Basic forms of fear
Basic Forms of Fear is a depth psychological study by the psychoanalyst Fritz Riemann , which was first published in 1961 under the title Basic Forms of Fear and the Antinomies of Life . In the work four different types of personality are characterized and their respective fears and behaviors as well as their causes are discussed. Riemann differentiates between schizoid , depressive , compulsive and hysterical structures of personality.
The book, published continuously by Ernst-Reinhardt-Verlag , was published in its 45th edition in 2019 and had sold more than 967,000 times by 2013 alone. The second half of the original title has since been changed and finally given up entirely.
content
As a student of Schultz-Hencke , Riemann developed a personality typology in his study , with which he presented his idea of the various personality structures of people, as they were to be systematically recorded many years later and in a modified form with the psychodynamic diagnostic instrument of the OPD by Rudolf and others. Riemann devoted a separate chapter to each of the four ideally described structures. Each chapter is divided into five sub-chapters, which deal in detail with the aspects of love, aggression, the historical background, with examples of the respective experience as well as additional considerations. To do this, Riemann relied on theoretical knowledge and empirical knowledge that he gathered in his practice as an analytical psychotherapist . Each personality type is described in context and contrasted with the other types.
Since Riemann was able to convey complicated issues in a simple and understandable way, his book was well received by interested laypeople and in this way contributed to the dissemination of psychoanalytic knowledge , but at the same time to a disedication of psychoanalytic terminology . Associated with this is the risk of misunderstandings, as the term schizoid , for example, is mistakenly associated with schizophrenia and schizoid personality disorder or even used as a synonym , although terms that describe a personality structure in more detail have nothing in common with clinical pictures. Even depressed personalities are not carriers of symptoms of a depressive illness .
In his introduction, Riemann made some general remarks about human fear :
“Fear is an inevitable part of our life. In ever new variations, it accompanies us from birth to death. [...] The history of mankind shows ever new attempts to cope with, reduce, overcome or bind fear [...] it belongs to our existence and is a reflection of our dependencies and the knowledge of our mortality. We can only try to develop opposing forces against them: courage, trust, knowledge, power, hope, humility, faith and love. These can help us to accept fear, to deal with it, to conquer it again and again. Methods of whatever kind that promise us freedom from fear should be viewed with skepticism; they do not do justice to the reality of human existence and arouse illusory expectations. "
In addition, the four basic forms of fear and their relationship to one another are presented in a first approximation in the introduction: the fear of surrender with its risk of loneliness and the fear of loneliness as its opponent; the fear of impermanence with the risk of fickleness is opposed to the fear of immutability. “All possible fears are ultimately always variants of these four basic fears,” says Riemann. The complexity of what is happening inside the soul is indicated by his hint that people not only avoid what they are afraid of, but also strive for it at the same time. All of this would “complement and contradict each other in pairs”. With a schizoid structure , contact with fellow human beings is avoided for fear of losing oneself; Those who have developed a depressive structure as their opponent remain dependent on fear of separation and loneliness. With an obsessive structure and the fear of change and impermanence based on it, the usual is persistently adhered to and with its opponent of a hysterical structure the door is opened to arbitrariness in order to "avoid the fear of necessity and finality".
Finally, the potentially development-promoting aspects of fear are emphasized and their avoidance is rejected, because it maintains the fear.
“Wherever we experience one of the great fears, we are always faced with one of the great demands of life; In accepting fear and trying to overcome it, we gain new skills - every overcoming of fear is a victory that makes us stronger; every evasion of it is a defeat that weakens us. "
Even if Riemann preferred to draw his empirical knowledge from the medical histories of his patients, he did not present any disease theory with this book and accordingly provided his reports on the four types with titles that focus on personality and not on illness.
Schizoid personalities
According to Riemann, the main fear of a person with a schizoid personality structure is the fear of surrender. It is linked to the impulse for “self-preservation and self-delimitation”. Fear and impulse would become “over-valued” if the schizoid developed in such a way that it dominated the personality. People with such a structure avoid closeness and attachment to other people, are self-centered and strive for individuation and the greatest possible independence up to self-sufficiency :
“His main aim will be to become as independent and self-sufficient as possible. Not being dependent on anyone, not needing anyone, not being obliged to anyone, is of decisive importance to him. "
Schizoid personalities appeared “distant, cool, distant, difficult to approach, impersonal to cold” to their fellow human beings . They would often appear “strange, peculiar, incomprehensible or strange in their reactions” and even those who have known them for a long time would be surprised again and again. Their behavior has consequences, also for themselves. Because they avoid contact with other people, they do not learn to assess their fellow human beings, and therefore they remain strangers to them. They experienced affection and sympathy, usually establishing relationships, as threatening and threatening their integrity.
Love is particularly delicate for schizoid personalities insofar as all of their “clumsiness and inexperience in emotional matters” is revealed here. They shape their partnerships rather rationally and coolly and are dependent on partners who can bear it or who want it themselves. Sexuality is instrumentalized and largely objectified. Often they got involved “only in non-binding, easily resolvable, or purely sexual relationships”.
Aggression plays a special role. Attacks, no matter if actual or supposed, would always be experienced as "endangering the entire existence". Schizoid personalities usually do not have the usual range of aggressive reactions at their disposal. Instead, they responded with archaic anger, reacted immediately and ruthlessly took care of their own well-being. At the same time, aggression is almost the only way for them to make contact with other people in the sense of an aggredī (moving towards).
Constitutional factors are to be assumed for the genesis that would accommodate the development of a schizoid personality with its structural features. You would be sought in a particular sensitivity and vulnerability . In addition, it has been shown that in the early stages of their development during the first year of life, these people were not granted the protection - and especially protection against irritation - that they needed. In addition, there was a lack of security and loving company, so that they could not have felt they were in good hands.
The story of an adult musician from the author's practice serves as an example. In the concluding observations, reference is made to the great "difference in the degree of maturity" between understanding and feeling and between rationality and emotionality, which is characteristic of these personalities. In addition, Riemann describes how diseases could develop from this structure and what peculiarities they exhibited. At the end, the "positive sides of schizoid people" are brought together, for example, in "sovereign independence and independence, in the courage to self, for the autonomy of the individual", but also in a "keen observation" and a "critical- incorruptible eye for facts ”. These people checked before they took on something and defended their positions unsentimentally, “clearly and uncompromisingly”.
Depressed personalities
According to Riemann, opponents of the schizoid structure are depressive personalities. Her main fear is to become independent - Riemann called it, among other things, becoming an I - and the associated fear of losing security. Gaining independence requires a developmental step associated with separation, and this separation is avoided by people with a depressive personality structure. The associated impulse strives to give up your own self and to be completely absorbed in the other. He is needed to be able to feel safe. A person with a depressive structure tries to escape fear by becoming dependent and renouncing freedom that he cannot allow his counterpart.
"At most he is aware of the fear of loss, the fear of individuation, which is the real problem, remains largely unconscious ."
To be different, to think and feel differently mobilizes fear because it is experienced as distance and alienation, so that these people try to give up everything that sets them apart and to adapt. Dependency gives them security, but at the cost of increased fear of loss. Because they cannot take what they need, they develop passive expectations and react disappointed when their wishes are not fulfilled. They cannot stand reproaches, and therefore numerous altruistic virtues are spreading, some of which are named: modesty, willingness to renounce, peacefulness, selflessness, compassion, compassion and much more. Because they wear themselves out for others, they quickly become overwhelmed and exhausted.
Love is “the most important thing in life” for depressed personalities, and at the same time this is where their “greatest dangers” lie. They have no tolerances for the crises associated with a partnership and beyond the possible occasions for partnership conflicts they are repeatedly faced with their agonizing fear of loss when the partner “tries to free himself from the too tight grip”. Sex is less important to them than affection and tenderness.
Dealing with aggression is a serious problem for depressed personalities. Asserting yourself and asserting yourself would mean “sawing off the branch” on which you are sitting, according to Riemann. These people tend to reinterpret and play down aggressive situations and suppress their own impulses. They compensate for offenses and other injuries with a feeling of moral superiority, which is at the same time a “ sublime form of aggression” because it keeps the other person trapped in feelings of guilt.
"We can say that the suppressed aggression [...] shows a rising line, that of over-apprehension, the ideologizing of modesty, peacefulness and humility, over the lamenting wailing and the patient attitude towards turning against oneself into self-reproach, self-accusation, self-punishment leads to self-destruction. "
For the biographical background, a possibly “temperamental and emotionally warm disposition” and a constitutionally determined “great empathy ” are assumed to be beneficial factors . These people would be "by nature [...] not very combative" and would have a "lack of 'thick fur'". For the biographical influencing variables, “two characteristic bad postures” of the primary caregiver are mentioned, which have a corresponding effect in the period between the end of the first and second year of life: “ Pampering and frustration”. Pampering makes personal initiative superfluous and promotes a "comfort attitude". The motive turned out to be the inability to let go of the child and let go of his own way. Development is more difficult for children who have suffered frustration, which describes "barren, little maternal and loving women [...], often tough [...] women" who expose the child to a lack of security.
As an example, the shortened stories of some patients of both sexes are used. In summary, in the supplementary considerations, they are described as "objects of life" who avoid actively shaping their life as a subject. According to Riemann, other people are assigned “overvalue”, which causes them to lose value themselves. With such a weakened self-esteem , they felt responsible for everything that happened around them. If they get sick, they run the risk of not recovering because they hope to be able to claim care through the disease. In their dreams, what they deny themselves in life, "in extreme form" and often projected onto others, would break through. The choice of partner is often directed towards their opponent in the hope of being able to learn from him what they themselves do not dare to live. These people are loyal and grateful. Her virtues include “perseverance and ability to endure”. They “tend to put their light under a bushel”, so that one has to “discover” them and then find out that “temperament, depth of feeling and warmth [...] are among their most beautiful properties”.
Compulsive personalities
The “longing for duration” is fundamentally common to all people. If not enough , reliability would be a necessary condition for developing hope and trust. Against this background, Riemann described the third basic form of fear, which characterizes compulsive personalities in particular through fear of impermanence and, on the "impulse side", through a striving for duration and security - both of which may be "overriding". A person with an obsessive structure wants to keep everything as it is, avoid any change and fight against it if possible:
“He turns against innovations where they come across him, but this is becoming more and more of a Sisyphean work, because life is always in flux, everything is in constant change,“ everything flows ”in constant emergence and fading that never linger leaves."
According to Riemann, behind the fear of impermanence is "ultimately the fear of death". What people want to force with this structure would come back to them “like a boomerang”, so that over time their wanting to force turns into being forced. They despair of the fact that living things cannot be calculated in advance and that life is beyond their control. These people struggle with themselves, with others and with life, hesitate and cannot make up their minds. Riemann called them the "dry course" of life. If they get sick, they develop obsessive-compulsive symptoms , which have the function of binding fear.
Love is "deeply disturbing" for these people. They want to keep their emotions under control and are afraid of passion and sexuality. Relationships are often entered into for reasons of reason and are sustainable and resilient. Because they have a strong sense of responsibility, they stick to their decisions once they have made up their minds. However, they find it difficult to recognize their partner as having equal rights and can hardly endure if he does not bow to their dictates.
Compulsive personalities handle their aggression with caution. They had to learn early on to keep their affects under control. If they fail, they feel guilty and try to withdraw. Refraining from acting out affects can lead to the formation of ideologies, just as, if they become aggressive, they try to put “aggressions at the service of an ideology ”. Characteristic of the aggression of compulsive personalities is their connection to their will to power. As an equivalent for aggressive behavior, Riemann described behavior that they themselves are not aware of as aggressive: "dawdling, the awkwardness, the indecision".
For the life history background, Riemann first mentioned possible constitutionally favorable factors. They can be accepted in aggressive motor and generally expansive dispositions that lead to behaviors that are often offensive to the child. On the contrary, an increased willingness to adapt and obedience should also be considered. In terms of developmental psychology, the period between the ages of two and four is significant, which is popularly referred to as the defiant phase . During this time, conflicts have to be negotiated that arise between the child's will and the opposing demands of his environment.
“With the later compulsive personalities we find in their life stories with great regularity that in their childhood too early and too rigid the lively, aggressive, affective impulses that want to shape and change, yes often every spontaneity, every expression of healthy self-will, throttled, inhibited , punished or suppressed. "
But a chaotic family environment, drastic experiences or strokes of fate that cannot be dealt with can also have a structural effect.
Based on examples from psychoanalytic practice, Riemann initially dealt with the delimitation of habits , ceremonies and traditions , which also have something obsessive about them. As a rule, however, none of this is experienced as tormenting and can be changed if desired. Coercion, on the other hand, turns behavior into an end in itself that can only be shown in a certain form, even if it is pointless. Rigid and undisturbed adherence to rules and principles robs what originally created order of its meaning. Compulsive personalities shy away from the risk, are punctual, thrifty and dutiful. Reliability, consistency and a sense of responsibility are among her virtues. They provide support and orientation, represent values and preserve traditions.
Hysterical personalities
Opponents of the compulsive are hysterical personalities. They enjoy, as Riemann put it, the “magic of the new”, seek risk, strive for freedom and change, and take particular pleasure in discovering the unknown. If this striving becomes excessive, fear of finality and inevitability, of necessity and limitation arise. A "short arc of suspense" is characteristic of these personalities.
“Every impulse, every wish must be satisfied as soon as possible, because waiting is unbearable. Therein lies their great temptation - they find it difficult to resist temptation. "
With an “astonishing naivety” these people would believe in patent solutions and also miracles, because they help to escape a reality that sets limits and can restrict freedom. They may not be clear about the consequences of their own actions and tend to evade them with ideas. They consider punctuality and planned action to be petty, taking on responsibility is dispensable and they try to deny the aging process, which unmistakably indicates one's own finiteness, through youthful behavior and appropriate clothing. In their fear, these people try to keep everything in suspension and explain it as relative. And because they prefer the moment to continuity, they play roles and run the risk of one day no longer knowing “who they are”.
In love, according to Riemann, hysterical personalities are passionate and demanding, always keen on cross-border experiences, but when they are alone, they get bored quickly. As partners, they are imaginative and playful, but rarely loyal. In their relationships, the hysterical person cannot recognize his counterpart as independent, but sees him as a "mirror in which he wants to see himself reflected as lovable". There is a tendency towards narcissistic partner choice because the partner is looking for what in the self demands confirmation.
In the case of hysterical personalities, aggression is in the "service of striving for recognition". These people like to rival and compete. You want to impress other people and often exaggerate. Because self-criticism and self-control are not their strengths, they are also quite impulsive and uncontrolled in their aggressive behavior. In disputes they like to surprise and, according to Riemann, would act according to the motto attack is the best defense . Because of their easily disruptive self-esteem , they are easily hurt and react quite violently to subjectively felt hurt, even with accusations that have nothing to do with the matter.
For the history of origin, as for the other personality structures, Riemann first looked at factors that can be assumed to be inherent. He assumed that increased emotional responsiveness and a heightened need for recognition could be just as innate as a particularly pronounced desire to communicate. Characteristics could also be involved, which usually meet with sympathy . Otherwise, reference is made to the findings of psychoanalysis , according to which, in particular, the time between around the fourth and sixth year of life and the experiences gained during this time have an influence on the extent of hysterical structural elements in the personality. More than in the previous periods of development, role models from the world of adults play a central role here. The question of how they deal with the peculiarities of the child and their pride , but also with the child's criticism that has matured in the meantime, influences the child's ability to accept them as role models and to learn from them, or to reject them. To the extent that the child is left in the lurch with these desires during this time when “the need for leadership and role models is strongest”, a more or less pronounced hysterical personality structure develops or even becomes the basis created for a later hysterical illness. One of the risks these people face is not being able to break free from identification with their role models on the one hand or from rebellion against them on the other hand, and getting stuck in it, as it were. This prevents them from developing an independent, independent identity , possibly also their gender role .
The case studies from his psychoanalytic practice gave Riemann the opportunity to summarize the elements of a favorable family milieu , in which contradictions and a lack of supportive orientation play just as important a role as the awakening of expectations that do not keep what they promise. His additional considerations focus on the lack of authenticity of these people and their problematic, because denying, handling of reality , so that they can easily be “exploited politically or ideologically”.
Summary
In 1961, Fritz Riemann presented this book, which was published in its 42nd edition in 2017, a work of psychoanalytic development theory that can also be understood by laypeople, which was initially entitled Basic Forms of Fear and Antinomies of Life in early editions . In doing so, he investigated the question of how human personality develops and how it shows in its various facets beyond the disease process. Although he did not ignore remarks about a pathological development, they were not the core of his book.
“Behind the four basic forms of fear are general human problems that we all have to deal with. Each of us encounters the fear of surrender in one of its different forms, which have as common the feeling of threatening our existence, our personal living space, or the integrity of our personality. Because every trusting opening, every affection and love, can endanger us because we are then more vulnerable and vulnerable, we have to give up something of ourselves, surrender a piece to someone else. Therefore, all fear of surrender is linked to the fear of possible loss of ego.
Everyone also encounters the fear of becoming an I, of individuation, which is afraid of loneliness in the various forms of their appearance as common. Because every individuation means lifting oneself out from hidden commonalities. The more we become ourselves, the more lonely we become, because we then experience more and more the isolation of the individual.
Everyone also encounters the fear of impermanence in their own way; inevitably we experience again and again that something comes to an end, stops, suddenly is no longer there. The more firmly we want to hold on to something, the more we succumb to this fear, the various forms of which, as common, reveal the fear of change.
And finally everyone also encounters the fear of necessity, of the harshness and severity of the definitive, in the various forms of which the common thing is the fear of inevitably being fixed. The more we strive for non-binding freedom and arbitrariness, the more we have to fear the consequences and the limits of reality. "
Since people are usually different from birth and have diverse and not uniform early childhood experiences in their development and are also changeable, the personalities described by Riemann represent ideal types . Most people would combine all these structural elements to varying degrees , each with an individual focus. Sometimes, however, due to special living conditions, they are determined in such a way that they cannot benefit from the other structural elements. But late steps in development are also possible. Trust, hope, insight and courage would help.
Riemann-Thomann model
With basic forms of fear , Riemann created the basis for the Riemann-Thomann model . It was developed by Christoph Thomann and builds on Riemann's work. With his model, Thomann describes the characteristics of personality types in the “normal and non-pathological” area. The Riemann-Thomann model is categorized into four personality types ( closeness , distance , duration , change ) and is designed for everyday use.
Book editions
- Fritz Riemann : Basic forms of fear and the antinomies of life. A depth psychological study of human fears and how to overcome them . 7th edition. Ernst Reinhardt, Munich, Basel 1972 (first edition: 1961).
- Fritz Riemann: Basic Forms of Fear. A depth psychological study . 10th revised and expanded edition (52nd – 63rd thousand). Ernst Reinhardt, Munich, Basel 1975, ISBN 3-497-00749-8 .
- Fritz Riemann: Basic Forms of Fear . 45th edition. Ernst Reinhardt, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-497-02422-3 .
- Fritz Riemann: Formulas fundamentale ale angoasei. Studiu de psihologie abisală . Editura Trei, Bucureşti 2013, ISBN 978-973-707-815-5 (Romanian).
- Fritz Riemann: Basic Forms of Fear. A depth psychological study . With a short biography by Ruth Riemann. 44th (anniversary) edition. Ernst Reinhardt, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-497-01749-2 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear . 41st edition. Ernst Reinhardt Verlag, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-497-02422-3 , p. 4 .
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. A depth psychological study . 10th revised and expanded edition (52nd – 63rd thousand). Ernst Reinhardt Verlag, Munich, Basel 1975, ISBN 3-497-00749-8 .
- ↑ Riemann 1975, p. 7
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 15
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 15
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 204
- ↑ Riemann 1975, p. 201
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 20 ff.
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 20
- ↑ Riemann 1975, p. 20
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 21
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- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 34 ff.
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 41 ff.
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 47 ff.
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 57
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- ↑ Riemann 1975, p. 61
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 61
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 62
- ↑ Fritz Riemann. Basic forms of fear on YouTube , accessed on July 15, 2018 (excerpt from the audio book. Read by Katja Schild.).
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 67
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- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 70
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- ↑ Riemann 1975, p. 73
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- ↑ Riemann 1975, p. 106
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- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 117
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 123
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 125
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 126
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 127
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 130 ff.
- ↑ Riemann 1975, p. 133
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 146 ff.
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 150
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 154
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 156 ff.
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 159
- ↑ Riemann 1975, p. 159
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 160
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 163
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 165
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 171
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 172
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 174
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 194
- ↑ Riemann 1975, p. 200
- ↑ Fritz Riemann: Basic forms of fear. 1975, p. 202