Social change outpacing libidinal adjustment creates explosive political conditions

Evidence

Each society, he continued, has its own libidinal structure, a com bination of basic human drives and social factors. A social psychology must examine how this libidinal structure acts as the cement of a society and how it affects political authority. … The prevalent tendency to universalize the experience of the present society, he argued, was most clearly shown in the extension of the Oedipus complex to all human development, when in fact it was restricted to “patriarchal” societies alone.” A valid social psychology must recognize that when the socio-economic base of a society changed, so did the social function of its libidinal structure. When the rate of change between the two varied, Fromm argued at the end of the article, an explosive situation might well he created. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 331

Categorization

• XREF: Directly foreshadows Escape from Freedom and the authoritarian personality literature; also parallels the reader’s Milgram material on how institutional/social change destabilizes established behavior. — connects to: Authoritarians no longer differ from nonauthoritarians in sexual behavior; Submissive conventional people experience social change as a shrinking island of stability — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 540; Erotic drives adapt to social conditions while self-preservation drives resist them — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 330 (+6 more)
• SEED: The mismatch-rate model of social explosion could anchor an essay on when cultural lag becomes politically explosive.

Broader Connections

• Erotic drives adapt to social conditions while self-preservation drives resist them #expands (0.88) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 330
• Authoritarians no longer differ from nonauthoritarians in sexual behavior #exemplifies (0.75)
• Submissive conventional people experience social change as a shrinking island of stability #qualifies (0.72) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 540
• Social change is explained by overdetermination drawn from Freud #responds-to (0.72)