Abstract: . . .  I-am-me oriented persons themselves assume responsibility for their strong and weak egos, their personal ideals, and the accepted norms as well as discontinue utilizing the responsibility of the therapist, the social worker, or educator and exercising control over these. The last word belongs to Erich Fromm: „Productiveness is man's ability to use his powers and to realize the potentialities inherent in him .“ (E. Fromm, Man for Him- self , p. 84) Copyright © 2006 by Dr. Rainer Funk, Ursrainer Ring 24, D-72076 Tübingen Tel. 07071-600004, Fax -600049; E-Mail: frommfunk[at-symbol] aol.com Translated from German by Dr. Jo Van Vliet, Tübingen  . . .
. . .  senseless, and would probably even lead to a reinforcement of this mindset. What productiveness means concretely depends on the type of nonproductiveness preponderant in a society. What, then, do productiveness and strengthening of the productive orienta- tion mean for the social character orientation that is I-am-me directed and becom- ing all the more dominant? My reflections on psychodynamics and on the psy- choanalysis of the I-am-me orientation suggest the following summary. The general goal is always to counter the I-am-me orientation assisted by „made“ ability with an experience of the ego assisted by human ability and to recognize and gradually reduce the dependency on „made“ ability. This does not require the rejection of „fabricated“ or „made“ . . .
. . .  Orientation Common to all psychological theories of development is the conception that the Page 7 7 human being, in the course of his or her physical, psychic, and intellectual-mental development, develops abilities and competencies that are attributes of an inner entity structuring and directing thought, feeling, and action. Whether we explain this inner entity with the aid of Freud's structural model as ego, id, and superego, or comprehend it as differentiated representations of the world of objects and of various aspects of the self, or see it as the highly differentiated „ingrained“ syn- apses of neuroscientific theory or whatever—such theoretical models are always linked with the conception that a differentiated inner structure influences the . . .
. . .  discontin- ued, a nonproductive orientation or a syndrome of decay arises. 3 As much as these individual inner powers enable the human being to be free, independent, rational, loving, capable of experience, daring, trusting, and open for the new, and as much as they enable the human being to recognize not only the positive but also the negative aspects, to learn to live with criticism and dis- appointment, and to think, feel, and act given the forces and constraints of reality, these inner powers are just as contingent on being used or put into practice. Whoever is unwilling to face a disappointing reality and constantly chooses to flee into illusionary virtual worlds loses the ability to think, feel, and act in accordance with reality. And only . . .
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