Editors' introduction to ?Modern Psychology?

Abstract

Hans H. Gerth (1908-1978) published this essay in Germany in 1936. Writing under the conditions of Fascist persecution, Gerth succeeded in bringing off a left liberal critique of various psychologies, some of which were espoused by the Nazis themselves. Jousting with unknown Nazi censors, Gerth seems to have organized his essay in such a manner that the censors would not recognize it as a critique of some of the psychological underpinnings of official ideology. This is especially the case of his treatment of Kretschmer's somatic psychology in the presentation of which he offers pictures that may be read as a sendup of both Kretsehmer's psychology and the Nazi icons. However, the essay has a lasting value as an analysis and critique of modern psychologies. As Gerth points out, the United States became the locus of behavioristic psychology, a perspective that spread into some branches of sociology as well. It is our opinion that Gerth's critique of this branch of modern psychology is more trenchant today than it was when written. Moreover, Gerth's nuanced analysis of psychoanalytic theory provides an antidote to the school of psychohistory that has reasserted itself in recent decades. Readers who are familiar with Gerth's perspective will recognize how this work adumbrates the discussion of psychology in Character and Social Structure: The Psychology of Social Institutions. The latter study, co-authored with C. Wright Mills, may now be read in a new light. Character and Social Structure is not only a seminal discussion of the theory of social institutions but also a critique of authoritarian practice. Arthur J. Vidich Stanford M. Lyman