The Contribution of Psychiatry to an Understanding of Behavior in Society Author(s): Edward Sapir Reviewed work(s): Source: American Journal of Sociology,

Vol. 42, No. 6 (May, 1937), pp. 862-870 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2767807 . Accessed: 20/12/2011 22:36
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THE CONTRIBUTION OF PSYCHIATRY TO AN UNDERSTANDING OF BEHAVIOR IN SOCIETY

EDWARD SAPIR ABSTRACT Psychiatrists are becomingmore aware of the social componentin conduct while moreaware oftheconcerns ofpsychiatry. social scientists are becoming The conceptof "interpersonal relations"constitutes a good meeting-ground. Psychiatrists, largelydue to the problemswithwhichtheirsciencebegan, have been excessively individualistic and have tendedto regardas universaland invariant, modes of conductfoundonlyin certaincultures.In the reboundfromthisview it is necessary to avoid the dangersof "sociologism" whichwould disregardthe true task of psychiatry whichis the underof the personality. standing of the fundamentaland relativelyinvariable structure Psychiatry will be of assistanceto social analysisto the extentthat it aids in revealing the intricate symbolicnetwork whichbinds individualstogether into collectivities.

It is withgreat pleasure that I accede to the request to comment in a generalway on the presentsymposiumon psychiatryand the social sciences. The relationbetween the two suggestsmany interestingand complicatedproblems,both of definition and interpretation. It is a bold man who would ventureto speak with assurance about such abstruse entities as "individual" and "society," but forany intelligent whereit is difficult person to withholda theory or an opinion,I may be pardoned fornot doingso either. I have read the sevenpsychiatric papers withgreatinterest.Unless I am greatly as a whole is mistaken, the language used in these contributions used by social scientiststhan measurably nearer the terminology the case in psychiatricliterature.I doubt if this is was formerly entirelydue to the fact that the psychiatristshave felt under a compulsionto be courteous to the sociologistsresponsiblefor the journal to whichthey now findthemselvesa collectivecontributor. I findno "pussyfooting"here; rathera sincere recognitionof the importance, perhaps even the reality,of the thingsconnotedby the words "society" and "culture." Even if these words still remain to largelyunanalyzedin termsthatoughtto be completely satisfying it is a great gain to have them given a hearing. The a psychiatrist, extreme individualismof earlier psychiatryis evidently passing. Even the pages of Freud, with theirhauntingimageryof societyas
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fromthe sinister extortion censorand of cultureas a beautiful to take on a certain character of depthsof desire,are beginning and the in otherwords, it looksas though quaintness; psychiatry of societywereactually sciencesdevotedto man as constitutive ofhuman about the same events-to to talk beginning wit,thefacts moveIn thesocialsciences, has beena complementary too,there Atlonglasttheactual ofthepsychiatrist. ment toward theconcerns nevera mere humanbeing,alwaysset in a significant situation, carrier of cultural or illustration a biological long-suffering items, ofsociety, ofculture, has beencaught prowling aboutthepremises ofhistory. confinements within It is truethatlongand anonymous of statistics has made hima timidsubjectfor thenarrow columns offinto anxiety-driven inquiry. He seems always to be slinking or andbone else,at theoddestmoments, flesh unexpectedly swelling But it is easy to see that the firm himself up intoan institution. handofthepsychiatric sociologist willsomeday nab himin one of hisless rapidmoments oftransition. and Dr. Alexanit is chiefly Dr. Sullivan's Ofthesesevenpapers, der'sthatgiveme themostcomfortable housing. Theyseemto be campedsomewhere aboutthecrossroads leading to purepsychiatry thatI find theuncertainty oftheir and I confess and puresociology ofmollified location veryagreeable indeed.In an atmosphere contrastsone may hope to escape the policemen of rival conceptual headquarters. Not beingbothered by too strict a loyalty to aristocraticconventions, one may hope to learn something new. I am fondof Dr. Sullivan'spet phrase of "interpersonal particularly relations." The phrase is notas innocent as it seems, for, while such entities as societies, individuals, cultural patterns, and institutions logically imply interpersonal relations, theydo littleto isolateand define them.Too greatagility has been gainedoverthe yearsin jumpingfromthe individualto the collectivity and fromthe via romantic collectivity anthropological pathsback again to the culture-saturated individual. Reflection suggeststhat the lone individual was neveralone,thathe nevermarched in line witha collectivity, excepton literalstate occasions,and that he never a culture. There was always someone tobother signed up for around
experience.

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hisfriends talked many peoplewhom alwaysa great him;there were much thatsome wasalways henever met;andthere aboutandwhom formed out of heardabout. He was never peopledid thathe never out beingas and society but started of individual the interaction and peopleexisted, inwhich other as he couldina world comfortable allowed.It is out conditions continued thiswayas longas physical derived kindsofscientists experiences thatdifferent ofhismanifold ofbeing. realms their theinvention oftwoor three tipsfor of the inoperated witha conception psychiatry Fora longtime dividual that was merelybiologicalin nature.This is easy to a with, wasnot,tobegin thatpsychiatry understand ifweremember noreven a theoretical studyofhumannaturein actual situations, and solely intothestructure ofpersonality, but simply exploration in terms of to behavior modes an attempt interpret "diseased" with the conceptsof familiar that was operating to a tradition It is thegreatand functioning. physiological normal and abnormal from its too strictly psychiatry ofFreudthathe freed lasting merit medical an interpretative psycholoand introduced presuppositions in spiteofall its conceptual its disturbingly weaknesses, gywhich, to numerous and and its blindness figurative modesof expression, a aspectsof the fieldof behavioras a whole,remains important in general to psychology contribution and, by implicasubstantial in particular. His use of socialdata was tion,to socialpsychology neither morenor less inadequatethan the use made of themby fair as a whole.It is hardly to accuseFreudofa naivete psychology whichis still the rule among the vast majorityof professional thathisviewofsocialphenomena It is notsurprising psychologists. various specific betraysat many points a readinessto confuse tobe derivative can show ofbehavior, theculturalists which patterns fundamental and more ofspecific with those historical backgrounds, the natureof whichproceedfrom of behavior necessary patterns that manand ofhisslowly Nor is it surprising organism. maturing butevenwith he shared, ofpsychologists notonlywith themajority inprimitive an interest thevery founders ofanthropological science, ofhuman manthatdidnotaddress itself understanding to a realistic to the scherelations in theless sophisticated societies but rather in thepatterns of behaviorreported matictaskof finding by the

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anthropologist such confirmation as he could of his theories of individually "archaic" attitudes and mechanisms. If the contemporaryanthropologist is scandalizedby the violencewithwhich Freud and his followers have tornmanyof thefactsofprimitive behavior out oftheir naturalcultural setting, he shouldrecallthat just suchviolence was thehallmark ofthemostapproved kindsof thinking about ethnological data notso longago. Whenall is said and done, and in spite of the enormous of the documentation ofprimitive cultures groups, howeasyis it to getevenan inkling, in strictly of the tempo,the relative psychological terms, flexibility, the individual the relativeopennessor hiddenness of variability, individual expression, the characteristic emotional which qualities, are impliedor "carried"by even the mostpenetrating cultural analysesthat we possessof primitive communities? It seemsundifficult to conjure expectedly up theimageoflivepeoplein intellive relationships ligibly locatedwithin areas defined as primitive. The personalities that inhabitour ethnological seem monographs almost schizoidin theirunemotional acceptanceof the heavy and furniture colors, tapestries, oftheir ethnological stage. Is it any wonder thatactorsso vaguelyconceived, so absent-mindedly typical ofsomething or other, can be bludgeoned by a morepersistent intelligence thantheirs remoter intosawing woodfor still stages, say thatdreaddramaoftheslainfather oftotemism? and thebirth At thepresent timetheadvanceguardofpsychiatric thinking is rapidly discovering thefruitfulness of the concepts of society and culture fora richer and a morerealistic analysisof personality. Thecloserelation ofpersonal habitsystems tothegeneral patterning ofculture-that veryinsight which has forso longbeenthespecial pride ofanthropology-comes topsychiatry as something essentially new. Supposedly universal feelings and attitudes, sentiments about and children parents and sexmates,are found to be almostas relativeto a culture's set patterns ofbehavior as fashions in clothes or typesof artifacts. At any rate,thisformula of the relativity of customhas long been a commonplace in anthropology on purely descriptive grounds and is invading psychiatry as a newbasisfor the ofbehavior. philosophy Anage-old blindness tends tobe corrected byopened eyesthatare

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the whether and one wonders and undiscriminating, too confident to to yieldtooreadily is nottending ofpsychiatry specialviewpoint The preand sociology. ofanthropology prejudices theenlightened is highly of a culture character or "as if" psychological sumptive systemof no doubt,of much in the externalized determinative, ofa given "personality" thevisible forms which andhabits attitudes is clearly ofreference and,untilhisspecialsocialframe individual, we are necesanalyzed,and applied to his behavior, established, of scheme sarilyat a loss to assignhima place in a moregeneral social strictly that however, humanbehavior.It does not follow, and meaning, form as they do,to givevisible tending, determinants, ofexperiofmodalities in a cultural to each ofthethousands sense, the fundamental can define ence whichsum up the personality, If cultureand its presumptive of such a personality. structure reach whatwe dimly wereall thatis neededto explain psychology we shouldbe put in the personality," out forand call "individual called thatthefeeling forinstance, ofa man whoclaimed, position of a untilthe vocabulary love could not have startedits history hitherto values,and problems realities, suggested language specific more matters in a sensewhich Allofwhich wouldbe true unknown. A culture ofbehavior. thanto the closerstudent to theculturalist and the to explain thenecessities is constantly beinginvoked which is likean ex postfactolegalization relations ofindividual intimacies needsof and implied psychological ofdamagedone. The biological not of culture If and primary. we think, are continuous individuals as a hypothetically concept norofsociety integrating intheabstract of relations oftheactualday-to-day but rather in human relations, in a network of highly needs,we personalized individuals specific coinoftherealmofbehavior is theinevitable mustsee thatculture of withthoseactual systems but thatit is farfrom synonymous whichwe call personalities, and unconscious, conscious meaning, as a wholeis not ofa culture and thatthepresumptive psychology analCultural psychology. equatablewithany actualpersonalized the human to bow a more than scene, preliminary ysis is hardly real,and thatit us to knowthatherearepeople, presumably giving them. thatwe mustobserve thanthere is hererather at individuals tobe always ofpsychiatry looking It is theprivilege

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a convenient termto coverthe of society as merely and to think of actual humanrelationships. It is these manifold possibilities that matter,not society.This simple and actual relationships of the psychiatrist is shared,of necessary viewpoint intuitively from it by be dislodged course, by themanin thestreet.He cannot ofsocialscientific It is to be hopedthat sophistication. anyamount thisnaiveand powerful viewof willeversurrender no psychiatrist about ofsecondary ofpersonality to a system concepts thereality to each other flow from an analysis relations which peopleand their in thesocial The danger ofa tooreadyacquiescence ofsocialforms. of the anthropologist and the sociologist is by no formulations in partbrilliant one. Certain recent meansan imaginary attempts, of actual to imposeupon the actualpsychologies and stimulating, to eachother, a generalin continuous and tangible relations people, basedontherealorsupposed izedpsychology psychological implicain ourthinking tions ofcultural showclearly whatconfusions forms, in arelikely to result whensocialscience turns psychiatric without, its own historically determined theprocess, conceptsto allowing oneswhich forpsychology intothoselarger have meaning dissolve thatwholecultures or societies and psychiatry. We thendiscover howorhysterical orobsessive!Suchcharacterizations, areparanoid have thevalueofliterary suggestiveness, everbrilliantly presented, helpus to see a new analysis.At bestthey notofclosepersonality If they oftheproblem ofpersonality.' do nothelpus to see the facet in however exotica society, withthat quiet sharpness individual, something other student ofpersonality ofgazewhich makesthetrue on "interesting" factsabout people, the psythan a discourser chiatrist willhave essentially littleto learnfrom thembeyondthe ofcourse, which hemight, havesuspected all along, thathuman fact, itself infar variedforms and through motivation has expressed more oftransformation farmorecomplex channels thanhe had believed on thebasisofhislimited Thisin itself ethnic experiences. possible is a farfrom butit doesnotconstitute thetrue insight, unimportant ofpsychology, basisofa science orofa science ofpsychiatry, which as thatscience ofmanwhich undertakes tograsp the maybe defined
I The necessityof disentangling value in a given it fromproblemsof personality society.

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structure of theindividual fundamental, and relatively invariable, economy as our stillinadepersonality withas greata conceptual quatepsychologies allow. once it has enriched its It is the obviousduty of psychiatry, to be interpretative techniques withthehelpofthesocialsciences, task of the close scrutiny of the alwaysreturning to its original consists oforwhatare individual personality. Not whattheculture but thevaluesit seemsto pointto willbe thepsychiatrist's concern, rather how this culturelends itselfto the ceaselessneed of the ofexpression and communication individual personality for symbols whichcan be intelligently read by one's fellow-men on thesocial of meaning in the plane,but whoserelative depthor shallowness of symbols need neverbe adequately individual's total economy divined It should be theaimof either byhimself orbyhisneighbor. thepsychiatrist be as these.He must to uncover justsuchmeanings to accept too littlesatisfied witha purelysocial viewof behavior is the suchstatements as thatA's reasonforjoining theorchestra sameas B's, or thatthemotive ofeither can everbe strictly defined humanbeings in terms of a generalized pleasurewhichsocialized in theproduction of to musicor participating derive from listening in thatthey as theseareuseful enable it. Suchblanket explanations To hearing. peopleto join handsand give each otheran effective of an is a valuableillustration the culturalist an orchestra joining as it is as irrelevant socialpattern.To thepsychiatrist important met theinteresting factthatthis"loverofmusic"first biographical of FifthAvenueand Forty-second his future wifeat the corner can get out of the orchestra-joining Street.What the psychiatrist he can discover on whatsymbolic work pattern depends altogether of in theintegrated thisbehavior to accomplish personality systems is "like" B's the orchestra A and B. To the culturist A's joining To thepsychiatrist thechancesofthesetwo theorchestra. joining find in theleastsimilar are quitesmall. He willrather events being to waste is "like"hisearlier thatA's joining theorchestra tendency B's apparently while an enormous oftimeon trashy amount novels, to similarbehavioris more nearly"like" his slavishadherence The psychiatrist cares little needlesslyexactingtable manners. and differences, about descriptive similarities for,in his view of

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and jetsamof behavior rushintoan of flotsam things, all manner He does wellto individual of fewand necessary vortex meanings. leave the studyof the schemeof societyto thosewho care for ofbehavior. unallocated blueprints thefundamental ofspirit I have, overstressed perhaps, divergence modesofobservaand thestrictly cultural between thepsychiatric thatwe do not tion. I have doneso becauseit is highly important thata lovingly ofa delude ourselves intobelieving complete analysis to the scienceof human givenculture is ipsofactoa contribution an invaluable It is,ofcourse, of behavior. guideto thepotentialities in thelivesofindividuals, and suchknowledge choiceand rejection shouldarm one againstfoolish No psychiatrist expectancies. can thesamewayin all the afford to think thatlove is made in exactly corners oftheglobe, yethe wouldbe too docilea convert to anthroto be persuadedthatthat factmade pologyifhe allowedhimself ofpersonality. fortheprimary anyspecialdifference differentiation of whomthe psychiatrist Witheveryindividual essaysan underhe mustof necessity the supposedly standing reanalyze objective is said to play his part. Whenhe in whichthisindividual culture he invariably finds thatcultural is hardly doesthis agreement more and that, if cultureis to be saddled with than terminological, thataremorethansuperficial, we shallhave psychological meanings as there areindividuals as manyeffective cultures to recognize to be is said to exist"out there" which and "adjusted"to theone culture to we are be to direct the to which able ofour supposed telescope intelligent observation. all this thatthepsychiatrist It would whohasbecome appearfrom awareofsocialpatterning to be granted a hearing sufficiently by the has at leastas muchto giveas to receive.It is true socialscientist of makinga psychological that he cannotbe giventhe privilege ofsociety and culture as such. He cannottellus whatany analysis is "all about"inpsychological cultural for we cannot pattern terms, allow him to indulgein the time-honored of indentifying pursuit or culture witha personality, with actualbehavior. society He can, in a metaphorical ofcourse, maketheseidentifications sense, and it ofexpression ifhe weredeniedthe to hisfreedom wouldbe harmful In hisparticular use ofmetaphor. case,however, metaphor is more

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thannormally An economist dangerous. orhistorian can talkofthe soulofa peopleor thestructure ofa society with very little danger of turning anybody'shead. It is generally understood that such phraseology meanssomething butthatthespeedofverbal communicationis generally too greatto makeit seemworth whileto tryto convertthe convenient metaphorinto its realistically relevant terms. But the psychiatrist deals with actual people, not with illustrations of culture or withthefunctioning ofsociety.It is our duty, therefore, to holdhimto theverystrictest account in hisuse of social terms.If he, too,is thevictim of slipshod metaphor, we havenoprotection against ourowncredulity. We cannot be blamed ifwetendtoreadoutofthesociety and culture which thenecessities ofverbal communication haveconjured intoa ghostly reality oftheir ownan impersonal mandateto behavior and itsinterpretation. So farthepsychiatrist has had toomanysuperstitions ofhisown to helpus materially with thetaskoftranslating socialand cultural terms intothatintricate network ofpersonalistic meanings which is theonlyconceivable stuff ofhuman experience. In thefuture, howwe mustbe constantly ever, turning to himfor reminders ofwhatis thetrue nature ofthesocialprocess.The conceptual reconciliation of thelife comefrom ofsociety can never with thelife oftheindividual an indulgence in metaphor. It willcomefrom theultimate implicaofDr. Sullivan's tions relations." rela"interpersonal Interpersonal tionsare not finger in the art of society.They are real exercises of themostcareful and anxious things, deserving study.We know little aboutthem as yet. Ifwe couldonlygeta reasonably clear very ofhowthelivesofA and B intertwine intoa mutually conception ofexperiences, we should see farmore interpretable complex clearly and theirrevothanis at present thecase theextreme importance of the conceptof personality. We shouldalso be cable necessity ofa metaphorical definition of to a realistic instead forward moving thatthesymand society.One suspects whatis meantby culture for thesolution ofourproblems bolicroleofwords has an importance be willing to admit.After thanwe might thatis fargreater all,ifA cosmos ofpotential a reverberating action callsB a "liar,"he creates And if the fatalwordcan be passed on to C, the and judgment. ofsociety and culture is complete. triangulation
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