The social character is the central basic principle of the analytic social psychology of Erich Fromm. It describes the social formation of the character structure of the people of a society (or a social milieu or a reference group) according to their way of life and the socially typical expectations and function requirements regarding socially adapted behavior. Social character is essentially adaptive to the dominant mode of production in a society. According to Fromm, the concept integrates Marx's theory concerning how the mode of production determines ideology with Freud's concept of character. Erich Fromm Erich Fromm (March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was an internationally renowned German-American psychologist and humanistic philosopher. ... A character structure is a constellation of enduring motivational and other traits that are manifested in the characteristic ways that an individual reacts to various kinds of challenges. ... Human relationships within an ethnically diverse society. ...

While the individual character is describing the unmistakable richness of the character structure of an individual, the social character is corresponding with the socially significant central structure of the character common to the people in a social class or society. The social character is acquired substantially in the family as an agency of the society but also developed in other institutions of society such as schools and worplaces. The function of the social character is to induce the people to accomplish the expected social tasks with the feeling of freedom concerning work and interaction, education and consuming. Arising in the interaction of the socio-economic social structure and the social libidinous structure the social character makes it possible to use the human energies as a social productive resource. A family of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 1997 A family is a domestic group of people (or a number of domestic groups), typically affiliated by birth or marriage, or by comparable legal relationships — including domestic partnership, adoption, surname and (in some cases) ownership (as occurred in the Roman Empire). ... Social structure (also referred to as a social system) is a system of social relations. ...

Transformations of the social character go in the direction of increasing flexibilization and multioptionality but also restricted relationship ability. Furthermore there can be found new characterological shapings like regressive, consumer-materialistic, hedonistic, experimentalistic, post-materialistic and productive orientations which suggest a milieuspecific differentiation in the development of the social character.

Erich Fromm emphasizes the social necessities, which must be obeyed by the members of a society. So that a society functions adequately, their members must acquire a character structure which enables to do what they must do. It is for example expected in an authoritarianly structured society that the people are highly motivated and eagerly to invest their time and energy into work, to subordinate themselves to a hierarchy and fulfill selflessly the instructions brought to them. In the permissive consumer culture however a character and an activity structure are necessary, which induce people to consume gladly and extensively. Consumerism is a term used to describe the effects of equating personal happiness with purchasing material possessions and consumption. ...

Thus the character structure of everybody is formed in such a way that he can fulfill expectations addressed to him quasi voluntarily. Everyone develops character traits and character orientations that distinguish him from people who live in other societies. Character traits (e. ... A character orientation is the direction of the libidinous or passionate strivings of a man which makes it possible to describe his character structure uniformly. ...

As a theorist of the society Fromm is not interested in the peculiarities by which the individual persons distinguish themselves from each other but he asks what is common to most people in their psychological reactions. So he examines the part of the character structure which is shared by most members of a society. Fromm describes this general core in the character as social character. The figuration of the social character takes place in most societies at cost of the spontaneity and freedom of the individuals.

Literature

Erich Fromm (1942): Character and Social Process. An Appendix to Fear of Freedom, Routledge.

Whole article reproduced at: http://marxists.org/archive/fromm/works/1942/character.htm

External links

• Michael Maccoby, Toward a Science of Social Character