The Gardener and the Sculptor (1)

The concept of the gardener and the sculptor is a popular metaphor in German pedagogy. I have chosen the following text as an introduction because it explains what in my opinion is the most important thing in any human relationship: A balance between guiding and allowing to grow.

en.0 >There are different views on the subject of education and how it needs to be done. The basic understanding of human beings is of big importance when we want to tackle this subject. Is the child at birth a blank slate? Or is its path predestined by inherent attributes?

If the child was born as a “blank slate”, in theory there would be no limits to the malleability through education. Man would then be a pure product of the environmental influences affecting him. One could simply establish all desired attributes, characteristics and abilities by creating an appropriate environment. This would make the educator something like a sculptor, who works his “raw material” and shapes it to his wishes.

The contrary position is based on the assumption that a child already has all the information it needs for its development when it is born. In that case, it would be the task of education to create an environment in which all human potential can ulfold itself freely. The educator then plays the part of a gardener: He cares for and waters his seedlings, he clears them of weeds, protects them from disease and enjoys the good growth of the beautiful blooms.

Depending on whether one follows the model of the gardener of the one of the sculptor, one will have a different opinion on the purpose of education. [...] As it is often the case, pedagogy sees the truth in the case of sculptor and gardener in the middle between the two.

Education always needs to do both: Guiding and allowing to grow. It needs to provide freedom for individual development and define boundaries for orientation. To stay within the metaphor: The gardener also trims his plants to avoid uncontrolled growth. He hones his fruit tree to harvest tastier apples or to make it more robust. Of course, the sculptor cannot freely shape his material. In any case he has to take into account the character of his materials. Whether he is working with sandstone or with granit determines his choice of tools and the result.

Unlike in gardening or sculpting, in the education of children we deal with human individuals. We can and must not purely shape them to our liking. Neither should we purely let them grow. The latter would be “nothing less than a relapse into barbarism” (2), as the pedagog Theodor Litt observes in his classic book Führen oder Wachsenlassen (“Guiding or letting grow”). On the other hand, the former would be a misjudgement of the boundaries of education and a disregard of the child as a human being.

[...] “Every education serves the purpose that the educator eventually becomes redundand.” (3)

The Insanity of Normality (4)

Author: Stefan Berkholz
Editing: Anja Brockert
Director: Iiris Arnold
Broadcast: Thursday, 15th of May 2008, 8:30 AM, SWR 2

In a 30-minute interview for the radio station SWR2, the German psychoanalyst Arno Gruen talks about his perspective on large scale psychological issues. The interview highlights surprising connections between seemingly unrelated subjects.

“Yes, actually if I looked at the whole thing properly, I would have to jump off of the nearest bridge. But you can’t do that. That’s why I’m an optimist.” — Erich Fromm

en.2 > Arno Gruen: The right half of our brains is the one that has a lot to do with empathy, with kindness, with compassion. The left, you might say, deals with abstract thinking. I believe it is culturally determined if the left hemisphere, and not the right one, becomes dominant. This does lot lie in our genes. My opinion is that man is naturally good, but he is made evil. This happens because the circumstances of his early experience in the relationship with his parents, mother, father, and family and then later to the state aim to numb empathic impulses. In other words, the functions of our right hemisphere are immured. As a result we get people who are controlled by abstractions rather than by compassion.

Narrator: The home office of the analyst offers a nice view into the Zurich countryside. The room is bright, decorated with a black leather chair and a classic sofa. Arno Gruen is dressed casually; his movements are young; white hair gives him the dignity of age. Arno Gruen turns 85 on the 26th of May. A warm and humorous person. Cheerful, attentive — and very lively:

Arno Gruen: Of course, I am an optimist. There is no other way. Erich Fromm was once asked: “Mr Fromm, aren’t you really a pessimist?”, on which he replied: “Yes, actually if I looked at the whole thing properly, I would have to jump off of the nearest bridge. But you can’t do that. That’s why I‘m an optimist.”

Narrator: An amused look from Arno Gruen’s alert eyes. He speaks with a slight accent; his grammar is American; from time to time he squeezes an English into his sentences. As a child, Arno Gruen emigrated from Berlin to the United States with his parents. There, he has lived for over forty years. He has studied, worked in several universities and hospitals, ran a psychotherapy practice and ultimately settled to work as a professor. But Gruen did not feel at home. In the summer of 1979 he returned to Europe. Since then he has been living and working in Switzerland.

en.3 >Narrator: At the center of Gruen’s thoughts stands the individual, who by nature is mainly interested in compassion. Gruen believes that from birth we are programmed to be empathic, cooperative beings. Only later in our lives, violence penetrates our consciousness. Of course, there has always been violence. However, today’s social conditions provide good nutrition for evil.

Arno Gruen: Violence is increasing where people have the potential for it in themselves. This potential is being contained, but when social structures fall apart and people are at risk because they lose their jobs, when they are constantly humiliated — yes, the violence increases.

Reciter: One has to acknowledge the hate that is generated by the constant pressure to conform. On the other hand, people are prevented from being openly violent as long as the authority has everything under control. Only when this frame falls apart and the promises for which we have sacrificed our self-esteem can no longer be fulfilled, then the anger bursts out. (Arno Gruen, The Insanity of Normality)

Narrator: The psychoanalyst recognizes the signals of our time: the growing discontent of the masses. Youth unemployment and violence amongst young people; both rising equally. Family structures fall apart. Isolation is becoming an issue more and more. The individual has lost his perspective – We are looking for scapegoats and trust prejudice. When society no longer fulfils its promises, when self-realization, security, life expectations can no longer be met, then the self-esteem of the people collapses. Then, hate and violence grow.

en.4 >Narrator: Arno Gruen was born in 1923 in Berlin-Mitte. It is a turbulent time and the lost war has left its mark on the country. Inflation reaches its peak. War invalids hobble through the streets, many starve, some commit suicide. Arno Gruen grew up in a working class neighbourhood. His father is a Jewish businessman from Poland, his mother is of Russian descent. Despite being outsiders the family is successful, living in a large apartment. If one listens to Arno Gruen’ stories, one could think that he was different than many others from an early age. Gruen recalls a characteristic episode of his school days:

Arno Gruen: Our main teacher was called Miss Goldmann. She was very large: not a bad teacher; she wasn’t angry, but she was also, like all the teachers at the time, very concerned about order and discipline. She used to sit on a desk — high above us — we were 29 guys, no girls — and one day she said: “It seems to me that you have become a bit messy and I have decided to buy a cane.” This was still allowed at that time, in 1927. So she took out her wallet and asked for volunteers who would go to the store next door and buy the stick. 28 out of the 29 pupils raised their hands, all wanting to go out and buy it. I was the only one who did not. So then they went out to go buy the cane with which we all should get beaten. Isn’t that crazy?

“The Destructive is not the same as aggression, which is a legitimate response to oppression. The Destructive in man arises because the self is turned into a stranger and then turned against. This hatred must be retrieved to its roots, to the role of the victim one was once caught in.”

Narrator: These people no longer recognize their own fear and pain. If they did, they would see themselves as weak and contemptible. When we become obedient, we give up our own feelings and perceptions. Instead we rely on authorities to guide us. Although we reject or even hate them we start to identify with them and submit. This results in self-hatred. Our aggression is not directed against the oppressors but we look for the enemy in other things or people. The victim becomes the perpetrator. In his book The Insanity of Normality Gruen writes:

Reciter: The lesson of Nazism is not only a history lesson about power politics, greed, megalomania and evil. It also teaches us what men and women capable are capable of doing when they have no relationship with their inner beings. Recognition of this could help to prevent similar things from happening. This is important because such people are still everywhere among us. Instead of political ideologies, nowadays they follow ideas like the laws of business success.

Narrator: When Hitler comes to power, Arno Gruen is nine years old. He is lucky: his father recognizes the signs of the times early enough. In the fall of 1936, the family flees to the United States. Gruen has to learn a new language, which does not prove difficult at his young age. Then the adplescent wants to learn about the nature of man. He studies history, philosophy, and eventually ends up in the field of psychology.

Arno Gruen: When we were in college, World War II was already happening, and funnily enough we were in the possession of half of Freud’s collected works — because only half had arrived. The other half was on a boat that was torpedoed by the Germans. But I read this half and I was very excited. This finally gave us a way of seeing ourselves which made sense.

Narrator: This, however, did not stop Gruen from criticizing Freud’s theories in his own work. In his book The Stranger within us Gruen writes:

Reciter: Freud was wrong when he assumed that the destructive can be redirected into constructive channels by sublimation. The Destructive is not the same as aggression, which is a legitimate response to oppression. The Destructive in man arises because the self is turned into a stranger and then turned against. This hatred must be retrieved to its roots, to the role of the victim one was once caught in. Only this way one can identify the true aggressor. Only when we confront ourselves with its terrorizing power, we can see the hate we feel for ourselves and for other victims. This hatred can only be ended when we allow the grief over the insufficient love of our parents to show. Only then a person can become creative.

en.6 >Narrator: Gruen distinguishes between legitimate aggression and hatred. He argues that Freud ultimately strengthened the established power structures with his theory. Sublimation as imagined by Freud could work well in our success and performance orientated culture. However, Gruen says:

Success and achievement impress easily and they are rewarded well in our competitive society. But the creation of greatness and meaning as an end in itself ultimately destroys life. In this context Gruen mentions drug and alcohol addicts, the increasing rate of early heart attacks, mental illness, violence, environmental problems, the agitation and the singulation.

Arno Gruen: We live in a world where sensitivity is generally not encouraged. Instead, we reward those who are competitive and strive for success. We deny that the result of this is an omnipresent feeling of anxiety. We constantly have to be afraid that after we make the next turn, we fall to pieces or that we fail. This is, I think, the deepest reason for what Freud called castration anxiety. He saw it as something merely sexual. But I think that the phenomenon is something deeper and more general. I believe that our society supports the debasing of others in order heighten one’s own self-esteem.

“Success and achievement impress easily and they are rewarded well in our competitive society. But the creation of greatness and meaning as an end in itself ultimately destroys life.”

en.7 >Narrator: In order to counter these tendencies, Gruen says we should protect the autonomy of the people and promote the individual. Again and again he mentions the two poles of power and love in his argument.

Reciter: The human evolution offers us two paths, the one of love and the one of power. The path of power, which is most prominent in most cultures, leads to a self that reflects an ideology of ruling. This is a divided self – divided by the idea that suffering and helplessness need to be rejected, while power and authority can be embraced as means to negate this helplessness. A self that is structured in such a way is the principle of what is many regard as success in our lives. In this lies the antithesis of autonomy.

Arno Gruen: That which we call normal is really crazy. And many of the people we consider to be insane — we are doing them wrong. They are mad because they cannot live in a society that is hypocritical. That’s why they are mad. Perhaps our madness could tell us something about ourselves. About where we join in with things that aren’t right.

Reciter: Many people slip into the appearance of “normal” behaviour, because they cannot bear the tension of the contradictions between the imposed reality and their inner world. Soon, for these people there will be no more real feelings. Instead, they deal with ideas of feelings while having no experience with real ones. They present fake feelings and detach themselves from their true feelings. The healthier the image of their adopted is, the more successful they will be able to perform this manipulation. And it is manipulation — as they aim not to express themselves, but to convince the others that they are acting, thinking and feeling appropriately. (Arno Gruen, The Insanity of Normality, 1987)

And those who embody this pose are the ones who are elected. Why? I think this has its roots in what chil- dren experience. Children experience so often – not all children, but many – that in order to maintain a relationship with their parents, they have to perceive how their parents want to be seen. Most parents want to be seen as strong-willed, as people who know what is good for their children – they want to be seen as authorities. We disregard the possibility that we could be causing our children harm, when we ignore their capabilities and perceptions. So the “reality” to which we are conditioned is not true reality but the pose. And we continuously choose people that reflect the pose.

Narrator: ...Because those people who seem strong and determined can give us the impression of saving us from fear and self-responsibility. Responsibility is pushed away. A behaviour that has been learned in the parent-child relationship. Often, parents act as perfect people who know what they are doing. At least they pretend to. Children then start to adapt behaviour because they think they have to act themselves in order to be loved. They do not think but behave. They conform to the expectations of the adults. The parents, however present themselves as something they are not. It is a struggle for admiration and confirmation of power. Many parents present themselves as invulnerable heroes – in truth they are merely actors who hide their true selves. They attempt to be something they are not — they deceive and manipulate.

Reciter: These are the people I want to show as the truly insane. They put us all at risk because they reject to face the chaos, the anger and the emptiness that is within them. In a world that is experienced as contradictory and agonizingly wicked, the schizophrenic still maintains his central feeling core, insisting that love has true value. On the other hand, for those who conceal the insanity with acting, the only way to parry their inner chaos and descruction is the pursuit of power.

Arno Gruen: Hitler was a weak man. The Secretary of State said that it was almost impossible for him to make a decision and to sign something. But how did they present him? As the man of strong spirit.

Reciter: We need to reflect on ourselves in order to recognize our own fixation on the pose if we want to prevent a new Hitler. Our fascination for greatness makes us easily seduced by things like power, success, genius, exceptionality and perfect beauty. As long as we delude ourselves by glitz and glamor and allow seemingly “male” strength to distract us from our true perceptions, we are easily manipulated. (Arno Gruen, Ich will eine Welt ohne Kriege, 2006)

Narrator: Even in his last book , Ich will eine Welt ohne Kriege (“I want a world without wars”), Arno Gruen analyses the prevailing balance of power in our civilization. He wants to enter search the dialogue with people who are kind, sincere and unselfish, says Gruen. He says that he wants to strengthen and encourage them to not let themselves be guided by superficial values such as power, success and money. He wants to contribute to a decrease in the fear of otherness. We should no longer rely on conformation, but value the voice of the individual. But before this can happen we need to realize how our living together works.

Reciter: Outrage and protest against injustice have gone out of fashion. Dreams of success and wealth have replaced the dreams of a better and more liveable world. Not only does this one-sided focus on performance, strength and success eliminate all vitality from our lives. It also destroys our hopes for a better world.

Arno Gruen: Many people are becoming more sadistic. So that it means pleasure for them not only to humiliate humans but also to inflict pain. But that means: They are looking for the pain in others that they cannot admit in themselves. I would that yes, youth violence is increasing, but what increases is not the potential. That has always been there. The structures in our society threaten to fall apart. One no longer knows one’s position and where one stands in society — all this is now increasingly threatened.

Narrator: Gruen explores the destructive cycle of violence and counter-violence; he describes militant structures in human history. He also looks at the promises of Muslim preachers and analyses the so-called leadership cadres of our society that determine the climate, the pace in the world of work, the policy decisions and the position taken in matters economy. Our hope lies in the exceptions, Gruen says. Those who do not participate, those who rebel. He refers to studies from the USA, demonstrating that, for example, elite soldiers who were known for particular cruelty and hardness in the Vietnam War had a violent, notably authoritarian upbringing at home. However, conscientious objectors reported the opposite from their childhood — they had been widely accepted as children.

Reciter: During the Vietnam War, about one-fifth of the soldiers never involved in torture, rape or murder of civilians and prisoners of war. As studies show, these were the men who accepted their own fears, who did not need to prove their manhood and who were always willing to help others.

Narrator: So how does Arno Gruen suggest we tackle the problems of the present; the dangers of the future? There are solutions, says Gruen. They certainly seem far off our everyday lives. As a lone voice in the wilderness, the psychoanalyst preaches of ways to get out of the rat race of our time. Children should be given a loving world. Games and imagination should be encouraged, not occupation with television and computers. The man’s own should be the core of his self, only then there could be a real identity. Perpetrators of violence should not be treated with velvet gloves, Gruen demands. He claims that they should be confronted with their violence. Only then they have the opportunity to reflect, only then compassion would become possible again. Anti-aggression therapy is one way. Yet, even when being optimistic Gruen is disillusioned. The story repeats itself – yes, it is a constant battle.

Artist’s Note

My name is Felix Maiwald, I am a German graphic designer and I have been studying at the University of Derby for the past four years. What you are looking at is my final project. Living in England has given me a second perspective on life and our cultures. I have chosen to print the texts in this publication in German language as well as in English. This is meant to illustrate the two different viewpoints on society that I have experienced.

Some words on the visual aspects: In this work I have tried to represent the two opposing concepts of the gardener and the sculptor visually. The fragmented, abstract text blocks were juxtaposed with wild, unordered collages in order to demonstrate how a balanced education could look like. In my collage works I used elements like stairs and missing words to illustrate the absurdity, stress and meaninglessness of modern life.

I hope that you have enjoyed my work. — Felix Maiwald

Bibliography

1. Führen oder Wachsenlassen – wie erziehen wir richtig?
   An article by HAF Hamburger Akademie für Fernstudien GmbH, Hamburg
   Available online here.
   Translation from German into English by Felix Maiwald
2. Theodor Litt: Führen oder Wachsenlassen
   Ernst Klett Verlag, Stuttgart, 13. Aufl. 1967, S. 65
3. Peter Struck: Die Kunst der Erziehung
   WBV, 1996
4. Wahnsinn Normalität - Arno Gruens Zivilisationskritik
   An interview with Arno Gruen by the radio station SWR2 - by Stefan Berkholz
   Available online here.
   Translation from German into English by Felix Maiwald
5. Never Violence - a Story Told by Astrid Lindgren
   Available online here.
6. Niemals Gewalt - Lindgrens Rede
   Available online here.
7. Keine Aggression ist auch keine Lösung
   Book review of Jeper Juul’s book Agression by Gerlinde Unverzagt in Psychologie Heute
   Available online here.
   Translation from German into English by Felix Maiwald
8. About Arno Gruen
   by Human Development Books, Berkeley, Ca
   Available online here.
   Translated from English into German by Felix Maiwald.
9. From Vimmerby to the World
   About Astrid Lindgren, by Svante Törngren
   Available online here.
   Translated from English into German by Felix Maiwald.
10. About Jesper Juul
    From the Web site of the Danish family therapist.
    Available online here.
    Translated from English into German by Felix Maiwald.
11. Dissected book: The Penguin Book of Art Writing
    by Karen Wright and Martin Gayford, Published by Viking in 1998
12. Dissected book: In Search of Nomads
    by John Ure, Published by Robinson, London in 2003
13. Author's portraits
    Jesper Juul's, Arno Gruen's and Astrid Lindgren's portraits.
    Found online under these links: 1, 2 and 3.
14. Ich will eine Welt ohne Kriege
    by Arno Gruen, Published by Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart in 2008
15. Der Wahnsinn der Normalität
    by Arno Gruen, Published by Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, München in 1992
16. Der Fremde in uns
    by Arno Gruen, Published by Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, München in 2002
17. Aggression: Warum sie für uns und unsere Kinder notwendig ist
    by Jesper Juul, Published by S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main in 2013

This publication is a university project by Felix Maiwald. I have created this piece of work in course of my master’s degree in 2014. The imagery is my own work and must not be used without permission by letter. I am not responsible for the contents of external links.

I have taken the liberty to translate the texts as freely as it seemed appropriate.

Special Thanks to Familylab.de for being an inspirational source of materials.

To see more of my work, please visit felixmaiwald.com.

Never Violence (5)

en.+ > Above all, I believe that there should never be any violence." In 1978, Astrid Lindgren received the German Book Trade Peace Prize for her literary contributions. In acceptance, she told the following story.

"When I was about 20 years old, I met an old pastor's wife who told me that when she was young and had her first child, she didn't believe in striking children, although spanking kids with a switch pulled from a tree was standard punishment at the time. But one day when her son was four or five, he did something that she felt warranted a spanking--the first of his life. And she told him that he would have to go outside and find a switch for her to hit him with. The boy was gone a long time. And when he came back in, he was crying. He said to her, "Mama, I couldn't find a switch, but here's a rock that you can throw at me."

All of a sudden the mother understood how the situation felt from the child's point of view: that if my mother wants to hurt me, then it makes no difference what she does it with; she might as well do it with a stone. And the mother took the boy onto her lap and they both cried. Then she laid the rock on a shelf in the kitchen to remind herself forever: never violence. And that is something I think everyone should keep in mind. Because violence begins in the nursery--one can raise children into violence."

I think that too often we fail to feel situations "from the child's point of view," and that failure leads us to teach our children other than what we think we're teaching them.

No Aggression isn't a Solution Either (7)

en.+ > We keep reminding ourselves to stay positive and spend much time and energy in order to not say what we want and feel. But by doing so, we endanger our mental health, deconstruct our self-esteem and destroy our self-confidence. Aggressive emotions are ostracized; showing frustration, rejection and rage is frowned upon. Aggression has become a new taboo.

The message “You must not get angry!” has been responsible for many children going through the roof or being discriminated against in the past 15 years. The violence in the politeness and correctness of adults injures the integrity of children. The demonization of aggression prevents, that children can learn to deal with emotions and to channel their aggressive impulses constructively. And there one shall not get angry? Jesper Juul is upset about the behaviour of adults who prohibit aggression. He attacks the cultural imperative of always having to be nice, pleasant and gentle. He unmasks the do-gooders and exposes the well concealed aggressions against the weaker ones. Those are always the children, even if it sometimes seems, as if the two-year-old was the strongest personality in a home.

Parents and teachers have voluntarily narrowed their abilities and denied themselves to express their broad range of natural emotions. These are no good examples for children, who learn from experiences and not through indoctrination. Adults are in no way living in another domain in which there is solely love.

In his book, Jesper Juul talks about big truths calmly, before addressing those who hold in their hand the fate of children. He describes vicious circles, systematically explains correlations, raises new questions and still identifies at the bottom of aggressive behaviour: “If these children were as silver-tongued as they are sensitive”, then they could express themselves in other ways. “But the tabooing of aggressions bans children from calling for help – in the only language they know well, when they are in need.”

With a clear vision and precise passion, Jesper Juul rehabilitates the alienated feeling as what it is – a natural emotion. Learning to deal with it takes a whole childhood long. And this may even be, it has to be: Because no aggression isn’t a solution either.