Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains how relating to others can be considered not simply an expression of man’s innate natural endowment, but a developmental achievement. It analyses the suspension of natural imperative and the developing importance of subjectivity in establishing the basis for social processes and institutions. The book explores the important matter of the dominance of these more primitive mental processes in shaping public life and the way social relations and institutions assure dominance of primitive mental processes in the psychic lives of individuals. Of special importance is the stasis associated with the dominance of these processes, in other words their tendency to block movement and change and make social processes the site of repetition rather than creativity. The book seeks to combine general discussion of ideas with examples and case studies.