Social Character in a Mexican Village

by Michael Maccoby (Editor)

Overview

After the completion of the revolution in 1920, Mexico quickly became an increasingly industrialized country. The vast changes that occurred in the first fifty years after the revolution inspired Erich Fromm and Michael Maccoby to find out how the Mexican people were adapting. The result, Social Character in a Mexican Village, provides a new approach to the analysis of social phenomena.The authors applied Fromm's theories of psychoanalysis to the study of groups. They devised an ingenious method of questionnaires, which, combined with direct observation, clearly revealed the psychic forces that motivated the peasant population. In his new introduction, Michael Maccoby thoroughly explains the basis of the study, how it originated, and how it was carried out. He goes on to delineate the results and determine their impact on the present day. Social Character in a Mexican Village throws new light on one of the world's most pressing problems, the impact of the industrialized world on the traditional character of the peasant. This ground-breaking work will be invaluable to the work of sociologists, anthropologists, and psychoanalysts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781351306386
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/17/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	303
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Michael Maccoby

Table of Contents

1: The Social Character of the Peasant and Problems of Methodology; 2: A Mexican Peasant Village; 3: A Socioeconomic and Cultural Picture of the Village; 4: The Theory of Character Orientations; 5: The Character of the Villagers; 6: Character, Socioeconomic, and Cultural Variables; 7: Sex and Character; 8: Alcoholism; 9: The Formation of Character in Childhood; 10: Possibilities for Change; 11: Conclusions

Editorial Reviews

A reprint of the 1970 groundbreaking study combining psychoanalytical and anthropological methods to analyse the impact of industrialization on "peasants." Fromm and Maccoby consider a Mexican village from the perspectives of social character, socioeconomic and cultural factors, gender relations, alcoholism, childhood formation of character, and cooperative and anticooperative attitudes within the village's structure. The new edition has an introduction by Maccoby who describes the study's methodology in detail and discusses its results in the light of present day circumstances. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

"Social Character in a Mexican Village is notable both for methodology and theory. The first serious attempt to combine intensive psychological and psychoanalytic research techniques with detailed anthropological observations, it gives insights into peasant life going far beyond more traditional studies." —George M. Foster, University of California, Berkeley "Fromm and Maccoby have written a study of crucial importance. They have documented the destructiveness to a Mexican village of this developmental concept. They have presented this evidence in the framework of a seminal theory of social character. And they have pointed the way to a more human type of development." —Richard J. Barnet, Co-Director, Institute for Policy Studies

From the Publisher