Power and personality: Totalitarian power, resistance, and the sense of self in the German Democratic Republic and Czechoslovakia.
Item
-
Title
-
Power and personality: Totalitarian power, resistance, and the sense of self in the German Democratic Republic and Czechoslovakia.
-
Identifier
-
AAI9417506
-
identifier
-
9417506
-
Creator
-
Scheye, Eric.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: Stanley Renshon
-
Date
-
1994
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Political Science, General | Psychology, Social | History, European
-
Abstract
-
This study focused on two related sets of questions: (1) the psychological effect(s) of totalitarianism on the individual, in general, and in the German Democratic Republic (DDR) and Czechoslovakia, in particular; and (2) the relationship between power, a political regime, and the structure of an individual's sense of self. As a corollary to the second question, this study explores the relationship between resistance and a cohesive sense of self.;In-depth interviews were conducted in 1991 and 1992 and respondents were divided into three categories: (1) professionals; (2) dissidents; (3) "ideologically" committed communists. As was hypothesized, both the professionals and dissidents experienced their Soviet-communist regimes as perpetuating an hostile and aggressive environment. In the case of professionals, many of whom were communist party members, their totalitarian environment penetrated and colonized their sense of self, fragmenting it. Dissidents, because of their resistance to totalitarianism, were able to maintain a cohesive sense of self. "Ideologically" dedicated communists also maintained a cohesive sense of self which was due, in part, to their "idealization" of their communist party and communism. Consequently, it was argued that the cohesion or lack thereof of the individual's sense of self is the principal arena within which power operates as well as being the field upon which it can be contested and resisted. By concentrating on the minute mechanisms and processes with which the individual's sense of self coheres and/or fragments one can record and measure the often invisible means by which power circulates, molds the individual's sense of self, is reproduced, and is resisted.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
