Arno Gruen facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Arno Gruen
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| Born | May 26, 1923 |
| Died | October 20, 2015 (aged 92) Zürich, Switzerland
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| Nationality | Swiss, German |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Psychology |
Arno Gruen (May 26, 1923 – October 20, 2015) was a Swiss-German psychologist and psychoanalyst. He studied how people think and behave.
Contents
Who Was Arno Gruen?
Arno Gruen was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1923. When he was 13, his family had to leave Germany. They moved to the United States in 1936 to find safety. During their journey, Arno celebrated his Bar Mitzvah in Warsaw, Poland.
Arno Gruen's Education and Career
Arno Gruen went to college at the City College of New York. He then studied psychology at New York University. After that, he learned about psychoanalysis. This is a way of understanding how our minds work. He trained with a famous teacher named Theodor Reik.
Gruen taught psychology for many years. He was a professor at Rutgers University for seventeen years. In 1979, he moved to Switzerland. There, he continued his work as a psychologist. He wrote many books, mostly in German. His first book in English was The Betrayal of the Self. It came out in 1988.
What Were Arno Gruen's Main Ideas?
Arno Gruen had important ideas about why people act the way they do. Another famous psychologist, Sigmund Freud, believed that people are born with a desire to be destructive. But Gruen disagreed with this idea.
Understanding Self-Hatred
Gruen believed that bad actions come from self-hatred. This means disliking yourself very much. He thought this feeling starts when we are children. It happens when we give up our own feelings and ideas. We do this to get "love" or approval from powerful adults.
When we do this, we create a "false self." This is a version of ourselves that others will like. We do this because we are afraid of being hurt or left alone. Gruen showed how this "over-adaptation" happens. He explained how people try too hard to fit in.
The Danger of Too Much Conformity
Gruen warned that always trying to fit in can be harmful. It can make people feel numb or angry. Society sometimes even praises this kind of behavior. It calls it "tough" or "realistic." But Gruen saw it as a problem.
He believed that true freedom comes from being yourself. This means developing your own autonomy. Autonomy is about being independent and making your own choices. It also means being authentic. This means being true to who you are.
Gruen taught that being truly yourself is not easy. But he said that not being yourself can lead to big problems. When people are not authentic, they might hurt others. They might try to get revenge for their own inner pain.
Awards and Recognition
In 2001, Arno Gruen received a special award. It was called the Geschwister-Scholl-Preis. He won it for his book, Der Fremde in uns. This award honors books that promote freedom and courage.
Works
- Autonomy and Identification: The Paradox of their Opposition, The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 49 1968 (4), p. 648; 1968
- The Betrayal of the Self (New York: Grove Press, 1988). ISBN: 0-8021-1017-7
- The Insanity of Normality: Understanding Human Destructiveness (Berkeley: Human Development Books, 2007). ISBN: 978-0-9669908-4-3
Images for kids
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Arno Gruen, a Swiss-German psychologist.
