Frederick Mayer
Frederick Mayer (born as Friedrich Mayer ; born August 11, 1921 in Frankfurt am Main , Germany ; † June 26, 2006 in Vienna , Austria ) was an educationalist, creativity expert and book author.
The core of his mission included commitment to global humanism, the promotion of the development of each person's own creative potential, encouragement (instead of discouragement) in all areas of society, creativity in shaping one's own life and the art of judgment in the sense of Gandhi .
Life
Mayer grew up in Hanau and later in Frankfurt. In 1936 he left Germany and boarded a cargo ship for the United States. This is how he escaped persecution by National Socialism . It came to the separation from the parents and from the older brother, William (Wilhelm), who had found asylum in England. Mayer spent years in an orphanage in California. A teacher discovered and promoted Mayer's rhetorical talent and accepted him into her rhetoric class. On a scholarship, he began studying philosophy and education ( humanities ) at the University of Southern California . In 1944 he received his doctorate summa cum laude.
Mayer worked and taught from 1944 to 1966 at the universities of Redlands and Southern California as a lecturer and university professor for philosophy and educational sciences (humanities). From 1950 until his death in 2006 he published around 70 books.
The work with which Mayer became internationally known in 1960, A History of Educational Thought , appeared in three editions, was translated into twenty languages and was a compulsory textbook at hundreds of universities. The translation into Portuguese, with contributions from Anna Freud and Jean Piaget, has had a major impact on the development of pedagogy.
Frederick Mayer also worked at the Fareed Holmes Foundation for Human Relations in Los Angeles. The aim was to help people in critical life situations in a multidisciplinary team.
Frederick Mayer was an advisor and member of scientific societies, special advisor at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara under Robert Hutchins, a liberal think tank. Frederick Mayer was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Vice President of the International Cultural Center in Vienna, Honorary Member of the Nomura Foundation in Tokyo and a member of the Austrian Chapter of the Club of Rome . In 1988 he was Honorary President of the International UNIDO-IACT Conference in Vienna, where he also formulated the “Project for the Future” within UNIDO , “Improving Industrial Administration”.
In November 1968, Frederick Mayer left the United States, prompted by the trend reversal after the Kennedy era . The attacks on John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert and Martin Luther King played a role, as did the general militarization in the course of the Vietnam War , which escalated. Mayer had lived in Austria since the early 1970s. The plan to build a third UN City in Vienna was decisive for the choice of Austria. In 1982 Frederick Mayer was awarded the Golden Medal of Merit of the State of Vienna by Mayor Helmut Zilk .
Karl Vak, General Director of Zentralsparkasse, and Frederick Mayer helped transform Vienna into an international city by founding and promoting the Vienna International Community in the era of Federal Chancellor Kreisky . At the beginning of the 1970s, Frederick Mayer was also an advisor on administrative reform projects and advisor to the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Vienna . He gave the journal for social psychology and group dynamics an international perspective.
In 1982, the magazine described him trend as the "Creativity Pope."
Frederick Mayer was buried at the Neustifter Friedhof in Vienna. The grave was later rededicated as a grave of honor .
Concepts
The following three terms play a central role in his work: dynamic upbringing , poetic lifestyle, creative expansion or creative expansion . This creative expansion is also of psycho-hygienic interest, as expansion therapy it unfolds preventive and healing effects. Empathy and encouragement, but also (positive) provocations, play a special role. For him, artistic work is another model for the holistic psychological and spiritual development of the human being. Special attention is also given to the role of the elderly, concentrated in the “Manifesto for a creative old age” ( Rethinking , 2001) and the topic of prejudice.
Frederick Mayer uses the concept of creativity very broadly: not only thinking, also feeling and especially life have something to do with creativity, or should have something to do with creativity. The creative design and planning of your own life is the very highest art that needs to be learned. This art is seldom developed, applied, researched. It has also remained largely unexplored.
Creativity also relates to a very large extent to social action and overall commitment. Creativity should be related to a view of life in which values such as social responsibility, friendship, community and goodness have priority. Abilities, skills, knowledge, virtues only make sense when they lead to good deeds.
Fear, discouragement and prejudice stand in the way of developing creativity. Prejudices correspond to prejudices. They often lead to tragedies and injustices. Nationally and internationally they promote undesirable developments and lead to military conflicts. Many of these prejudices have something to do with racism, nationalism, religious beliefs. Gender, age, occupation, health, wealth and lifestyle all play a role in matters of value.
Answering technical, scientific, and philosophical questions as well as solving everyday problems are delayed, made difficult or prevented by the emergence of prejudices.
A key role in Frederick Mayer's literary work is the description of prejudices and the warning against them. This can be seen in the title of the book Prejudices Threaten Us All . His main concern, however, is the promotion of creativity in the sense of the ideals and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi ( Satyagraha , "devotion to the truth", deeds as a consequence of knowledge), Socrates (critical thinking) and Epictetus (encouragement to moral action). In this context, Mayer differentiates between “real creativity”, which pays attention to social and ecological responsibility, from destructive creativity. Examples of the latter are inventions for the military, ideologically motivated "purges" (expulsions, genocide, concentration camps), techniques to promote economic exploitation ( capitalism ), manipulative techniques in politics and advertising, and methods of intimidation in the world of work, but also in parenting and in relationships. For Frederick Mayer, forms of social creativity include techniques of encouragement, provocation and challenge. “Goodness as a way of life” (a book title) plays a special role for him. Mayer repeatedly encourages the founding of “loving institutions”, for example in the education sector.
Fonts
Works in English (selection)
- 1950: Essentialism
- 1951: A History of Modern Philosophy
- 1953: Great Ideas of Education
- 1960: A History of Educational Thought
Works in German (selection)
- 1989: creativity. Limitations and possibilities
- 1994: Endless Failure? Creativity, Education and Society from a Global Perspective
- 1994: Dynamic Education as a Method of Reform and Psychological Change ( International Journal of Social Psychology and Group Dynamics in Economy and Society, 1994, pp. 3-11)
- 1998: Between disenchantment and enlightenment ; Thoughts and Poetry, Austrian Literature Forum
- 2001: Rethinking
- 2003: wisdom of feelings. Ideals and realities
- 2006: goodness as a way of life
- 2006: Feel deeper and become more sensitive. The creative development
- 2009: Reader
- 2009: A new education for a new society
- 2010: Prejudice - a scourge of humanity
society
On July 3, 2007, an association was founded in Vienna with the task of applying, disseminating and developing Frederick Mayer's ideas, the "Frederick Mayer Society - International" ( fmsi ).
Web links
- Literature by and about Frederick Mayer in the catalog of the German National Library
- Article about the creativity researcher, educator and pacifist Frederick Mayer derstandard.at, November 21, 2006
- Radio interview in English, mid-1960s: Part 1 , Part 2 (YouTube)
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mayer, Frederick |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mayer, Friedrich |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German educator, university professor and author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 11, 1921 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Frankfurt am Main , Germany |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 26, 2006 |
| Place of death | Vienna , Austria |