Arno Gruen

Arno Gruen ( born May 26, 1923 in Berlin ) is a German -Swiss writer, psychologist and psychoanalyst, whose adopted home, has become in the U.S., Zurich after decades.

Life

Gruen was born in 1923 in Berlin as the son of Jewish parents.

An event from his elementary school is to him to this day in my memory: His teacher admonished Arno Gruen's class, she was too undisciplined. Therefore, they decided to procure a cane to punish the children, shall be with him. So she took her wallet out of his pocket, picked out a dime and asked who wanted to run to the store to buy the cane. 29 forefinger not skyrocketed, only the six-year Arno. "Is not that crazy ," the psychoanalyst surprise today, " all were eager to buy the stick with which they should be beaten. " In this Berlin elementary school he learned for the first time at age seven that he was a Jew. Before the religious instruction he was discharged home. His father told him then that one should distinguish between Jews, Christians, atheists, and often between the Germans and the French. Arno replied in astonishment: " I thought we are all human beings. "

In 1936 the family from now dominated by Nazi Germany fled and emigrated to Poland and Denmark to the United States. According to information from the adolescent Arno took on this flight, only three books that influenced him: a dictionary, a book of poems by Chaim Nachman Bialik and the Jewish Bible. Already on the run was the celebration of his Bar Mitzvah on Shabbat of June 6, 1936 in the Great Synagogue in Warsaw.

Gruen studied psychology in New York, in 1958 opened a psychoanalytic practice and received his PhD in 1961 under Theodor Reik. Thereafter, he practiced in the U.S. from various occupations, most recently, he worked as a professor of psychology at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Since 1979 lives and practices Gruen in Zurich.

During his time in New York Gruen was very good friends with the writer Henry Miller and has claims to be strongly influenced by him.

In 2001 he received for his book The stranger in us the Scholl Award, which is awarded by the Association of German Book Trade and the City of Munich. The 10,000 euro Scholl Prize is awarded for a book which " testifies to intellectual independence and is likely to promote civil liberty, moral, intellectual and aesthetic courage and give the current sense of responsibility impetus ". The eulogy was delivered by Burkhard Hirsch.

Work

The struggle for democracy is a 2002 book published by Arno Gruen. Gruen began writing the book in May 2001. During the writing September 11, 2001, which affected the book came heavily. It deals with the causes of human destructiveness and its manifold manifestations. → Main article: The struggle for democracy

The stranger in us also appeared in 2002. Gruen describes in how rejections / rejections by parents in early childhood lead to a poorly trained identity. The resulting emptiness is often compensated by the inclination to follow, strong people or ideologies as well as through a simple polarizing worldview that identifies an enemy as the cause of all (or at least the most important ) problems. Gruen has this basic pattern by cases from his own practice as well as by historical events. In addition to " normal" criminals he also cites Nazi leaders like Goering, Hess, Frank and Hitler.

Alienated from the life in 2013 appeared. Gruen writes in a Preface: "This book reflects the evolution of my thinking, which began with the betrayal of the self Gruen notes. " How in Shakespeare's Hamlet takes our culture a non-being, which relies on abstract thinking and denied our basic empathic Bewußstsein and denied. The point is to make this again at the heart of our being. " This book is a fundamental criticism of our civilization.

Writings (selection )

  • The betrayal of the self. The fear of autonomy in men and women. Causa, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-88887-009-7.
  • The Insanity of Normality: Realism as a disease. A basic theory of human destructiveness. Kösel, Munich, 1987, ISBN 3-466-34178-7.
  • The early departure: An interpretation of sudden infant death. Kösel, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-466-34215-5.
  • False Gods. About love, hate and the difficulty of peace. Econ, Dusseldorf, 1991, ISBN 3-430-13653-9.
  • The loss of compassion. About the politics of indifference. German Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-423-35140-3.
  • The stranger in us. Klett- Cotta, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-608-94282-3.
  • ( with Doris Weber) hatred in the soul. Understand what makes us angry. Herder, Freiburg 2001, ISBN 3-451-05154-0.
  • The struggle for democracy: The extremism, violence and terrorism. Klett- Cotta, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-423-34128-9.
  • Betrayed Love - False Gods. Views and insights. Klett- Cotta, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-423-34342-7.
  • "I want a world without wars." Klett- Cotta, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-608-94443-5.
  • Alienated from the life. Why do we need to learn again to feel. Klett- Cotta, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-608-94746-5.
  • Autonomy and Identification: The Paradox of Their opposition. In: The International Journal of Psychoanalysis. Vol 49 (1968 ), No. 4, pp. 648
  • The Need to Punish: The Political Consequences of Identifying With the aggressor. In: The Journal of Psychohistory. Vol 27 (1999 ), pp. 136-154.
  • The political consequences of identification with the aggressor. The need to have to punish. In: Disabled in family, school and society. 1 /2000.
  • Surrendering the Self: The Reduction of Identity to Identification with the aggressor (The Cases of Hermann Goering and Rudolf Hess). In: The Journal of Psychohistory. Vol 28 (2001 ), pp. 362-451.
  • The Hitler Myth. In: The Journal of Psychohistory. Vol 29 (2002 ), pp. 312-327.
  • An Unrecognized Pathology: The Mask of humaneness. In: The Journal of Psychohistory. Vol 30 (2003 ), pp. 266-272.
  • The consequences of obedience to the development of identity and creativity (PDF, 72 kB). Lecture on 12 April 2003 during the 53rd weeks of psychotherapy 2003.
79212
de