Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 13, No. 1, 1974
0skar Pfister and the Beginning of Religious Socialism HANS ULRICH JAGER-WERTH I n t h e y e a r 1 9 0 7 , O s k a r Pfister w r o t e a b o o k l e t w i t h the title Social Development as a Fight for the Dignity o f Man. I n it t h e r e is a s t a t e m e n t t h a t is e n l i g h t e n i n g f o r his a n t h r o p o l o g y o f t h a t t i m e : " T h e r e m a y also be great, heroic, n o b l e personalities in t h e m o s t m i s e r a b l e slavery, b u t t h e y s h o w us all t h e m o r e t h e u n w o r t h i n e s s o f t h e i r s i t u a t i o n . B u t if g r e a t e r masses are involved, we k n o w t o d a y w i t h infallible c e r t a i n t y that also the innermost center o f moral feelings is dependent on the outward social conditions. If, f o r e x a m p l e , t h e h o u s i n g c o n d i t i o n s a n d t h e salaries are v e r y bad, i m m o r a l i t y m u s t increase p o w e r f u l l y w i t h a n e c e s s i t y o f n a t u r e w h i c h is s h o w n in m o r a l statistics. In a similar w a y an i n h e r e n t c o n n e c t i o n b e t w e e n social c o n d i t i o n s a n d t h e n u m b e r o f suicides, t h e f t s , arsons, etc., can be s h o w n . ''1 H e r e Pfister t a k e s o v e r t h e view o f A l e x a n d e r v o n O e t t i n g e n ( c o m p a r e Moral Statistics in Their Significance for Christian Social Ethics 2 ) t h a t m a n is i m p r e s s e d , as far as his m e n t a l s p h e r e is c o n c e r n e d , b y social c o n d i t i o n s j u s t as he in t u r n i n f l u e n c e s t h e m . ( C o m p a r e also Pfister, The Freedom o f Will: A Critical Systematic Investigation 3 ). Pfister felt h i m s e l f c h a l l e n g e d b y t h e gospel o f Jesus to s t a n d u p f o r t h e dignity o f m a n . In t h e a b o v e - m e n t i o n e d b o o k l e t , Social Development as a Fight for the Dignity o f Man, he states t h a t t h e c h u r c h has p e r m i t t e d a " l i m i t i n g o f t h e dignity o f m a n t o t h e religious d i m e n s i o n w h i c h is c o m p l e t e l y c o n t r a r y t o t h e spirit o f Jesus. ''4 " O n e was satisfied w i t h slaves, o n e w a n t e d t h e souls t o be free. A n d still o n e should have k n o w n t h a t in h o r r i b l e servitude t h e soul, t h e m o r a l dignity, d i e d also necessarily. ''5 T h e r e f o r e , Pfister dealt also w i t h t h e social e x i s t e n c e o f m a n . D u e t o this c o n c e r n , in t h e y e a r s b e f o r e World War I he c a m e i n t o close c o n t a c t w i t h the religious-social m o v e m e n t o f H e r m a n n K u t t e r a n d L e o n h a r d Ragaz. O s k a r Pfister p a r t i c i p a t e d in a p r e l i m i n a r y c o n f e r e n c e o f religious-social p a s t o r s in t h e y e a r 1 9 0 6 , f r o m w h i c h t h e religious-social m o v e m e n t c a m e f o r t h . T h e r e even exists a p h o t o g r a p h o f this c o n f e r e n c e , The Rev. Hans Ulrich J~/ger-Werth, Th.D., a young pastor who serves in a little town within the Greater Zurich area, became interested in Pfister's early work in social action and his role in the formation of a political party in Switzerland. This paper, read at the symposium in honor of the centennial anniversary of the birth of Pfister held in Zurich in February under the sponsorship of the Institutes of Religion and Health and other organizations, is an example of the way in which Pfister speaks to a young generation who find in his writings much that is relevant to their thoughts. 57
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which shows him with Ragaz, Kutter, and others. Pfister could not, however, decide to join openly in the organization of the movement. Moved by the social tensions and the misery of those years, the religious-social people began to turn determinedly toward the structural problems of society. They participated in the many-sided social movement. Many also became members of the social-democratic party. Pfister advocates this line totally in the above-mentioned essay. He investigates in it the background of the oppressing situation of that time. He refers especially to the capitalistic economic system, which he defines in the following way: "Capitalistic we call the working system whose starting point and goal is capital. ''6 But an economic system that is based merely on striving for profit must have disastrous effects on man, according to Pfister. In the view of the working class, he takes over the Marxist theory of pauperization. But he also turns toward the effects on the giver of capital and the employer. Certainly there are capitalists who do not fall into the addiction to profit. But they, too, are not free in their decisions. Competition forces them to take measures that they can scarcely account for ethically, if they do not want to ruin their business. To Pfister, big capitalism with its anonymous societies seems to be especially serious from the ethical point of view, because ethical action is very difficult in them. The management is between hammer and anvil. The most important decisions are taken by a small group far from those people who are affected by them. Therefore, Pfister put his hope in socialism in those years, which, instead of profit, made the welfare and dignity of man the highest c o m m a n d m e n t of society. However, socialism has its dangers also.6 a The elimination of external distress does not yet secure the victory of the dignity of man. 7 Pfister in 1907 therefore stood totally on the ground of religious socialism. This can be seen also from his great approbation for Leonhard Ragaz. 8 Of course, there now arises the question whether Oskar Pfister abandoned his religious-social position because of his encounter with psychoanalysis or whether he tried to include religious-social ideas somehow into the psychoanalytical m e t h o d to grasp reality. In this connection his study, The Psychological Structure o f Classical Capitalism and the Spirit o f Money, 9 is of special interest. (For clarification of the above-mentioned question I could also refer to an essay written in 1914, " A b o u t the Psychology of War and Peace." In A b o u t the Fight Concerning Psychoanalysis. I ~ In it Pfister uses Max Weber's and Werner Sombart's theses as a starting point, which seek the root of the capitalistic spirit in Calvinistic-Puritan and Thomistic ethics respectively. (Compare Max Weber, Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism, 1 ~ and Werner Sombart, The Bourgeois. ~2 ) According to Pfister, both see the connection of a Christian attitude and the passion for money too intellectually. Even if the professional idea, the striving after holiness, the inner-worldly asceticism furthered capitalism, the idea of poverty, which was c o m m o n l y accepted, should have hindered such a development. Rather "it is the often repeated phenomenon, that the spirit of m a m m o n asserts
Oskar Pfister and the Beginning of Religious Socialism
59
itself, although the religious ideal points t o a c o m p l e t e l y different direction.,,1 3 Pfister wants to clarify the hidden psychological backgrounds o f the co n n e ct i on that doubtless exists bet w een Puritanism and capitalism. The analysis of a man with a phobia-hysteria gives him i m p o r t a n t hints. In Calvinistic Puritanism, God becomes a crushing father-figure. In c o n n e c t i o n with this, "love becomes virtually eliminated from religion and morals, ''1 4 w i t h o u t the possibility " t o t ur n towards a supernatural object, ''1 s and how this has happened, for example, in m a n y ways in the mysticism of the Middle Ages. " I f this turning towards 'T he Above' of the desire for love which has been pushed away f r om reality does n o t succeed completely, feelings of anxiety and worthlessness originate, ''~ 6 as Pfister believes he has f o u n d t h e m in the person he has analyzed, and in Calvin. T h e y lead t o w a r d ambition and the wish to dominate. If one does not succeed in providing the desired e n h a n c e m e n t for the " I , " a canalization of the driving force can happen: The desire for life can turn t oward symbolic accomplishments t hat have no worth of reality and go as far as com pul sory acts (com pul sory neuroses). Such compulsory acts can be of the religious type, e.g., the worship services of the Puritans, which last for hours. " N o w in the capitalistic spirit the desire for life turns also towards symbols, also apart f r o m the o r t h o d o x forms of compulsion. Namely, m o n e y becomes the symbol for l o v e . . . , the deeper sense of which is n o t understood. ''1 7 " T h e y [the Puritans] could compensate and transcend the feeling of worthlessness which was c o n n e c t e d with the terrible constriction of love and curtailment of life, b y turning towards econom i c imperialism. Classic capitalistic spirit is th er ef o r e an over-compensation of the fearful feeling of unworthiness and worthlessness caused by asceticism, a c o m p u l s o r y resurrection of the crushed self_love.,,~ s " N o w we understand also, w hy n o t L u t h e r and Zwingli with their natural sexual morals and view of life, but the gl oom y Calvin is taking the lead o f the army of m ode r n capitalists. ' ' ' 9 The same is valid for the milder Catholicism over against the stricter Judaism. 20 Pfister also turns in his essay t ow a r d the transition f r o m religious to profane capitalism, which has br ought an even greater expansion of the spirit o f m o n e y and at the same time has created an a t m o s p h e r e t hat is unfavorable for faith. 21 Here, t o o , he begins with the description of a psychoanalysis and adds general considerations to it. Culture t hat is created by the capitalistic spirit lets the deeper layers of man starve. "Because also the h u man soul which is less e n d o w e d with mental strength carries in itself the desire for love and 'Innerlichkeit' [the desire t o withdraw into oneself] .,,22 "We all suffer badly because of the contradiction b e t w e e n a highly developed materialistic culture and a p o o r spiritual culture, ''2 3 which can lead again to a compulsion-like spirit of m o n e y , as in the case of the restriction of life in Puritanism. " T h e compulsion-like spirit o f m o n e y must be overcome in exact l y the same way as every o t h e r compulsion-neurotic s y m p t o m . First a sufficient psychological-biological insight into its essence has to be gained. ''24 The
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psychological connections are explained t o the compulsion-neurotic. The analysis attempts to gain historical insight into the childhood experience of the one who is analyzed. Pfister adds to this an important further element: " I t must not only see through the origin of the individual stifling of the normal desire for love and life of then and now, but also through the general sociological reasons for repression which influence the masses. Further, it has to disclose the general circumstances which have deceived the impulse for life to bolster up the money, which is useful in itself, in such a way that it has become a goal which is individually and socially dangerous. ''2 s After the "stock-taking" the "evaluation of the discovered facts" must follow. 26 What has to be done is a "conscious renewal of the life-program with the help of ethics, religion, and economic knowledge. ''27 The narrowed desire for life must direct itself toward worthy goals such as science, art, and religion. 28 "The problem of m o n e y can only be solved in connection with the education of the personality. Of course, the economic factors cannot be overestimated.,,29 Social legislation and education must be united to banish the disastrous dragon of mammonism. ''30 We thus see that Pfister has continued his religious-social beginnings in a modified form also after his encounter with psychoanalysis. They are expressed in this essay in the choice of topics, but also in that he considers social factors in his explanation of psychological phenomena and that he refers also to social legislation in connection with healing and prevention. Certainly he no longer opposes w i t h o u t a compromise the capitalistic system with socialism as a positive alternative. The Bolshevist revolution makes him cautious. "In a socialist or communist world egoism can reign as badly as in a capitalistic environment. If it is perhaps n o t the symbol of m o n e y to which thousands of h u m a n lives are sacrificed in raging passion, it is perhaps the idol of power, honour, sensual pleasure which is not less bad. ''31 Pfister closes his essay with the words: "So psychoanalytical investigation makes me come to the conclusion that a healing of h u m a n i t y from the tormenting needs of society, especially from the scourge of the spirit of money, can only be initiated through a deeper biology of society. On it a higher social hygiene has to be built, especially for the finding o u t of psychological needs. We are, therefore, in favor of a new social pathology as it can only be given by a deep psychology of the processes of repression and the laws of sublimation.,,32 To be sure, for him the claimed social pathology on the basis of depth psychology cannot y e t bring the final deliverance of society from pathological compulsions. But it is an important step in this direction, because it opens the eyes for the underlying pathological connections. " B u t what is still more important is a clear insight into the great powers of the Transcendent, which belongs to the dispositions of our nature as any other elementary instincts. Only an idealism which is free of repression, which puts man in a great, total coherence, not only with humanity, but also with the total world and the Creator's will, as it corresponds to his nature and also to his dignity, is able to lead us out of the troubles of the spirit of money,
Oskar Pfister and the Beginning o f Religious Socialism
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which is raging at present, into the spheres of a bright n e w existence. ''3 3 Also in this Pfister corresponds with the religious socialists w h o indicate that a social renewal can really lead further only in c o n n e c t i o n with a religious awakening.3 4
References 1. Pfister, O., Die soziale Entwicklung als K a m p f um die Menschenwurde. Zurich, Verlag Arnold Bopp, 1907, p. 12. 2. von Oettingen, A., Moral Statistics in Their Significance for Christian Social Ethics. Erlangen, 1874 ( l s t edition), p. 385 ff. 3. Pfister, Die Willensfreiheit: Einer kritisch-systematische Untersuchung. Berlin, Druck and Verlag von Georg Reimer, 1904, p. 48 ff. 4. - - , Die soziale Entwicklung als K a m p f um die Menschenwurde, op. cit., p. 6. 5. Ibid., p. 5. 6. Ibid., p. 13. 6a. Ibid., cf. p. 22. 7. Ibid., cf. p. 23. 8. Ibid., cf. p. 8. 9. Pfister ed., Der seelische Aufbau des klassischen Kapitalismus und des Geldgeistes, Schriften zur Seelenkunde und Erziehungskunst, Bd. VII. Bern, Verlag Ernst Bircher, 1923. 10. Z u m K a m p f um die Psychoanalyse, Internationaler Psychoanalytische Bibliothek Bd. 8, Internationaler Psychoanalytisches Verlag, Wien, Zurich, 1920, pp. 171-195. 11. Weber Max, Protestant Ethics and the Spirit o f Capitalism, in Archiv fiir Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, herausgegeben von U. Somart, M. Weber, und E. Jaffe, Tubingen, Verlagen J.C.B. Mohr, 1904/5, Bd. XX, Heft 1, und Bd. XXI, Heft 1, p. 1. 12. Sombart, W., Der Bourgeois, Zur Geistesgeschichte des modernen Wirtschaftsmeno schen, Mfinchen-Leipzig, Verlag von Duncker & Humblot, 1913, p. 308 ff. 13. Pfister, Der seelische Aufbau des klassischen Kapitalismus und des Geldgeistes, op. cit. p. 15. 14. Ibid. p. 23. 15. Ibid.. p. 24. 16. Ibid. p. 25. 17. Ibid. p. 27 ft. 18. Ibid. p. 31. 19. Ibid. p. 32. 20. Ibid. p. 32. 21. Ibid. p. 35 ff. 22. Ibid. p. 64. 23. Ibid. p. 65. 24. Ibid. p. 67. 25. Ibid. p. 70. 26. Ibid. p. 72. 27. Ibid. p. 73. 28. Ibid. p. 77. 29. Ibid. p. 75. 30. Ibid. p. 76. 31. Ibid. p. 83. 32. Ibid p. 85. 33. Ibid. p. 85. 34. Ra ;az, L., From Christ to Marx and from Marx to Christ. Wernigerode am Harz, Hans Harder Verlag, 1929, p. 197 ff. (Neudruck: Hamburg, Furche-verlag, 1972)
0skar Pfister and the Beginning of Religious Socialism HANS ULRICH JAGER-WERTH I n t h e y e a r 1 9 0 7 , O s k a r Pfister w r o t e a b o o k l e t w i t h the title Social Development as a Fight for the Dignity o f Man. I n it t h e r e is a s t a t e m e n t t h a t is e n l i g h t e n i n g f o r his a n t h r o p o l o g y o f t h a t t i m e : " T h e r e m a y also be great, heroic, n o b l e personalities in t h e m o s t m i s e r a b l e slavery, b u t t h e y s h o w us all t h e m o r e t h e u n w o r t h i n e s s o f t h e i r s i t u a t i o n . B u t if g r e a t e r masses are involved, we k n o w t o d a y w i t h infallible c e r t a i n t y that also the innermost center o f moral feelings is dependent on the outward social conditions. If, f o r e x a m p l e , t h e h o u s i n g c o n d i t i o n s a n d t h e salaries are v e r y bad, i m m o r a l i t y m u s t increase p o w e r f u l l y w i t h a n e c e s s i t y o f n a t u r e w h i c h is s h o w n in m o r a l statistics. In a similar w a y an i n h e r e n t c o n n e c t i o n b e t w e e n social c o n d i t i o n s a n d t h e n u m b e r o f suicides, t h e f t s , arsons, etc., can be s h o w n . ''1 H e r e Pfister t a k e s o v e r t h e view o f A l e x a n d e r v o n O e t t i n g e n ( c o m p a r e Moral Statistics in Their Significance for Christian Social Ethics 2 ) t h a t m a n is i m p r e s s e d , as far as his m e n t a l s p h e r e is c o n c e r n e d , b y social c o n d i t i o n s j u s t as he in t u r n i n f l u e n c e s t h e m . ( C o m p a r e also Pfister, The Freedom o f Will: A Critical Systematic Investigation 3 ). Pfister felt h i m s e l f c h a l l e n g e d b y t h e gospel o f Jesus to s t a n d u p f o r t h e dignity o f m a n . In t h e a b o v e - m e n t i o n e d b o o k l e t , Social Development as a Fight for the Dignity o f Man, he states t h a t t h e c h u r c h has p e r m i t t e d a " l i m i t i n g o f t h e dignity o f m a n t o t h e religious d i m e n s i o n w h i c h is c o m p l e t e l y c o n t r a r y t o t h e spirit o f Jesus. ''4 " O n e was satisfied w i t h slaves, o n e w a n t e d t h e souls t o be free. A n d still o n e should have k n o w n t h a t in h o r r i b l e servitude t h e soul, t h e m o r a l dignity, d i e d also necessarily. ''5 T h e r e f o r e , Pfister dealt also w i t h t h e social e x i s t e n c e o f m a n . D u e t o this c o n c e r n , in t h e y e a r s b e f o r e World War I he c a m e i n t o close c o n t a c t w i t h the religious-social m o v e m e n t o f H e r m a n n K u t t e r a n d L e o n h a r d Ragaz. O s k a r Pfister p a r t i c i p a t e d in a p r e l i m i n a r y c o n f e r e n c e o f religious-social p a s t o r s in t h e y e a r 1 9 0 6 , f r o m w h i c h t h e religious-social m o v e m e n t c a m e f o r t h . T h e r e even exists a p h o t o g r a p h o f this c o n f e r e n c e , The Rev. Hans Ulrich J~/ger-Werth, Th.D., a young pastor who serves in a little town within the Greater Zurich area, became interested in Pfister's early work in social action and his role in the formation of a political party in Switzerland. This paper, read at the symposium in honor of the centennial anniversary of the birth of Pfister held in Zurich in February under the sponsorship of the Institutes of Religion and Health and other organizations, is an example of the way in which Pfister speaks to a young generation who find in his writings much that is relevant to their thoughts. 57
58
Journal of Religion and Health
which shows him with Ragaz, Kutter, and others. Pfister could not, however, decide to join openly in the organization of the movement. Moved by the social tensions and the misery of those years, the religious-social people began to turn determinedly toward the structural problems of society. They participated in the many-sided social movement. Many also became members of the social-democratic party. Pfister advocates this line totally in the above-mentioned essay. He investigates in it the background of the oppressing situation of that time. He refers especially to the capitalistic economic system, which he defines in the following way: "Capitalistic we call the working system whose starting point and goal is capital. ''6 But an economic system that is based merely on striving for profit must have disastrous effects on man, according to Pfister. In the view of the working class, he takes over the Marxist theory of pauperization. But he also turns toward the effects on the giver of capital and the employer. Certainly there are capitalists who do not fall into the addiction to profit. But they, too, are not free in their decisions. Competition forces them to take measures that they can scarcely account for ethically, if they do not want to ruin their business. To Pfister, big capitalism with its anonymous societies seems to be especially serious from the ethical point of view, because ethical action is very difficult in them. The management is between hammer and anvil. The most important decisions are taken by a small group far from those people who are affected by them. Therefore, Pfister put his hope in socialism in those years, which, instead of profit, made the welfare and dignity of man the highest c o m m a n d m e n t of society. However, socialism has its dangers also.6 a The elimination of external distress does not yet secure the victory of the dignity of man. 7 Pfister in 1907 therefore stood totally on the ground of religious socialism. This can be seen also from his great approbation for Leonhard Ragaz. 8 Of course, there now arises the question whether Oskar Pfister abandoned his religious-social position because of his encounter with psychoanalysis or whether he tried to include religious-social ideas somehow into the psychoanalytical m e t h o d to grasp reality. In this connection his study, The Psychological Structure o f Classical Capitalism and the Spirit o f Money, 9 is of special interest. (For clarification of the above-mentioned question I could also refer to an essay written in 1914, " A b o u t the Psychology of War and Peace." In A b o u t the Fight Concerning Psychoanalysis. I ~ In it Pfister uses Max Weber's and Werner Sombart's theses as a starting point, which seek the root of the capitalistic spirit in Calvinistic-Puritan and Thomistic ethics respectively. (Compare Max Weber, Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism, 1 ~ and Werner Sombart, The Bourgeois. ~2 ) According to Pfister, both see the connection of a Christian attitude and the passion for money too intellectually. Even if the professional idea, the striving after holiness, the inner-worldly asceticism furthered capitalism, the idea of poverty, which was c o m m o n l y accepted, should have hindered such a development. Rather "it is the often repeated phenomenon, that the spirit of m a m m o n asserts
Oskar Pfister and the Beginning of Religious Socialism
59
itself, although the religious ideal points t o a c o m p l e t e l y different direction.,,1 3 Pfister wants to clarify the hidden psychological backgrounds o f the co n n e ct i on that doubtless exists bet w een Puritanism and capitalism. The analysis of a man with a phobia-hysteria gives him i m p o r t a n t hints. In Calvinistic Puritanism, God becomes a crushing father-figure. In c o n n e c t i o n with this, "love becomes virtually eliminated from religion and morals, ''1 4 w i t h o u t the possibility " t o t ur n towards a supernatural object, ''1 s and how this has happened, for example, in m a n y ways in the mysticism of the Middle Ages. " I f this turning towards 'T he Above' of the desire for love which has been pushed away f r om reality does n o t succeed completely, feelings of anxiety and worthlessness originate, ''~ 6 as Pfister believes he has f o u n d t h e m in the person he has analyzed, and in Calvin. T h e y lead t o w a r d ambition and the wish to dominate. If one does not succeed in providing the desired e n h a n c e m e n t for the " I , " a canalization of the driving force can happen: The desire for life can turn t oward symbolic accomplishments t hat have no worth of reality and go as far as com pul sory acts (com pul sory neuroses). Such compulsory acts can be of the religious type, e.g., the worship services of the Puritans, which last for hours. " N o w in the capitalistic spirit the desire for life turns also towards symbols, also apart f r o m the o r t h o d o x forms of compulsion. Namely, m o n e y becomes the symbol for l o v e . . . , the deeper sense of which is n o t understood. ''1 7 " T h e y [the Puritans] could compensate and transcend the feeling of worthlessness which was c o n n e c t e d with the terrible constriction of love and curtailment of life, b y turning towards econom i c imperialism. Classic capitalistic spirit is th er ef o r e an over-compensation of the fearful feeling of unworthiness and worthlessness caused by asceticism, a c o m p u l s o r y resurrection of the crushed self_love.,,~ s " N o w we understand also, w hy n o t L u t h e r and Zwingli with their natural sexual morals and view of life, but the gl oom y Calvin is taking the lead o f the army of m ode r n capitalists. ' ' ' 9 The same is valid for the milder Catholicism over against the stricter Judaism. 20 Pfister also turns in his essay t ow a r d the transition f r o m religious to profane capitalism, which has br ought an even greater expansion of the spirit o f m o n e y and at the same time has created an a t m o s p h e r e t hat is unfavorable for faith. 21 Here, t o o , he begins with the description of a psychoanalysis and adds general considerations to it. Culture t hat is created by the capitalistic spirit lets the deeper layers of man starve. "Because also the h u man soul which is less e n d o w e d with mental strength carries in itself the desire for love and 'Innerlichkeit' [the desire t o withdraw into oneself] .,,22 "We all suffer badly because of the contradiction b e t w e e n a highly developed materialistic culture and a p o o r spiritual culture, ''2 3 which can lead again to a compulsion-like spirit of m o n e y , as in the case of the restriction of life in Puritanism. " T h e compulsion-like spirit o f m o n e y must be overcome in exact l y the same way as every o t h e r compulsion-neurotic s y m p t o m . First a sufficient psychological-biological insight into its essence has to be gained. ''24 The
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Journal o f Religion and Health
psychological connections are explained t o the compulsion-neurotic. The analysis attempts to gain historical insight into the childhood experience of the one who is analyzed. Pfister adds to this an important further element: " I t must not only see through the origin of the individual stifling of the normal desire for love and life of then and now, but also through the general sociological reasons for repression which influence the masses. Further, it has to disclose the general circumstances which have deceived the impulse for life to bolster up the money, which is useful in itself, in such a way that it has become a goal which is individually and socially dangerous. ''2 s After the "stock-taking" the "evaluation of the discovered facts" must follow. 26 What has to be done is a "conscious renewal of the life-program with the help of ethics, religion, and economic knowledge. ''27 The narrowed desire for life must direct itself toward worthy goals such as science, art, and religion. 28 "The problem of m o n e y can only be solved in connection with the education of the personality. Of course, the economic factors cannot be overestimated.,,29 Social legislation and education must be united to banish the disastrous dragon of mammonism. ''30 We thus see that Pfister has continued his religious-social beginnings in a modified form also after his encounter with psychoanalysis. They are expressed in this essay in the choice of topics, but also in that he considers social factors in his explanation of psychological phenomena and that he refers also to social legislation in connection with healing and prevention. Certainly he no longer opposes w i t h o u t a compromise the capitalistic system with socialism as a positive alternative. The Bolshevist revolution makes him cautious. "In a socialist or communist world egoism can reign as badly as in a capitalistic environment. If it is perhaps n o t the symbol of m o n e y to which thousands of h u m a n lives are sacrificed in raging passion, it is perhaps the idol of power, honour, sensual pleasure which is not less bad. ''31 Pfister closes his essay with the words: "So psychoanalytical investigation makes me come to the conclusion that a healing of h u m a n i t y from the tormenting needs of society, especially from the scourge of the spirit of money, can only be initiated through a deeper biology of society. On it a higher social hygiene has to be built, especially for the finding o u t of psychological needs. We are, therefore, in favor of a new social pathology as it can only be given by a deep psychology of the processes of repression and the laws of sublimation.,,32 To be sure, for him the claimed social pathology on the basis of depth psychology cannot y e t bring the final deliverance of society from pathological compulsions. But it is an important step in this direction, because it opens the eyes for the underlying pathological connections. " B u t what is still more important is a clear insight into the great powers of the Transcendent, which belongs to the dispositions of our nature as any other elementary instincts. Only an idealism which is free of repression, which puts man in a great, total coherence, not only with humanity, but also with the total world and the Creator's will, as it corresponds to his nature and also to his dignity, is able to lead us out of the troubles of the spirit of money,
Oskar Pfister and the Beginning o f Religious Socialism
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which is raging at present, into the spheres of a bright n e w existence. ''3 3 Also in this Pfister corresponds with the religious socialists w h o indicate that a social renewal can really lead further only in c o n n e c t i o n with a religious awakening.3 4
References 1. Pfister, O., Die soziale Entwicklung als K a m p f um die Menschenwurde. Zurich, Verlag Arnold Bopp, 1907, p. 12. 2. von Oettingen, A., Moral Statistics in Their Significance for Christian Social Ethics. Erlangen, 1874 ( l s t edition), p. 385 ff. 3. Pfister, Die Willensfreiheit: Einer kritisch-systematische Untersuchung. Berlin, Druck and Verlag von Georg Reimer, 1904, p. 48 ff. 4. - - , Die soziale Entwicklung als K a m p f um die Menschenwurde, op. cit., p. 6. 5. Ibid., p. 5. 6. Ibid., p. 13. 6a. Ibid., cf. p. 22. 7. Ibid., cf. p. 23. 8. Ibid., cf. p. 8. 9. Pfister ed., Der seelische Aufbau des klassischen Kapitalismus und des Geldgeistes, Schriften zur Seelenkunde und Erziehungskunst, Bd. VII. Bern, Verlag Ernst Bircher, 1923. 10. Z u m K a m p f um die Psychoanalyse, Internationaler Psychoanalytische Bibliothek Bd. 8, Internationaler Psychoanalytisches Verlag, Wien, Zurich, 1920, pp. 171-195. 11. Weber Max, Protestant Ethics and the Spirit o f Capitalism, in Archiv fiir Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, herausgegeben von U. Somart, M. Weber, und E. Jaffe, Tubingen, Verlagen J.C.B. Mohr, 1904/5, Bd. XX, Heft 1, und Bd. XXI, Heft 1, p. 1. 12. Sombart, W., Der Bourgeois, Zur Geistesgeschichte des modernen Wirtschaftsmeno schen, Mfinchen-Leipzig, Verlag von Duncker & Humblot, 1913, p. 308 ff. 13. Pfister, Der seelische Aufbau des klassischen Kapitalismus und des Geldgeistes, op. cit. p. 15. 14. Ibid. p. 23. 15. Ibid.. p. 24. 16. Ibid. p. 25. 17. Ibid. p. 27 ft. 18. Ibid. p. 31. 19. Ibid. p. 32. 20. Ibid. p. 32. 21. Ibid. p. 35 ff. 22. Ibid. p. 64. 23. Ibid. p. 65. 24. Ibid. p. 67. 25. Ibid. p. 70. 26. Ibid. p. 72. 27. Ibid. p. 73. 28. Ibid. p. 77. 29. Ibid. p. 75. 30. Ibid. p. 76. 31. Ibid. p. 83. 32. Ibid p. 85. 33. Ibid. p. 85. 34. Ra ;az, L., From Christ to Marx and from Marx to Christ. Wernigerode am Harz, Hans Harder Verlag, 1929, p. 197 ff. (Neudruck: Hamburg, Furche-verlag, 1972)
