Martin Dornes

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Martin Dornes (born December 10, 1950 in Heidelberg ; † December 25, 2021 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German sociologist , psychologist and psychotherapist .

Martin Dornes (2012)

His research focuses on developmental psychology , psychoanalysis , socialization theory , family research and parent-child relationships .

Life

Dornes studied sociology at the University of Frankfurt am Main from 1970 to 1978 . After graduation (diploma) he did his doctorate here in 1992. In 1981 he published a study on René A. Spitz . He completed training as a group psychotherapist (graduated in 1993) and qualified as a professor in 1996 in psychoanalytic psychology at the University of Kassel . Until 2005 he was a private lecturer there .

From 1983 to 2002 he worked as a clinician and researcher in the fields of psychiatry, psychosomatics, sexual medicine and medical psychology. From 2002 to 2014 he was a member of the executive committee of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research . Martin Dornes died on December 25, 2021 in Frankfurt am Main at the age of 71.

Research and theory

In his books, Dornes dealt with both newer psychoanalytic-developmental theories (especially those of Joseph D. Lichtenberg , Daniel N. Stern and Peter Fonagy ) as well as almost all important topics of early childhood socio-emotional development, taking into account the empirical evidence from other disciplines - e. B. the development of aggression in young children, the causes and consequences of child abuse, the symbiosis, attachment and mentalization theory, concepts on risk and protective factors for mental health, but also socio-politically important issues such as the consequences of increasing non-parental care in early childhood or the family roots of youth violence.

The competent infant

Martin Dornes was skeptical of the reconstructive approach within psychoanalysis and pleaded for an increased inclusion of empirical research findings. The attempt to derive a theory of early childhood psychological development from the memory of patients leads to serious misjudgments. Referring back to Emanuel Peterfreund's criticism of the “ adultomorphism ” of standard psychoanalytic terms and a “mythological” self-understanding of psychoanalytic developmental psychology, empirical infant research can make a significant contribution to demythizing psychoanalytic ideology . "The real and the reconstructed child thus fall completely apart." Dornes saw his contribution as a critical further development of psychoanalytic research.

An empirical perspective leads to a changed image of early childhood. Dornes took over the term of the competent infant , which was initially designed and dependent on a dialogical relationship with its environment: “The infant now appears as active, differentiated and capable of relating, as a being with abilities and feelings that go far beyond what psychoanalysis can achieve until recently considered possible and important. ”Psychological developments and undesirable developments are attributed more to real early childhood interaction and communication experiences and not to imaginary intrapsychic conflicts that were independent of them or that preceded them. In fact, there is no such postulated imagination at this early age. The parents' fantasies are the most important factor here. It is true that relationship experiences are subsequently processed and revised in the imagination, but whether a child remains mentally healthy or becomes ill is primarily decided by good or bad experiences with the parents.

This view critically follows on from the tradition of psychoanalytically inspired infant and toddler observation, as it was started by René Spitz , Margaret Mahler and Donald Winnicott . It also makes use of the knowledge of the attachment theory of John Bowlby and the cognitive developmental psychology of Jean Piaget . Objections to the reconstructive-speculative tendency of psychoanalytic concept formation, as put forward by Emanuel Peterfreund (1978) and Thomä / Kächele (1985), are first confirmed. Conventional ideas about early development turn out to be “adultomorphic” (the adult is projected back onto the child), “theoreticalomorphic” (“the infant is as the theory prescribes it”) or “pathomorphic myths” (manifest disorders in the Adults are viewed as a fixation or regression on normal developmental phases; "normal" development is reconstructed on the basis of disorders). In particular, he subjected Margaret Mahler's development model to extensive criticism. The idea of ​​an initial autism and the concept of a subsequent " symbiotic phase " are not tenable.

Dornes advocated a “simultaneous paradigm” that unites psychoanalytic terms and behavioral observation. If the infant has no phantasies ascribed to it by psychoanalysis and only acquires this ability in further development, it can still be shown that it is the phantasies of the parents that shape the early interaction: “The infant is the recipient, not the sender of Messages. ”But if the infant is initially the object of the mother's phantasies - who may transfer her inner conflicts to the child by means of facial expressions, gestures, voice and body language - the mother can then ask questions and observe the resulting interaction between her and the baby will. A psychoanalytic term such as “ introjection ” no longer has to be explained speculatively in the context of the drive paradigm , but can be understood directly as an effect of interaction through empirical observation: “ Some describe the how, others the why. Both are important, and both together give a full impression of the complexity of the (early) interpersonal relationships. "

The modernization of the soul

In his book Die Modernisierung der Seele (2012) the focus is no longer on developmental psychological topics, but on family psychological and time diagnostic topics. The key question is now, on the one hand, whether children and adolescents are increasingly overwhelmed under modern conditions of growing up and are increasingly becoming mentally ill; on the other hand, whether parents, unsettled by the demands of a de-traditionalized and individualized society, are increasingly failing to raise their children. In going through the theoretical and research situation on the chances and risks of child development in liberal societies, Dornes came to the conclusion that pessimistic scenarios about the state of childhood and family are unfounded, the vast majority of parents are up to their educational task and the children themselves develop accordingly well.

Does capitalism make you depressed?

In power capitalism depressed? (2016) the topic of the one-sided and dramatic debates on upbringing, family and psychological crises in Dornes' eyes is taken up again. He now delved into the claim that mental illness in general, and depression in particular, has increased in recent years or decades as a result of increasingly exhausting "neoliberal capitalist" living and working conditions, and has shown that there is no convincing evidence for this . His conclusion was: A psychosocial critique of capitalism based on the thesis of increasing mental illnesses lacks the foundation; children and young people are doing better today than ever before. This is denied by other psychologists and social scientists.

Publications

Books

  • The competent infant. Frankfurt / M. (Fischer) 1993 (16th edition 2015)
  • Early childhood. Frankfurt / M. (Fischer) 1997 (10th edition 2013)
    • Psychanalysis et psychologie du premier age , traduit de l'allemand par Claude Vincent, préface de Jean Laplanche , Paris, Puf, coll. "Bibliothèque de la psychanalyse", 2002 ISBN 978-2-13-050307-1
  • The child's emotional world. Frankfurt / M. (Fischer) 2000 (6th edition 2014)
  • The child's soul. Frankfurt / M. (Fischer) 2006 (4th edition 2013)
  • The modernization of the soul. Child family society. Frankfurt / M. (Fischer) 2012 (1st edition)
  • Does capitalism make you depressed? On mental health and illness in modern societies. Frankfurt / M. (Fischer) 2016 (1st edition)

Articles ao (selection)

  • Children of depressed parents. In: WestEnd. Neue Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung, 5th year, 2008, Issue 2: 55–77
  • Ambivalences of Modern Childhood: Children Between Freedom and Vulnerability. In: G. Suess and W. Hammer (Eds.): Kinderschutz. Stuttgart (Klett-Cotta) 2010, 46-62
  • The modernization of the soul. In: Psyche. Journal of Psychoanalysis and Its Applications 64, 2010: 995-1033
  • Emotional capitalism . In: Psyche. Journal of Psychoanalysis and Its Applications 65, 2011: 1113–1125
  • Most people are not overwhelmed. Interview. In: Psychologie heute vol. 39, issue 5, 2012: 30–36
  • Symbiosis. In: W. Mertens (Ed.): Handbook of basic psychoanalytical concepts. Stuttgart et al. (Kohlhammer, 4th, revised and expanded edition 2014), 916–923
  • Does capitalism make you depressed? In: Psyche. Journal of Psychoanalysis and Its Applications 69, 2015: 115–160
  • Hunger madness? A criticism of the media dramatization of eating disorders. In: Forum der Psychoanalyse 34, 2018: 81–97. DOI 10.1007 / s00451-017-0284-9

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Dornes is dead: Frankfurt developmental psychologist has died . In: The mirror . January 5, 2022, ISSN  2195-1349 ( spiegel.de [accessed January 5, 2022]).
  2. ^ The psychology of René A. Spitz: An introduction and critical appreciation in the catalog of the German National Library
  3. ↑ see Dornes (1993), p. 28 ff
  4. ↑ see Dornes (1993), p. 18 f.
  5. ↑ originally J. Stone et al. 1973: " The Competent Infant ", see Dornes (1993), p. 21
  6. ↑ Dornes (1993), p. 21
  7. ↑ See Dornes (1993), Chapter 9: Fantasy and Interaction , pp. 197-223.
  8. ↑ Emanuel Peterfreund: Some critical comments on psychoanalytic conceptualizations of infancy . Int. Journ. Psycho-Anal. 59, pp. 427-441; as well as for the term “theoreticalomorphic myth”: Thomä, H./Kächele, H .: textbook of psychoanalytic therapy. Vol. I: Basics. Berlin and others: Springer
  9. ↑ Dornes (1993), pp. 23-25.
  10. ↑ See: Dornes (1993), chap. 3: Autism and symbiosis: A criticism, as well as: Martin Dornes: Margaret Mahler's theory re-examined , Psyche , November 1996, 50th year, issue 11, pp. 989-1018
  11. ↑ Dornes (1993), chap. 9. Imagination and Interaction, pp. 197-223
  12. ↑ cf. B: Corinna Budras, Rainer Hank : Debate: Does capitalism make us sick? In: faz.net . July 6, 2016, accessed on January 5, 2022 (interview by Hartmut Rosa and Martin Dornes).
personal data
SURNAME Dornes, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sociologist, psychologist, psychotherapist and author
BIRTH DATE December 10, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Heidelberg
DATE OF DEATH December 25, 2021
PLACE OF DEATH Frankfurt am Main