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.
Before discussing the origins of ruling classes, the author contrasts Róheim's theory of the importance of childhood experience in culture formation with the more Marxian views of Erich Fromm and his 'social character'. The contrast is psychological determinism by various traumata versus environmental determinism. Domhoff would place greater emphasis on the former but not to the exclusion of the latter. He points out that Róheim never meant his theories to be applied as generalizations to large groups of people. Norman O. Brown stated that repression and the return of the repressed are the dialectic of history. Separation anxiety leads to repression and later to dissatisfaction and guilt. Western civilization developed out of guilty people offering their produce as gifts to the nonworking shaman. The shamans formed a ruling class with a group of professional assistants. Out of this grew the city which eventually led to the industrial revolution. The gifts to the shamans evolved into money. The ruling class has now become those who control the money. The abstractor believes this is a simplistic view.