Gustav Ichheiser

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Gustav Ichheiser (born December 25, 1897 in Krakow , Poland , † November 8 or 9, 1969 in Chicago ) was an American social psychologist and sociologist of Polish origin.

Life

In Vienna

Ichheiser's family moved from Krakow to Vienna in 1914 , where he attended the final year of high school and participated in the First World War as a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army from 1915 to 1918 , where he suffered traumatic war experiences. After the war he studied at the University of Vienna only jurisprudence , then psychology and philosophy and was founded in 1924 by Karl Buhler doctorate . He then spent a year studying Machiavelli in Italy and then worked as a journalist in Vienna. From 1926 Ichheiser worked at the career advice office of the City of Vienna and the Lower Austrian Chamber of Labor . In 1928 he became head of the psychological department, for a short time (1929/30) Marie Jahoda was his assistant there. At the same time Ichheiser taught sociology and applied psychology at the Vienna Adult Education Center . From 1934 to 1938 he taught and researched temporarily in Warsaw at the Institute for Social Problems .

In emigration

After the " Anschluss of Austria " to the German Reich in March 1938, Ichheiser, who was of Jewish faith, fled first to Switzerland and then to London . His mother, brother, sister-in-law and niece were murdered in the concentration camp . In London he worked with Karl Mannheim at the University of London . In 1940 he emigrated to the USA , where he was naturalized in 1950. There he worked initially in Chicago in the publishing business, then at the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago .

From 1944 to 1948 Ichheiser professor of psychology and sociology at the College in Talladega ( Alabama ). In 1948 he returned to Chicago, but could not get a job at the university. It was only through the mediation of Louis Wirth that he got project-related contracts and during this time researched the relationship between whites and blacks and “Jewish identification”.

Psychiatry and suicide

In 1951 he had to live on social welfare funds and after a mental and physical breakdown at the instigation of the caregivers, he was admitted to the State Hospital in Peoria, Illinois, with a diagnosis of " paranoid schizophrenia " , where he spent eleven years. Ichheiser continued his scientific work in the institution. He was one of the first patients to be discharged into home care in 1963.

In 1965 he received a Rockefeller Foundation scholarship , and in 1966 he returned to the University of Chicago. After receiving another scholarship, but not the longed-for permanent position at a university, Ichheiser committed suicide while preparing for the collective edition of his English-language works.

About his psychiatric internment, he wrote the unpublished manuscript Was I insane - or was I "railroaded" to a state hospital? My own retrospective introspection.

Scientific work

Gustav Ichheiser became known in the German-speaking world for his 65-page brochure “Critique of Success. A sociological investigation ” . It appeared in 1930 as volume 11 in Richard Thurnwald 's " Research on Völkerpsychologie und Sociologie " series and established a "sociology of success " as a critique of success or successful people. Hannah Arendt took this aspect in the first part (“ Antisemitism ”) of her “ Elements and Origins of Total Rule ” referring back to the “ theatrical backdrop culture ” of the metropolis of Vienna, which arose before the First World War , in her critique of the international cultural business “ prominence ” in Europe the interwar period again.

In the USA, Ichheiser became one of the pioneers of modern attribution research , where he was particularly interested in the social dependency and social effects of incorrect attribution processes . His contributions to a political psychology, which dealt with ethnic, but especially anti-Semitic prejudices, also attracted attention.

Fonts (selection)

Books

  • Concept of unity in diversity in aesthetics. Criticism in principle , rejected philosophical dissertation, University of Vienna 1923
  • Object of aesthetics. Philosophical dissertation , University of Vienna 1924 (typescript)
  • Criticism of success. A sociological study , CL Hirschfeld, Leipzig 1930. (published in 1970 as a pirated print by “Rotbuch”)
  • Wypadki przy pracy ze stanowiska psychologii , Instytut Spraw Społecznych, Warsaw 1935 (Polish, German: "Work accidents from a psychological point of view")
  • Zagadnienia selekcji zawodowych. Analiza i krytyka , Instytut Spraw Społecznych, Warsaw: 1937 (Polish; German: "Problems of career choice. Analysis and criticism")
  • Diagnosis of antisemitism. Two essays , Beacon House, New York, N.Y. 1946
  • Misunderstandings in human relations. A study of false social perception , University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill. 1949

Essays

  • The antinomy between politics and morality according to Machiavelli , in: Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie und Soziologie, 1927, pp. 294–309.
  • Why Psychologists Tend to Overlook Certain “Obvious” Facts , in: Philosophy of Science 10 (3) 1943, pp. 204–207.
  • Ideology of Success and the Dilemma of Education . Ethics 53 (2), 1943, pp. 137-141.
  • Social Perception and Moral Judgment , in: Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 26 (4), 1963, pp. 546-560.
  • On "Tolerance" and "Fanaticism": A Dilemma , in: Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 29 (3), 1969, pp. 446-450.

literature

  • Amrei C. Joerchel: Memories of Gustav Ichheiser. Life and work of an exiled social scientist . Springer Science + Business Media, New York 2018, ISBN 978-3-319-72507-9 .
  • Christian Fleck : Establishing in a foreign country. Expelled scientists in the USA after 1933. Campus, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2015, ISBN 978-3-593-50173-4 , pp. 295–332 ( “Who is Ichheiser?” - a man who failed in himself and the world ) .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biographical information based on Gerhard Benetka / Lisa-Terese Woller: Ichheiser, Gustav , in: Uwe Wolfradt (ed.), German-speaking psychologists 1933–1945. A dictionary of persons. Springer, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-01480-3 , pp. 207 f.
  2. ↑ Gustav Ichheiser: Was I insane - or was I "railroaded" to a state hospital? My own retrospective introspection. Unpublished manuscript, University of Chicago 1966.
  3. ↑ Gerhard Benetka / Lisa-Terese Woller: Ichheiser, Gustav , in: Uwe Wolfradt (ed.), German-speaking psychologists 1933–1945. A dictionary of persons. Springer, Wiesbaden 2015, p. 208.
personal data
SURNAME Ichheiser, Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American sociologist and psychologist
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Krakow
DATE OF DEATH November 8, 1969 or November 9, 1969
Place of death Chicago