Fromm’s questionnaire method inferred unconscious character structure from the whole of each person’s answers

Evidence

In his introduction to the questionnaire section in Studies on Authority and the Family (which he was in charge of) Fromm neatly formulated the most important aspects of his methodological ideas, although these formulations were not noticeably reflected in the individual research reports. The aspects he mentioned were: the attempt to infer the character structure of the person answering by taking the answers in each questionnaire as a whole', to include systematically in the questionnaire questions from which we can expect answers that allow conclusions to be drawn about unconscious tendencies in the person being asked and thus about the structure of the person’s instincts’; `interpreting the significance of an answer, which may often be hidden from the person being questioned’, in relation to other answers, i.e. in relation to the structure of the person’s character as a whole. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 699

In his introduction to the questionnaire section in Studies on Authority and the Family (which he was in charge of) Fromm neatly formulated the most important aspects of his methodological ideas, although these formulations were not noticeably reflected in the individual research reports. The aspects he mentioned were: the attempt to infer the character structure of the person answering by taking the answers in each questionnaire as a whole', to include systematically in the questionnaire questions from which we can expect answers that allow conclusions to be drawn about unconscious tendencies in the person being asked and thus about the structure of the person’s instincts’; interpreting the significance of an answer, which may often be hidden from the person being questioned', in relation to other answers, i.e. in relation to the structure of the person's character as a whole. Fromm thought that the formulation of typical character structures should be based on an explicit psychological theory’, `influenced by the empirical material of the research itself, and constantly differentiated’. All of these aspects were attempts to develop a methodology which would serve above all to fulfil the tasks of an analytical social psychology, as set out in Fromm’s first contribution to the ZfS: to reveal libido structures, and to conceive of them, on the one hand, as products of the influence of social and economic conditions on instinctive drives, and, on the other hand, as a decisive factor in the development of emotions within the various classes of society and in the composition of the ideological superstructure. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 699

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the earlier Frankfurt School ‘Studies on Authority and the Family’ project and to Fromm’s analytical social psychology program; pairs with later chapters on the shift from Fromm’s approach to Adorno’s methodology. — connects to: Fromm pioneered a psychoanalytic reading of verbatim questionnaire responses — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 391; Fromm aimed to map social-psychological character types onto political party groupings — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 697; Fromm saw the workers questionnaire as a methodological proving ground — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 698
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 699

Broader Connections

• Fromm pioneered a psychoanalytic reading of verbatim questionnaire responses #corroborates (0.85) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 391
• Fromm saw the workers questionnaire as a methodological proving ground #expands (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 698
• Fromm aimed to map social-psychological character types onto political party groupings #expands (0.72) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 697