Social Character in a Mexican Village - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1560008768 ISBN 13: 9781560008767

Publisher: Routledge, 1996

Synopsis

After the completion of the revolution in 1920, Mexico quickly became an increasingly industrialized country. The vast changes that occurred in the first fifty years after the revolution inspired Erich Fromm and Michael Maccoby to find out how the Mexican people were adapting. The result, Social Character in a Mexican Village, provides a new approach to the analysis of social phenomena. The authors applied Fromm's theories of psychoanalysis to the study of groups. They devised an ingenious method of questionnaires, which, combined with direct observation, clearly revealed the psychic forces that motivated the peasant population. In his new introduction, Michael Maccoby thoroughly explains the basis of the study, how it originated, and how it was carried out. He goes on to delineate the results and determine their impact on the present day. Social Character in a Mexican Village throws new light on one of the world's most pressing problems, the impact of the industrialized world on the traditional character of the peasant. This ground-breaking work will be invaluable to the work of sociologists, anthropologists, and psychoanalysts.

About this title

About the Author

Erich Fromm until his death in 1980, was professor at Michigan State University; and adjunct professor of psychology at New York University from 1955 to 1968. He also served as head of the Department of Psychoanalysis at the Medical School of the National University of Mexico. His many works include The Art of Loving, Man for Himself, Escape from Freedom, The Heart of Man, and The Revolution of Hope.

Review

"Social Character in a Mexican Village is notable both for methodology and theory. The first serious attempt to combine intensive psychological and psychoanalytic research techniques with detailed anthropological observations, it gives insights into peasant life going far beyond more traditional studies."

—George M. Foster, University of California, Berkeley "Fromm and Maccoby have written a study of crucial importance. They have documented the destructiveness to a Mexican village of this developmental concept. They have presented this evidence in the framework of a seminal theory of social character. And they have pointed the way to a more human type of development."

—Richard J. Barnet, Co-Director, Institute for Policy Studies  

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 1560008768
• ISBN 13: 9781560008767
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 344
• Editor: Maccoby Michael