You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Critical observers of our times will not deny that in modern society man is in danger of ‘losing his soul’. The author subtitles his book—‘A psychotherapist analyses modern society’, and in a series of ten articles which follow studies carried out by the Stuttgarter
Gemeinschaft ‘Arzt und Seelsorger’ (physician and priest) gives a many-sided picture of the various forms of alienation.
This term is not interpreted in the sense Rousseau and Marx have given it; alienation here means the discrepancy between the two functions of the psyche, those which man commands consciously and those which he cannot master by his own will and consciousness. This dissociation and unrelatedness becomes manifest in alienation which constitutes a polar contrast to individuation as defined by C. G. Jung.
William Bitter does not present himself as a dogmatic member of any definite school of depth psychology. By introducing his reader to such problems as fear and loneliness he conveys a vivid picture of these symptoms and offers an easily understandable résumé of the theoretical methods of approach by the various psychological schools. The book may thus reach a large circle of readers for it does not aim at disclosing new evidence to specialists, but at drawing man's attention to the danger of losing his soul which is threatening him in modern society.
Of special interest is the connection made between the contemporary revolt of youth and of the trend towards loneliness and its compensation (pages 36-42), seen also in psychopathological mass phenomena. Discussing man's ‘domination by technical apparatus’, the author admits the inexorable nature of the development of an industrial mass society based on natural science and technology which by implication works against individual development, a broader consciousness and individuation. But he reminds us that there are also such positive effects as amazing productivity which may be decisive for the further existence of mankind.
Where Bitter, with r