Abstract
Ichheiser’s Polish language texts from before the Second World War cover a wide range of phenomena (e.g., vocational psychology, psychological conflict, life in both big cities and the countryside) and provide valuable insite into the history of social psychology. While these texts are different in their research foci, they are all written in a singular voice, a voice that speaks to a clear vision of what social psychology is and what role it can play—and can come to play—in the bettering of society. This chapter reviews Ichheiser’s Polish texts and does so through the lens of his vision for the field. These texts are not only useful because of their scholarly analyses of the particular topics in question but also because they present Ichheiser’s understanding of the role such research should play in both the development of the social sciences and the advancement of a just society. This chapter will provide a window into Ichheiser’s Polish language texts in a manner that highlights how he practiced what he preached, that is, by writing as one acutely aware that his voice as a researcher was valuable and even intelligible only as embedded within a wider social context. This remains a valuable lesson for the field, but also one that remains difficult to truly grasp and even more difficult to put into practice.
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Notes
- 1.
This analysis is based on the Polish materials found within Sigmund Freud University’s Gustav Ichheiser Archive as of January, 2017 (www.ichheiser.weebly.com).
- 2.
Ichheiser claimed to have lost his copy of his birth certificate during his commitment to a state mental hospital (1966). An original copy of his birth certificate is held in the Polish National Archives on ul. Sienna 16, Krakow, Poland.
- 3.
The partitions of Poland took place in 1772, 1773, and 1795 and divided Poland between the Kingdom of Prussia, Habsburg Austria, and Tsarist Russia. Poland regained independence 123 years later, in 1918.
- 4.
All translations from Polish, including Ichheiser’s Polish texts, are the work of the author. In cases where the Polish original is provided, the original (now dated) Polish spellings have been retained. For instance, teoria is often spelled teorja.
- 5.
However, as with all such reflections on the ubiquity of misunderstandings and illusions, Ichheiser’s comments arguably often seem to imply, or even logically require, the existence of “truth” that would allow for claims of “falsehood” (see Smith, 1970).
- 6.
In 1925, Ichheiser studied Machiavelli in Italy (Rudmin et al., 1987). In the quotation from Machiavelli’s The Prince, provided by Ichheiser (1936a), we can hear a tremendous similarity to Ichheiser’s own writings: “Nothing is as important as the appearance of virtue. For our evaluations of others are driven more by appearances than by true understanding. Our eyes are open, but few of us possess true perception. Everyone sees others as they think they are, but only a few see you as you really are, and those few do not have the courage to oppose the opinion of the masses” (p. 558).
- 7.
In expanding upon this point, Ichheiser refers to the interesting spike in accidents occurring at the National Electric Light Association during the long, dark days of January. He did not, however, speak directly to the irony that the factory produced light bulbs.
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Mazur, L.B. (2018). Historical Insights on the Nature of Social Psychology: Gustaw Ichheiser’s Pre-War Polish Texts. In: Joerchel, A., Benetka, G. (eds) Memories of Gustav Ichheiser. Theory and History in the Human and Social Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72508-6_7
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