Karl Korsch and Lewinian social psychology: failure of a project

Elteren, Mel van

doi:10.1177/095269519200500203

Cited by 21 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Certainly, discursive psychologists, who seek to discover general laws of social organization by qualitatively examining particular social interactions, may find that Lewin was not the sort of intellectual opponent that they might have assumed him to be. Moreover, critical psychologists might note that Lewin and Korsch () included historical materialism amongst the types of concrete, qualitative analyses which they advocated (on the relations between Lewin and Korsch, see van Elteren, ; John et al, ). Certainly, critical psychologists have scarcely begun to take seriously those aspects of Lewin's work which the textbooks of social psychology routinely overlook (see Delouvée, Kalampalikis and Pétard, , for an analysis of the ways that French textbooks depict Lewin).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kurt Lewin's Leadership Studies and His Legacy to Social Psychology: Is There Nothing as Practical as a Good Theory?

Billig

2014

J Theory Soc Behav

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This paper re‐examines Kurt Lewin's classic leadership studies, using them as a concrete example to explore his wider legacy to social psychology. Lewin distinguished between advanced “Galileian” science, which was based on analysing particular examples, and backward “Aristotelian” science, which used statistical analyses. Close examination of the way Lewin wrote about the leadership studies reveals that he used the sort of binary, value‐laden concepts that he criticised as “Aristotelian”. Such concepts, especially those of “democracy” and “autocracy”, affected the way that he analysed the results and the ways that later social scientists have understood, and misunderstood, the studies. It is argued that Lewin's famous motto—“there is nothing as practical as a good theory”—is too simple to fit the tensions between the leadership studies and his own views of what counts as good theory.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kurt Lewin's Leadership Studies and His Legacy to Social Psychology: Is There Nothing as Practical as a Good Theory?

Billig

2014

J Theory Soc Behav

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“…Earlier, Otto Rühle (1920), later to become a student of Alfred Adler, had criticized in "Kind und Umwelt" (Child and Environment) the destructive effects of capitalism in Berlin, and denounced the worsening of the life conditions of children, predicting the disappearance of the family as a pedagogical institution. Kurt Lewin's social thoughts at the time were clearly leftist, influenced by his friend the Marxist philosopher Karl Korsch and by left-wing social-democratic conceptions of the day (van Elteren, 1992)—but his societal critique in his publications and in this film did not go as far as Rühle's. Lewin's feature film is especially interesting because it was meant to get across his ideas about the child developing in a big city to the general public.…”

Section: The Rediscovery Of "Das Kind Und Die Welt"mentioning

confidence: 97%

Kurt Lewin as filmmaker and methodologist.

Elteren¹

1992

Canadian Psychology / Psychologie canadienne

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Lewin made films for three often interchangeable purposes: as a methodological tool for analyzing human (social) behaviour; as a rhetorical device for illusl.ral.iiig his presentations and aiding the dissemination of his theoretical concepts; and, as personal records of family and friends. Only a few of these films have survived, and their linkage to key concepts such as life-space arc described. A recently re-discovered feature-length dotumenlary/'Das Kind und die Welt" (1931), whose production Lewin supervised, dramatises the development of the child, in keeping with Lcwinian concepts and the broader contextual concerns at the time for the world of the child in a big urban city such as Berlin. Finally, Lewin's meetings with Russian filmmaker Sergej Kisenstein while this film was in production, are detailed, along with a discussion of their mutual influences in psychology and filmmaking.

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“…Their relation was formed during the years of the Weimar Republic, when Lewin published the article “Die Sozialisierung des Taylorsystem” (1920) in the review Praktischer Sozialismus whose editor was Karl Korsch, and continued in the United States. Among the exceptions to this oblivion is Mel Van Elteren’s “Karl Korsch and Lewinian Psychology: Failure of a project” (1992) and the above-mentioned study by Billig, who in his critical analysis (2014, pp. 444–45, 455ff), refers to a generally ignored article by Lewin and Korsch (1939).…”

Section: The Interconnections Between Dewey and Lewin: A Synoptic Ovementioning

confidence: 99%

Dewey and Lewin: A neglected relationship and its current relevance to psychology

Colucci

Colombo

2017

Theory & Psychology

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In this paper, we explore the neglected relationship between Dewey and Lewin. Adopting a historical and theoretical perspective, we offer an interpretative framework for explaining why both scholars and their legacies may have been insufficiently recognized or misunderstood within psychology. Their relationship is discussed with particular reference to a common theoretical basis and conception of activity. The connections of their work with the Cultural Historical School and with Gramsci's thinking are suggested. We hold that from this perspective, Dewey and Lewin can be seen to contribute to contemporary psychology-action research in particular-by furthering its "emancipatory social relevance."

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Karl Korsch and Lewinian social psychology: failure of a project

Cited by 21 publications

References 25 publications

Kurt Lewin's Leadership Studies and His Legacy to Social Psychology: Is There Nothing as Practical as a Good Theory?

Kurt Lewin's Leadership Studies and His Legacy to Social Psychology: Is There Nothing as Practical as a Good Theory?

Kurt Lewin as filmmaker and methodologist.

Dewey and Lewin: A neglected relationship and its current relevance to psychology

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