Riemann-Thomann model
The Riemann-Thomann model describes typical behavior and actions of an individual from the perspective of ascertainable basic orientations. In this context, the term “basic orientation” can be described in a simplified way as a holistic state in which a sense of well-being is established for the respective person or this state of well-being is sought.
Origin and naming
The four poles of personality originally come from the work Basic Forms of Fear by Fritz Riemann , a German psychoanalyst , psychologist and psychotherapist , published in 1961 . Christoph Thomann , a Swiss psychologist, took up this personality typification in his work as a couples therapist in the mid-1970s . Because every consultant needs categories or theoretical reference systems that clarify the special features of his clients. Christoph Thomann wanted to explain the polarizing and escalating relationship events vividly to the couples and used Fritz Riemann's basic forms of fear . Based on this, he explained to his clients what was going on with them and in their interpersonal existence. The clients were intrigued and grateful because it was relieving that they were okay as they were. In the course of his work with Riemann's model, Christoph Thomann decided not to focus on the various fears and to depathologize the terms for the four personalities . The schizoid, depressive, compulsive and hysterical personalities became the four basic tendencies of distance, closeness, duration and change. With his work, Christoph Thomann succeeded in "normalizing" and anti-individualizing relationship phenomena that can appear individual and sometimes pathological. This model was not created in collaboration between Riemann and Thomann, because Riemann and Thomann never met or corresponded with each other.
Basic strivings of man
Basically, according to Riemann (1975) and Thomann (1988), four opposing basic orientations of humans can be observed. All four basic orientations occur in different ways in every person. But mostly two or sometimes only one of these orientations are decisive for the current feeling and behavior. These basic orientations have a direct influence on communication and relationship behavior. These basic orientations are described in pure form below.
Distance alignment
The following is important for people with a strong focus on distance: demarcation, uniqueness, freedom, individuality, independence, rational thinking and acting (“just no feeling”). You don't want to be influenced. You are looking for the distance and initially do not seem to need anyone. They often appear cool and aloof. Reason is very important to them.
Only when they are guaranteed a high degree of freedom and opportunities to retreat in a relationship with others do they allow themselves to feel and be close. They do not want to be dependent on outside help and often appear fearful of commitment and / or awkward in the emotional area.
Proximity alignment
People with mainly this orientation want and need exactly the opposite of what distant people need: closeness to other people, attachment, affection, trust, sympathy, humanity, security, tenderness and harmony. They need warmth, confirmation, are selfless to the point of giving up themselves, have social interests, can easily identify with others and forget about themselves. "People close by" are sociable, willing to work in a team, balancing, accepting and understanding.
But they also tend to become dependent because they don't like being alone. They have a victim mentality and are anti-aggressive.
Permanent alignment
For people with a greater permanent focus, the following values are of the greatest importance: Reliability, punctuality, thrift, will, responsibility, planning, caution, control, goals, laws, continuity, necessity, commitment, loyalty, principles, rules, analysis, stability, duty , Durability, consequences.
"Permanent people" are very reliable, systematic, thorough, orderly, they have organizational skills and are principled. But they also tend to be boring, inflexible, pedantic and stubborn at times.
Change orientation
For people with this basic orientation, everything new and constantly changing is in the foreground. They are the opposite of the so-called permanent people. Everything that has to do with passions, stimuli, intoxication and imagination is very important to them. You are looking for pleasure, charm, creativity, temperament, suggestion, spontaneity, risk, inventiveness, drama and desire. These people are curious, want, seek, learn and enjoy living. You are creative, imaginative, spontaneous and entertaining. But they can also be unreliable, chaotic, theatrical, self-centered, talkative and unsystematic.
Assignment of the four basic orientations
The four basic alignments can be integrated into a coordinate system. There is a space and a time axis. The time axis is the vertical one with the two extremes duration and change. The spatial axis is the horizontal with the extremes of distance and proximity. Space and time are therefore the criteria in which people differ in their dealings with one another.
Everyone has not just one basic orientation, but a mixture of all of them. It can have a value from 0% to 100% in any basic orientation, even if the extreme values will hardly ever apply. And the respective sum on the two axes space (proximity-distance) and time (duration-change) does not have to be 100%, but can be higher or lower. But everyone has priorities. This means that home areas can be larger or smaller. A larger home area means that he has more possibilities of behavior and empathy, and smaller means that he has fewer possibilities and is more predictable. Personal development does not mean moving one's field, but expanding or enlarging it.
This home area then also has a center, which is represented by the personality focus. It is very difficult to determine your own direction yourself, as every basic direction is influenced by given situations and the behavior of other people. However, if you try to classify yourself, you should keep in mind that all basic directions are to be assessed equally. There is no “good” or “bad” in this model, but in principle an “equivalent”. Everyone can experience and live all four possibilities, if and when the constellation accordingly offers, requires or forces a role / mode of reaction. The Riemann-Thomann model is not a typology of human characters, but actually a factor / vector field of modes of reaction in conflict. That with the home area is ultimately only the sum of the most frequent / dearest / worst experiences in relationships and at best the known personal possible retreats in conflict constellations, which one as an individual takes preventively and "habitually and comfortably".
Basic orientations in the work situation
The four basic orientations have an effect not only in the private sphere, but also in the work situation, for example during a sales pitch . In accordance with their basic tendencies, each person also has a suitable communication style (see also message square according to Friedemann Schulz von Thun ).
In the world of work, the official values in companies are mostly in the permanent distance area: What is required are role fulfillment, reliability, punctuality, personal distance, security and order, accuracy and seriousness, so everything is very relevant. This often also applies to the evaluation of employees and managers.
criticism
The model is based in principle on the concept published by Fritz Riemann in 1961. Since then, psychoanalytic diagnostics have made great strides and developed new categories of disorders such as borderline or narcissism.
The model is not a personality typology model for professional psychotherapists, but rather for conflict clarification helpers than a systemic conflict reaction and conflict escalation model. And the tried and tested four “cardinal points of the soul”, as Friedemann Schulz von Thun called the basic orientations, continue to do their job.
The Riemann-Thomann model is simple with its restriction to four types, life is more colorful. Each model serves to reduce the complexity of reality until it is understandable.
Finally one could complain that the Riemann-Thomann model catalogs and draws people into boxes. On the one hand, this applies to every typology and, on the other hand, Christoph Thomann was not concerned with a typology of human characters, but with a factor / vector field of modes of reaction in conflict. He did not primarily want to diagnose individual people, but to explain interpersonal polarizations and escalations and thus dissolve the hardening of the conflict, namely by being able to see the behavior and motivation of the other better as a reaction to himself. The Riemann-Thomann model is still used today in team development and coaching with great benefit.
Typology
The approach of assigning people with their different natures to different typology groups goes back to antiquity. Galen and Paracelsus have already tried to organize the immense abundance of human individualities in what is known as the doctrine of temperament . In the past centuries the type theory has been taken up again and again, revitalized and further developed. So also have Goethe , Schiller and Nietzsche contributed to its popularity in its time. The pioneer of the modern models was the well-known psychologist Carl Gustav Jung .
If, in the Riemann-Thomann model, the commonalities of people in terms of behavior and perceptible effect in the respective basic orientations are summarized in groups, then certain types with their type-related peculiarities result. If you now take all the resulting types together, they can be systematically represented in a typology. See also type theory according to Fritz Riemann .
Typologies can be created particularly well in everyday life and business. For example, the customer typology according to Lorenz was developed on the basis of the Riemann-Thomann model . It deals with the typical communication behavior, the needs and motives of customers in purchasing decision-making processes , especially in personal contact with salespeople (see sales ).
See also
swell
- Thomann, Christoph / Schulz von Thun, Friedemann: Clarification aid 1: Manual for therapists, conversation helpers and moderators in difficult discussions . rororo-verlag, Hamburg 1988
- Riemann, Fritz: Basic forms of fear . Verlag Ernst Reinhardt, Munich 1961
literature
- Fleisch, Nico H .: "The quartet of personality. The Riemann-Thomann model in relationships and conflicts. With a foreword by Christoph Thomann about the development of the model". Haupt Verlag, Bern 2020, ISBN 978-3-258-08183-0 .
- Geml, Richard / Lauer, Hermann: Marketing and Sales Lexicon , 4th edition, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-7910-2798-2
- Lorenz, Karl HA: Typical customer! Lorenz-Verlag, Elmstein 2007, ISBN 978-3-940094-00-1
- Schulz von Thun, Friedemann: Talking to each other 3: The 'inner team' and situation-appropriate communication . Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Hamburg 1998
- Schulz von Thun, Friedemann: Talking to each other 4: Communication psychology for managers . Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Hamburg 2000
- Stahl, Eberhard: Dynamics in Groups , Beltz-Verlag, Basel 2007
- Thomann, Christoph: Clarification aid 2. Conflicts at work: Methods and models of clarifying discussions. Completely revised and expanded new edition, Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2004