Category: World

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Marx in “Who Shall Survive?” 07 – Social Science

The section, Sociometry, Sociology and Scientific Socialism opens (page 12):

In the last hundred and fifty years three main currents of social thought developed, sociology, scientific socialism and sociometry, each related to a different geographic and cultural area: sociology to France, socialism to Germany-Russia, and sociometry to the USA.

Moreno is honouring Marxism by referring to “scientific socialism”. Moreno sees himself in this tradition of developing a third science, one that relates to humans. Continue reading “Marx in “Who Shall Survive?” 07 – Social Science”

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Marx in “Who Shall Survive?” 04 – Unity of Humankind

The next mention of Marx is in the section called Social and  Organic Unity of Mankind. I’m taking the thesis implied in this title as the first point for discussion. Then I address the section where Moreno references Marx about Christianity. The section opens with the famous lines:

A truly therapeutic procedure cannot have less an objective
than the whole of mankind. But no adequate therapy can be
prescribed as long as mankind is not a unity in some fashion and as long as its organization remains unknown.

Continue reading “Marx in “Who Shall Survive?” 04 – Unity of Humankind”

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Marx in Who Shall Survive? 02 – Human agency

… spontaneity-creativity [is the] propelling force in human progress, beyond and independent from … socio-economic motives…

(Moreno, 1978; xiv, xv)

This is from the same paragraph in Who Shall Survive? I used as the basis for my last post. The passage asks question: What is the propelling force in human progress?

Marx and Moreno differ. Moreno is adamant it is  spontaneity-creativity.  He implies that for Marx it is socio-economic motives. Continue reading “Marx in Who Shall Survive? 02 – Human agency”

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The First Mention of Marxism in “Who Shall Survive?” – Religion

The first time Moreno mentions Marx in Who Shall Survive?, is in the Preludes of the Sociometric Movement (1978; xiv, xv)

The advent of sociometry cannot be understood without appraising my presociometric background and the historic-ideological setting in the Western world, during and after the First World War. Marxism and psychoanalysis, the two opposites, each had spent their theoretic bolt, the one with Nikolai Lenin’s “State and Revolution” (1917), the other with Sigmund Freud’s “Civilization and Its Discontents” (1929). The two opposites had one thing in common: they both rejected religion, they both disavowed he idea of a community which is based on spontaneous love, un-selfishness and sainthood, on positive goodness and naive cooperativeness. I took a position contradictory to both, the side of positive religion.

To summarise: Moreno makes it clear he is not creating his work in a vacuum. Freud and Marx are the ideological setting in the Western world, during and after the First World War. Moreno says “The two opposites had one thing in common: they both rejected religion”. Moreno took the side of positive religion. Continue reading “The First Mention of Marxism in “Who Shall Survive?” – Religion”

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ChatGPT3 says “AI will concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a small elite”

Here is a discussion with Chatgpt3 today, concluding with the headline above”

What do you know about the dialectical relationship between base and superstructure

The concept of the dialectical relationship between base and superstructure comes from Marxist theory and refers to the idea that the economic base of a society (including its mode of production, social relations, and means of production) determines its superstructure (including its legal system, political institutions, cultural norms, and ideology).

Continue reading “ChatGPT3 says “AI will concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a small elite””

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Adler

Just read an article on Alfred Adler: For Socialist Psychologist Alfred Adler, Collective Feeling Was the Cure.. Wikipedia is pretty good on him too.

I wonder where Moreno stood on this Red Vienna thing?

Searching in “Who Shall Survive?” — After a scathing account of psychoanalysis Moreno writes:

Adler’s system* started with another calamity, the inferiority of organs and the feelings of inferiority .

– With this footnote:

* Adler developed in his later years a supplementary system but he could never free himself from an analytic position .

“Who Shall Survive?” page lii

Describing a split in the group psychotherapy field Moreno writes:

It is significant to note that many adherents of the analytic schools with a strong sociological and actional orientation, like the Adlerians, the Jungians and the neo-Freudians are inclined towards our original society, whereas those with an individual and verbal orientation tend towards the secession group.

“Who Shall Survive?” — page xcviii

 

That does not tell me much but it a small piece in the puzzle.

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