Zur gesellschaftlichen Abwehr von Vernichtungsängsten

Using the example of a youth welfare organization this article shows how psychoanalytic methods and theories can also be applied outside the clinical setting. Omnipotence fantasies and primitive fears of annihilation among employees are to be understood not only as an expression of individual or group dynamic processes but also as psychosocially induced, i.e., from an interplay of the individual unconscious group processes, the work to be carried out with clients in severe need, the organization and the social and societal contexts. This perspective and scenic experience make it possible to work out individual and psychosocial defense mechanisms in the form of a central scene with two figures: the omnipotent and destructive “angel of help” and the “scum”. These figures not only protect social workers from experiencing their own primitive fears but also have the consequence of not wanting to know and not wanting to look (−K), as a result of which there is a danger of de-individualizing clients and colleagues and making empathic understanding more difficult. These scenic figures identified are part of a “helping angel-scum phantasm” on a cultural and social level. This prevents an experience of the immense (and perhaps unbearable) destructiveness that is inherent in our culture and of which we are a part, i.e., we ourselves produce “scum”. The institution of social work helps us to avoid having to think and experience these thoughts.