Group Conflicts in Light of the Cratism Theory (Psycholinguistic Analysis)

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of intergroup relations in light of Władysław Witwicki’s cratism theory. His theory allows social relations to be explained in light of the pursuit for a sense of power, although this has never been verified in the psychological laboratory. Because the cratism theory is largely based on the analysis of social relations described in historical documents, this paper presents an attempt to use its basic assumptions to describe the linguistic behavior (and linguistic picture of the world) of a threatened group. The examined material consisted of religious documents of the first Christians, created before and during the growing conflict with an unfriendly/ antagonistic environment. Frequency analysis shows significant changes in the cratic orientation as well as emotions and the evaluation of the social world in conflict conditions.

Psychology of religion in the theories and research of the Lvov-Warsaw School (basic achievements and developments)

“…The concept of cratism and cratic desires were especially useful not only in psychological investigations into the life of Jesus, but more widely in the ancient Semitic and Judeo-Christian tradition. They were noticed in the last linguistic research of the Hebrew Old Testament, the Greek New Testament and the Arabic Quran (the highest level of cratism was found in the Old Testament, and the lowest in the New Testament; the Quran was between them- Citlak, 2016b;2020). To summarize, it seems that the theory of cratism-based on the analysis of ancient philosophical and religious discourse-could prove useful in studies of contemporary religious discourse.…”

Psychology of the Lvov‐Warsaw School and the shape of postcommunist Polish psychology (unfinished dialog with Brentanian tradition)

“…Despite its exceptionally original applications in the analysis of emotions, humor, art, and religion, and its great popularity in Poland, it found no followers in the postwar period, eventually disappearing in the archives. It was only a few years ago that it was presented more extensively in the Englishlanguage literature (Citlak, 2016a) and an initial attempt at a practical application was undertaken (Citlak, 2016b(Citlak, , 2020(Citlak, , 2021c. The research on the principle of contradiction started by Witwicki, as mentioned earlier, allowed the formulation of the basic theses of cognitive dissonance in the 1930s (Witwicki, 1959), and had an excellent theoretical background even in the works of J. Łukasiewicz on the concept of logical and psychological contradiction, although this has not been continued.…”