Psychology has developed rapidly over the years and changed from a discipline of humanities into natural science dominated field. This development is very important in order to achieve progress in every field of study and to obtain new insights into humans. However, the “old” metaphysical psychology was lost along the way. The attempt to explain human behavior primarily through cognitive and neurological functions of the brain is not enough. Human behavior is too complex to be explained with only these aspects. It is very important to reflect on one’s root in every part of life. Psychology fails to acknowledge this for a long time, and this is exactly why great pioneers such as Wilhelm Wundt and Karl Bühler are more and more forgot- ten. This departure from the philosophical roots of psychology also keeps many psychologists of the past from getting the attention they deserve. Their ideas and concepts could have provided important contributions in psychology, if they had been heard. Gustav Ichheiser is one of these forgotten people. He provides a dif- ferentiated description of being, the appearance, and consciousness, a far-reaching
insight which is not appreciated enough today. It is not appreciated that the way he explains these terms is groundbreaking and provides important insights. Often, only the pure situation and incisive moments are described and bring the reader close to his ideas. But this presentation is far more than just words; it also tells us much of his person. It seems as if he reflects on many of his own personal problems in his writings. From his biography (Woller, 2013; see also Fleck, Chapter “Who is Ichheiser?”: A Person Who Failed Himself and the World” this volume) it is evident that he was like the visible “invisible” in society. Even Maria Jahoda who had worked with him in 1930 in the vocational counseling office of the City of Vienna and the Vienna Chamber of Labor described him as a “psychologist (...) a brilliantly gifted, eccentric in his thought and style of life” (Müller, 2006), thus his essay titled The loneliness of the individual. A consideration of socio-psychic situation of the present (1931). The schizothymic symptoms, which may occur in loneliness, could also be attributed to him. From his biography it can be seen that he was troubled to create and keep personal contact. He therefore pursued his creative ideas even more.
Schizothymic behavior is not morbid but often very cumbersome and certainly tan- talizing in social contact. Maybe that’s why Ichheiser could describe being and the appearance as varied and lifelike as he did. The hypothesis is thus given that his studies might have been introspection. It is also fair to ask the question whether Gustav Ichheiser might have anticipated his subsequent fate, his illness.
Finally, it should be mentioned that Gustav Ichheiser belonged to that lost gen- eration of psychologists that were kept from a typically developing career by the Nazis—just like Karl Bühler, Maria Jahoda, and many others who had no place in the scientific life in Austria postwar.
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