with which approaches and findings from psychoanalysis and ethnology are systematically linked. It is characteristic that two different dimensions are taken into account. One is the biographical dimension, in which the researcher includes his own subjectivity in the cognitive process. Here, the perception of the foreign culture and the foreign life is taken into account in its effect on the researcher and his unconscious.

The second dimension of the ethno-psychoanalytic process is the scientific one. This gathers knowledge about the living conditions of the examined or interviewed persons (e.g. social, economic or religious conditions) under the aspect of relevance for the life of the examined persons. In addition, theories are taken into account that interpret the structures of living conditions (e.g. on ethnicity, on so-called "underdevelopment" or on popular belief).

Parallels in psychotherapy

A parallel to the “research process in participatory observation” in psychotherapy is, for example, the “ evenly suspended attention ” recommended by Freud .

meaning

Ethno-psychoanalytical research is currently of great importance due to the many fates of immigrants in psychotherapeutic treatments, which were previously difficult to achieve without considering and researching the cultural background. This is particularly true for the military interventions of major Western powers in culturally shaped conflicts of interest.

See also

literature

  • Georges Devereux : Anxiety and Method in the Behavioral Sciences. Hanser, Munich 1973, as TB Suhrkamp taschenbuchwissenschaft 461, ISBN 3-518-28061-9 .
  • Mario Erdheim : The social production of unconsciousness. An introduction to the ethno-psychoanalytical process. 7th edition Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-518-28065-1 .
  • Johannes Reichmayr : Introduction to Ethnopsychoanalysis. History, theories and methods. Complete revised New edition. Fischer Tb., Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-596-10650-8 .
  • Johannes Reichmayr: Ethnopsychoanalysis. History, concepts, applications. Psychosozial-Verlag, Giessen 2003, ISBN 3-89806-166-3 .
  • Johannes Reichmayr, Ursula Wagner, Caroline Ouederrou, Binja Pletzer: Psychoanalysis and Ethnology. Biographical lexicon of psychoanalytic ethnology, ethnopsychoanalysis and intercultural psychoanalytic therapy. Psychosozial-Verlag, Giessen 2003.
  • Paul Parin , Fritz Morgenthaler , Goldy Parin-Matthèy : The whites think too much. Psychoanalytic investigations among the Dogon in West Africa. 3rd edition, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1983 (first edition 1963), ISBN 3-596-42079-2 .
  • David Signer : Constructions of the Unconscious. Agni in West Africa from an ethno-psychoanalytical and post-structuralist perspective . Vienna: Passagen Verlag (dissertation 1994). (Critical examination of Paul Parin.)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Mario Erdheim : The social production of unconsciousness. An introduction to the ethno-psychoanalytical process. Suhrkamp pocket book science 456, Frankfurt / Main, 2 1988, ISBN 3-518-28065-1 ; (a) to Stw. "Objectifying observation" p. 8, 169 f. (Kraepelin); (b) Re. "Doctor-patient relationship": pp. IX, 86, 107, 161, 166, 169 ff., 173.
  2. ↑ Otto Bach : About the subject dependence of the image of reality in psychiatric diagnosis and therapy. In: Gerhard AE Rudolf, Norbert Leygraf and others: Psychiatry today: Aspects and perspectives. Festschrift for Rainer Tölle. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Munich a. a. 1994, ISBN 3-541-17181-2 , p. 3.
  3. ↑ Henning Luther : The ambivalence of everyday life . Ways to people. 38. 1986, pp. 436-458, here pp. ???.
  4. ^ Mario Erdheim, The social production of unconsciousness. An introduction to the ethno-psychoanalytical process. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, ​​1st edition 1984, p. XIII, ISBN 3-518-28065-1
  5. ↑ Erdheim: The social production of unconsciousness. ... p. VII.
  6. ↑ Paul Parin, Fritz Morgenthaler, Goldy Parin-Matthèy: The whites think too much. Psychoanalytic investigations among the Dogon in West Africa. 3rd edition, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1983 (first edition 1963), p. 18, ISBN 3-596-42079-2 .
  7. ↑ Erdheim: The social production of unconsciousness ... p. XIII ff.
  8. ↑ Erdheim: The social production of unconsciousness. ... p. VII ff.
  9. ↑ Freud, Sigmund : Advice for the doctor in psychoanalytic treatment. [1912]. In: Collected Works - Ordered Chronologically. Vol. VIII: Works from the years 1909–1913. Fischer, Frankfurt / Main 1999.

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