Artikel

Homo trudens: de expansieve mens

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Abstract

Homo trudens, expansive man - Growth. There exists concern, if not fear, for the future because of the limits to growth, the excessive armament, the tensions between rich and poor countries and between various social systems. In the developed West European countries, with their wellspread prosperity and social security, the morbidity-pattern has strongly changed after the war : decrease of somatic diseases and increase of psychic, psycho-somatic and psycho-social complaints and disturbances. In spite of the remarkable development of many new forms of therapy based on various theories, the mental health care and social assistance cannot meet the demands for help and the care for prevention. This development did not solely result from an increasing demand, but it is an autonomous process, comparable to that of sciences and economy. Growth is a general phenomenon, asking for further psychological consideration. I am, and thus I expand. Sum ergo trudo. Not only the mental health care, the sciences and the economy grow, but also human culture as a whole, when seen from a historical point of view, shows a remarkable expansion. One could speak of a drive to expand directed towards what is still unknown, what has not yet been done, nor emotionally experienced. The principal schools in psychology have paid so far insufficient attention to this drive towards expansion, which is, on the one hand, highly creative and gave rise to the intellectual and instrumental cultures, as well as to the arts, and which, on the other hand, is destructive and turns into unlimited aggression as soon as it finds an obstacle on its way. Nature gives way to man’s drive to expand. The fellow-man, however, finally offers resistance, which leads to regulation and feed-back. One can already observe this early in culture (taboos) and later on in law; e.g. from the Christian doctrine of good works to labour law and social security. The present fear is partly fear for drive and results from the awareness that material and spatial boundaries have developed and that thus the drive to expand comes in conflict with reality. Man doesn’t stand central any more, he acts in an irrational way and he is a danger to himself. If we accept expansion as a drive typical of both individual man and of mankind, then we know from psycho-analysis that a drive cannot be repressed without any risks and that both moralizing and intellectualizing do not help. Continuing the feed-back. To answer growth with growth doesn’t make much sense if the drive to expand is ignored. Extension of mental health care can only be significant if the social context in which it works also changes. As the problem is equally put on the micro-, meso- and macro-social level there is a need for different feed-back systems on all these different levels.

How to Cite:

Weijel, J., (1976) “Homo trudens: de expansieve mens”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 21(1), 27–53. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.96018