Frontier worker (psychology)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In personality psychology , in risk research and now also in entertainment literature and colloquial language, a person who consciously walks the fine line between life and death is called a border crosser.

Characteristic

The British venture researcher Michael Apter distinguishes between three risk areas with regard to the endangerment of people: According to his explanatory model, cross-border commuters venture out of the “safety zone”, which most people prefer as a living and creative space, into a “danger zone”. In this he moves while maintaining a certain distance up to the so-called "dangerous edge", behind which the "trauma zone" begins. This is inevitably associated with falls, accidents, injuries or death. According to the theory of the protective framework , he reserves a margin of safety for himself, which is determined by his special level of competence, the degree of his willingness to take risks and his assessment of reality. This means that he only approaches the line of fall as far as a safety buffer that he can justify remains.

The Wagner expert Siegbert A. Warwitz describes the cross-border commuter according to his personality structure as a philobatist , a person who loves to go to extremes : In contrast to the behavior of the majority of people, he strives to open up new areas of action by extensively exhausting the danger zone open up. In the optimal case, this is associated with a special added value, but in the absence of an ethical basis it can also degenerate into pure adventurism .

Social manifestations

Cross-border commuters between life and death can be found in different areas of life and with very different goals and values.

Borderline and adventure

Even young people become cross-border commuters in their desire for excitement and adventure when they prove their willingness to take risks in tests of courage such as surfing the S-Bahn or when they act out in car races through night cities. Having and proving daring has a high place in the value structure of children and young people. The rocking up to the limit is usually carried out in group dynamic processes: The scene of the "rabbit foot race" ("chicken run") in the cult film " ... because they don't know what they're doing " with James Dean documented the attitude towards life of a bored, but Young generation looking for tension. Even today, young people, referred to as “ crash kids ” in technical jargon , race at each other in vehicles to find out who is the first to lose their nerves.

Adult commuters dare a crossing of the Niagara Falls or a mountain canyon on a rope like the Slackline - pioneer Heinz Zak , drifting in a wooden barrel at 115 km / h was about 53 meters crashing waterfall down as the teacher Annie Telson Taylor , overcome the Atlantic in folding boat as the adventurer Hannes Lindemann , climb skyscraper facades or can be in survival experiment naked from the helicopter in the middle of the jungle settle as survivors Rüdiger Nehberg . Even tourists who with their sailboat recklessly in pirate territory cross, are among the commuters at the adventure aspect.

Crossing the border and extreme sports

Free solo climbers such as Patrick Edlinger or Alexander Huber move, relying on their ability and mental strength, without any technical protection in vertical and overhanging rock faces. In doing so, they cannot afford any wrongdoing or weakness.

Ultramarathon runners like Norman Bücher or Dean Karnazes document their performance with ascetic long-distance runs of several hundred kilometers while crossing deserts and jungles. Others, daring to die, risk participating in the Zugspitze Run, even in the most adverse weather conditions, which fell into disrepute due to the deaths in 2008. The Ironman or Ultratriathlon competitions also push the limits of performance and health.

High-altitude mountaineers like Reinhold Messner or Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner set themselves the goal of climbing all eight-thousanders on earth , despite the fatal falls of rope comrades and their own near deaths .

Parachutists like Joseph Kittinger or Felix Baumgartner aim for incredible height and speed records by jumping out of the stratosphere .

All of these extreme athletes strain their physical, psychological and mental powers to the limit and move on the borderline between life and death.

Border crossing and ordal

The to depression -prone British writer Graham Greene describes in his autobiographical novel "A kind of life," as he himself repeatedly in a phase of sense doubt Ordal underwent, which he understood as a "destiny request". After the drum revolver placed on the temple did not use the chambers loaded with one or two bullets during the trigger, he saw himself destined to continue to live by the fate to which he offered his life.

According to Warwitz's research, this form of “fate inquiry” like the Russian roulette is often preferred to direct suicide by desperate young people even today . They want to "give their continued life another chance."

Borderline and job

War Reporter , a reporting from the direct combat action to their profession make anytime in the crossfire in firefights or espionage suspicion fall and therefore live despite their journalist status constantly frontier of death.

Members of private security and military companies such as Simon Mann , Eeben Barlow or Günter Singer , operate the passenger , convoy - and property protection in war and crisis zones and are constantly armed attacks and ambushes suspended.

In western , thriller , adventure , war or action films, stuntmen and stunt women take on the particularly dangerous scenes as doubles for the film actors . You have to realistically stage the spectacular combat passages, horse falls, window jumps or motorcycle accidents. The professional requirements for this are organized by a separate professional association of stunt people .

Border crossing and commando company

Daring commando operations such as the unsuccessful attempt to free the Olympians from Munich on September 5, 1972 or the successful liberation of hostages from Entebbe (Uganda) on September 3rd and 4th. July 1976 or Mogadishu (Somalia) on October 18, 1977 pose extreme dangers, which can be expected to result in casualties even among the best trained emergency services . On April 13, 2009, four combat swimmers rescued the American captain Phillips from the violence of Somali pirates in a highly professional operation at sea .

Borderline and research

The great explorer Christopher Columbus and James Cook , Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott made their dangerous journeys into unknown regions of the earth with scientific jobs, as in the interest of seafaring , the navigation technology, the Meteorology , the geography or anthropology .

The doctor Werner Forßmann underwent life-threatening self-experiments to try out the method of cardiac catheterization . After his colleagues initially ignored his research results, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for it years later .

Test pilots are tasked with testing prototypes of paragliders , hang-gliders , powered aircraft and other aircraft that have not yet been approved for general aviation for defects in extreme flight maneuvers in order to optimize safety standards.

Astronauts can be shot with rockets to the moon and stations in the stratosphere in order to serve space research . There is no guarantee of survival on your dangerous mission.

Longing for death or longing for life

According to Warwitz, cross-border commuters usually do everything to stay alive. Even those who are ready to commit suicide still reserve a chance of survival with the question of fate. By venturing out of the safe area into the vicinity of death, he fully exploits the possibilities of life and experience. Life is experienced particularly intensely in the face of death and is felt to be particularly precious in the danger of loss. He prepares himself optimally and experiences the moments of near death very consciously. The cross-border commuter is therefore driven less by a longing for death than by an oversized longing for life.

What often turns out to be contempt for life for outsiders is often born out of an existential crisis of meaning for those affected , from which the affected person seeks a way out. The key experience can also consist in the longing to fully exploit one's own personality in all its possibilities and to discover and redefine oneself in the process .

A question of meaning and a sense of value

Cross-border commuters are usually perceived by the public as sensational outsiders, courted by the mass media , promoted by sponsors , admired by a broad audience, but at the same time viewed very critically with regard to the meaning.

Does that make sense understanding in areas of human welfare, such as for professional lifesavers at extreme risk situations ( mine clearing service , mountain rescue , hostage rescue , social commitment in the war zone ), usually out of the question, the understanding of the depressed or addicted designed roulette player, his life and / or Puts wealth at disposal or more difficult for the adventurer striving for intense experience. In the case of adolescent tests of courage , it is usually about self-awareness, about experiencing tension in adventure, about enjoying the external effect on the audience and about asserting yourself in the peer group . Adult philobatists sometimes make the border crossing their maxim in life : Reinhold Messner, who in a questioning by Warwitz expressly did not want to be understood as a “risk athlete” but as a “cross-border commuter”, formulated his basic feeling with the words: There is one between survival and non-survival razor-sharp ridge. And to be on this ridge is difficult, but it gives a lot of experience. - One can perish with every step, I defend myself against it with every step. That gives a strong sense of self-worth and self-image. The orderly idea that becomes recognizable here is also expressed in his book titles "Grenzbereich Todeszone" or "Berge versetzen - The Credo of a Border Crosser".

In venture research, cross-border commuters are generally understood as those who seek meaning, but who are motivated by very different initial situations and with very different values ​​and objectives:

According to David Le Breton , the border crosser in the sense of the ordal theory is a person struggling desperately for the meaning of his existence: every search for limits is in its deepest motivation an attempt to move death, to affirm existence . The success of the ordal is accordingly experienced like a new birth.

According to Felix von Cube , cross-border commuters strive for a qualified, self-developed and self-guaranteed security that gives them autonomy and new scope for life. He achieves it by transforming uncertainties into new certainties with every step of risk.

According to Siegbert A. Warwitz , the risk is a value-creating development element in the personality development of every person and in the culture creation process of every society, which the cross-border commuter only uses to a particularly pronounced extent. A prerequisite for this, however, is an awareness of values . He also makes this clear in concrete terms using important personalities in human history such as Jesus , Socrates , Caesar , Wallenstein , Martin Luther and Albert Schweitzer . According to Warwitz, the personality of the cross-border commuter should not be judged on the basis of extreme behavior, but only with regard to his or her value orientation . The yardstick is the ethical attitude , not the externality of the action. This is also evident in the self-portrayals of extremes.

See also

literature

  • Michael Apter: The Dangerous Edge. The Psychology of Excitement . 1992 (German: In the intoxication of danger . Verlag Kösel. Munich 1994)
  • Michael Apter: Danger: Our Quest for Excitement. Oneworld Publications . Oxford 2007. ISBN 978-1-85168-481-6
  • David Le Breton: Pleasure in risk . Dipa publishing house. Frankfurt 1995
  • Norman Books: Extreme. The power of will . Goldegg Verlag 2011. ISBN 978-3-902729-18-7
  • Felix von Cube: Dangerous security . Stuttgart 1995
  • Iris Hadbawnik: To the limit and beyond. Fascination with extreme sports . Publishing the workshop. 2011. ISBN 978-3-89533-765-9
  • Werner Forßmann: Self-experiment. Memories of a surgeon. Düsseldorf 1972. ISBN 3-609-16056-X
  • Viktor E. Frankl: The will to make sense. Selected lectures on logotherapy . Huber. Bern 1972–1997. 5th edition 2005. ISBN 3-456-84173-6 .
  • Alexander Huber: The mountain in me. Climbing to the limit. Malik . Munich 2007. ISBN 978-3-89029-337-0
  • Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, Karin Steinbach: Right with me - passion for eight-thousanders . Malik. Munich 2009. ISBN 978-3- 8902-9332-5
  • Dean Karnazes: Ultramarathon: From the life of a 24-hour runner . Publisher Riva 2007. ISBN 978-3936994384
  • Reinhold Messner: Borderline death zone . Kiepenheuer & Witsch. Cologne 1978. ISBN 3-462-01293-2
  • Reinhold Messner: moving mountains - the credo of a cross-border commuter . FSVO. Munich 1993. ISBN 3-405-14561-9
  • Reinhold Messner, Thomas Hüetlin: My life at the limit . Malik, Munich 2004. ISBN 3-89029-285-2
  • Horst W. Opaschowski: Xtrem. The calculated madness. Extreme sport as a time phenomenon . Germa-Press Verlag 2000. ISBN 3-924865-33-7
  • S. Piet: To motivate stuntmen . In: Report Psychology. 13 (1988) pp. 14-30
  • Albert Schweitzer: From my life and thinking . Leipzig 1932
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings. Attempts to explain cross-border behavior . Publisher Schneider. 2., ext. Edition, Verlag Schneider, Baltmannsweiler 2016, ISBN 978-3-8340-1620-1 .
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz: From the sense of the car. Why people face dangerous challenges . In: DAV (Hrsg.) Berg 2006. Munich-Innsbruck-Bozen. Pp. 96-111. ISBN 3-937530-10-X
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz: Growing in Risk. From the contribution to your own development. In: Case-Word-Number 93 (2008) 25-37
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz: Be brave . Basic item. In: Thing-Word-Number 107 (2010) 4-10
  • Heinz Zak: Slackline at the limit . FSVO. Munich 2011
  • Marvin Zuckerman: Sensation Seeking. Beyond the optimal level of arousal . Hillsdale 1979

Web links

Wiktionary: Grenzgänger  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Reinhold Messner: Moving mountains - the credo of a cross-border commuter . Munich 1993
  2. ↑ Michael Apter: The Dangerous Edge. The Psychology of Excitement 1992
  3. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: The theory of the protective frame . In: Ders .: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings. Attempts to explain cross-border behavior . 2., ext. Ed., Baltmannsweiler 2016. pp. 227–241
  4. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: From the sense of the car. Why people face dangerous challenges . In: DAV (Ed.): Berg 2006 . Munich-Innsbruck-Bozen. Pp. 96-111
  5. ^ Marvin Zuckerman: Sensation Seeking. Beyond the optimal level of arousal . Hillsdale 1979
  6. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Risk must want the essential . In: Ders .: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings . 2nd ed., Baltmannsweiler 2016. pp. 296–311
  7. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Be brave . Basic item. In: Thing-Word-Number 107 (2010) 4-10
  8. ↑ Heinz Zak: Slackline at the limit . FSVO. Munich 2011
  9. ↑ Alexander Huber: The mountain in me. Climbing to the limit . Malik. Munich 2007
  10. ↑ At the Limit ( Memento from November 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) - Documentary from 2007
  11. ↑ Norman Books: Extreme: The Power of Will 2011
  12. ↑ Dean Karnazes: Ultramarathon: From the Life of a 24-Hour Runner 2007
  13. ↑ a b Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, Karin Steinbach: All with me - passion for eight-thousanders . Malik. Munich 2009
  14. ↑ Extremely record-breaking ( memento from November 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  15. ↑ Iris Hadbawnik: To the Limit and Beyond. Fascination Extreme Sports 2011
  16. ↑ Graham Greene: A Kind of Life . Vienna 1971
  17. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Die Ordaltheorie . In: Ders .: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings. Attempts to explain cross-border behavior . 2nd ed., Baltmannsweiler 2016. pp. 113–141
  18. ↑ The Long Shadow of Executive Outcomes - Eeben Barlow , accessed January 18, 2018 [1]
  19. ↑ Biographical article - Günter Singer [2] , accessed on January 14, 2018
  20. ↑ Peter W. Singer: Die Kriegs-AGs - About the rise of private military companies. Verlag Zweausendeins, Frankfurt am Main; February 2006. ISBN 3-86150-758-7 .
  21. ↑ Simon Mann's profile on bbc.co.uk (English), accessed on January 14, 2018.
  22. ^ S. Piet: On the motivation of stuntmen . In: Report Psychology. 13 (1988) pp. 14-30
  23. ↑ a b Werner Forßmann: Self-experiment. Memories of a surgeon. Düsseldorf 1972
  24. ↑ Hellishly brave - What drives the devil's guys ( Memento from April 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) - Interview on Deutschlandradio with the venture researcher SA Warwitz on October 12, 2012
  25. ↑ Horst W. Opaschowski: Xtreme. The calculated madness. Extreme sport as a time phenomenon . 2000
  26. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: When risk grows into madness . In: Ders .: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings. Attempts to explain cross-border behavior . 2nd edition, Baltmannsweiler 2016. p. 119
  27. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Growing in the risk. From the contribution to your own development. In: Case-Word-Number 93 (2008) 25-37
  28. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings. Attempts to explain cross-border behavior . 2nd edition, Baltmannsweiler 2016. p. 129
  29. ^ Talkshow on Bavarian TV from October 16, 1997
  30. ↑ Reinhold Messner: Border area death zone . Cologne 1978
  31. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings. Attempts to explain cross-border behavior . Baltmannsweiler 2016. pp. 98-311
  32. ↑ Viktor E. Frankl: The will to sense. Selected lectures on logotherapy . Bern 1972–1997. 5th edition 2005
  33. ↑ David Le Breton: Pleasure at Risk . Frankfurt 1995. p. 16
  34. ^ Felix von Cube: Dangerous Security . Stuttgart 1995
  35. ↑ The risk must be worth it (PDF; 637 kB). Interview in "bergundstieg" Innsbruck October 2011
  36. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Anyone who wants to make a difference and develop has to dare . In: Ders .: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings . 2nd ed., Baltmannsweiler 2016. pp. 260–295
  37. ↑ Albert Schweitzer: From my life and thinking . Leipzig 1932