authorityresearch.com

Kurt Lewin - negating the guilty conscience.

Kurt Lewin wrote: "The negative valence of a forbidden object which in itself attracts the child thus usually derives from an induced field of force of an adult. If this field of force loses its psychological existence for the child (e.g., if the adult goes away or loses his authority) the negative valence also disappears." (Kurt Lewin; A Dynamic Theory of Personality)

What Lewin was saying, breaking it down, is: the guilty conscience ("the negative valence") is the result of a parent chastening ("an induced field of force of an adult") the child for doing something the child wants to do (an "object which in itself attracts the child"), with the child not remembering, disregarding, or acting in defiance to the parent's command not to do it (the object being "forbidden" by the parent). In other words, the guilty conscience (feeling guilty, i.e., feeling bad for doing wrong or for disobeying the father) is the result of (engendered by) the father's authority system: 1) preaching commands and rules to be obeyed and teaching facts and truth to be accepted as is, by faith, 2) blessing or rewarding those children who do or get things right as commanded, i.e., who obey, 3) chastening or punishing those children who do or get things wrong, i.e., who disobey, and 4) casting out those children who question the father's commands and rules and challenge his facts and truth, i.e., questioning and challenging the father's authority system (1-4). It is in this environment of the father's/Father's authority system where children learn to control, discipline, humble, and deny themselves in order to do what is right and not do what is wrong, having a guilty conscience (a "negative valance") when they do wrong—according to their parents standards, i.e., their commands, rules, facts, and truth.

According to Kurt Lewin, in order to 'liberate' the children and society from the father's authority system, i.e., in order to negate the father's authority system in the feelings, thoughts, and actions of the children as well as in their relationship with one another, the "negative valance," the guilty conscience has to be negated. In order (as in "new world order") to accomplish this deed (praxis): the children must be placed in an environment which is 'liberated' from the father's commands and rules to be obeyed and facts and truth to be accepted as given, by faith, i.e., an environment (classroom experience) which is 'liberated' from the fear of chastening or punishment by the father for doing wrong, i.e., for saying what the child wants to say or for doing what the child wants to do which the father had "forbidden" ("If this field of force loses its psychological existence for the child (e.g., if the adult goes away or loses his authority)") then the guilty conscience is negated ("the negative valence" "disappears").

The father's authority system is based upon the preaching and teaching of commands, rules, facts, and truth, i.e., living by faith and being held accountable for disobedience or doing things wrong. By creating a learning environment which is subject to the children dialoguing their opinions with one another, which has no father's authority within it, the children's feelings, thoughts, and actions, and their relationship with one another is 'liberated' from the father's authority system,. making them subject to the whims of the situation before them.

By doing this praxis (the dialoguing of opinions to a consensus, i.e., to a "feeling" of oneness on a personal-social issue) in a group setting (in the classroom), the children's 'loyalty' to the father's authority system is replaced with 'loyalty' to the system of 'change,' i.e., to the child's carnal nature, i.e., to the "children of disobedience," 'liberating' the children to do unconscionable, unrighteous, abominable things in the name of "peace and affirmation" (George Hegel), creating a "new world order" of "worldly peace and socialist harmony," i.e., a "new world order" of children 'liberated from having a guilty conscience for being "normal," i.e., for being carnal, i.e., for being "of and for" the world only, i.e., "self actualized," negating (killing) any and all who remain 'loyal' to (who initiate and sustain) the father's authority system, doing so without having a guilty conscience. As Abraham Maslow admitted in his journals, "Self-actualizing people have to a large extent transcended the values of their culture. They are not so much merely Americans as they are world citizens, members of the human species first and foremost." "The whole discussion becomes species-wide, One World, at least so far as the guiding goal is concerned. To get to that goal is politics & is in time and space & will take a long time & cost much blood." (Abraham Maslow, The Journals of A.H. Maslow, Volumes I and II. )

The difference between the guilty conscience and the so called "super-ego."

"The guilty conscience is formed in childhood by the incorporation of the parents and the wish to be father of oneself." "What we call 'conscience' perpetuates inside of us our bondage to past objects now part of ourselves:" (Norman O. Brown, Life Against Death : The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History)

"Social control is most effective at the individual level. The personal conscience is the key element in ensuring self-control, refraining from deviant behavior even when it can be easily perpetrated." "The family, the next most important unit affecting social control, is obviously instrumental in the initial formation of the conscience and in the continued reinforcement of the values that encourage law abiding behavior." "Unfortunately, because of the reduction of influence exerted by neighbors, the extended family and even the family, social control is now often more dependent on external control, than on internal self-control." (Dr. Robert Trojanowicz, The meaning of "Community" in Community Policing)

Since parental authority is out and socialist control is in, the past must become subject to the impulses and urges of the present, making children subject to the socialists dreams and hopes for the future, a world or carnal pleasures, 'liberated' from Godly restraint.

"... the super-ego ‘unites in itself the influences of the present and of the past.'" (Norman O. Brown, Life Against Death : The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History)

"It is a function of the ego to make peace with conscience, to create a larger synthesis within which conscience, emotional impulses, and self operate in relative harmony." "When this synthesis is not achieved, the superego has somewhat the role of a foreign body within the personality, and it exhibits those rigid, automatic, and unstable aspects discussed above." (Theodor Adorno, The Authoritarian Personality)

"The superego is conceived in psychoanalysis as functioning substantially in the same way as the conscience." "Superego development is conceived as the incorporation of the moral standards of society." "Therefore the levels of the Taxonomy should describe successive levels of goal setting appropriate to superego development." (Benjamin S. Bloom, Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Book I Cognitive Domain)

"This voice which really isn't you but tells you the way the world works is a direct attack on creativity. We have to work to remove it." "When we learn to silence the inner voice that judges yourself and others, there is no limit to what we can accomplish, individually and as part of a team. Absence of judgment makes you more receptive to innovative ideas." (Michael Ray, Maslow on Management, Abraham Maslow, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 1998. p. 223, 225)

© Institution for Authority Research, Dean Gotcher 2015