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Introduction 

An article in the left-wing German daily newspaper “Junge Welt” on 9 November 2023 about the World Youth Conference in Paris entitled: “Young people must take on a pioneering role” (1) prompted me, as a father, former teacher and psychologist, to ask how young people can take on a pioneering role in shaping the future.

Since human character traits are developed in childhood, educators must be trained who are capable of raising a generation that can realise a new and humane social order.

Since young people often complain that their parents do not understand them and therefore resent them, it is of great importance that both generations are reconciled with each other. This is most successfully achieved through psychotherapy.

In small steps, young people will then develop their skills and be able to shape the future together with adults.

“Young people must take on a pioneering role”

The article in “Junge Welt”, an interview with the moderator of the World Youth Conference Rafael Vergara, states that delegates from over 60 countries discussed current crises and ways forward at the World Youth Conference in Paris. By 5 November, 400 young people had responded to the call of the “Youth Writing History” network and sought answers to the crises and wars of our time.

In response to the question “Where do we go from here?”, moderator Vergara replied, among other things:

“In the long term, we want to establish a global network of internationalist co-operation. (…).

We believe that young people, as a dynamic force in society, must play a pioneering role in this. The construction of a different world must not be postponed until tomorrow, but we want to work on building a free life in the here and now.” (2)

A fine goal, but the question arises as to how young people can take on a pioneering role in shaping the future. 

Since people’s character develops in childhood, it is important to train educators who are capable of raising a generation with the aim of realising a new, humane social order. This has been lacking until now.

Enabling Educators to Raise a Generation that Can Realise a New, Human Social Order 

The fact that a person’s character structure is predetermined by their experiences and impressions in childhood is a discovery of depth psychology. It is the family atmosphere and the educational attitude of the parents that largely determine the formation of the child’s character. They shape the mental horizon that suggests a certain attitude towards oneself and others to the child at an early age. These character traits, which arise from the family situation, remain largely unconscious.

Character traits are not something innate and unchangeable, but merely the result of countless childhood experiences. The personality of the parents and their educational behaviour have the greatest influence. It is therefore a matter of educating parents and teachers and guiding them towards a non-violent and rational upbringing of their children and pupils.  

The task of educators is to form people who are capable of becoming independent, courageous and communal personalities. It is first and foremost the quality of this relationship that enables the young person to follow the educator’s pedagogical intentions.

New, Humane Social Order

A new and humane social order must be built on the principles of freedom, equality and fraternity.

“Freedom” means the consistent application of the principle of freedom in human coexistence. Any subordination and subordination contradicts the principle of freedom. Freedom means human self-determination. This means that all his actions and endeavours are the result of his own wishes. He shapes his life, his relationships with his fellow human beings and the organisation of society himself.

If the authoritarian principle prevails, then people’s behaviour is enforced by orders, sanctions and punishments. In a free society, communication is the means of understanding.

Freedom is a need of human nature. If parents and teachers exert pressure and coercion, the child cannot develop a healthy relationship in its helplessness and dependence: Mistrust, fear, subordination and superordination are then the results. 

Equality and fraternity are also fundamental components of the new human social order (3).

Young People Need Political and Psychological Education

People are programmed by all institutions – starting with education at home, from nursery school right up to recruitment school and the “field of honour” – in such a way that they then do everything that the others, those in power, want them to do. This is a conscious programme.

That’s why it’s important that young people are taught political education, especially at school; that they learn, for example, that all wars are good business and that nothing happens by chance in politics. If it happens, you can bet that it was planned that way.

Then there is psychological education. In the family and at school, young people should be taught how they should and can solve their problems. What is important is their attitude to life, their opinion of themselves, their comrades and their opinion of the community and the state.

Do Not Use Young People for Political Propaganda

Young people who are supposed to be learning and endeavouring to make progress at school must not be used for political propaganda. No matter what they are called upon to do, whether it is to distribute leaflets or demonstrate. Children and young people must not be misused for political purposes. 

Causes of Youth Neglect

The term “psychopathy” is often used in reports about neglected young people. This is intended to imply that young people who fall out of line in some way suffer from congenital personality deformities. However, this view has been recognised as erroneous and superficial. 

The most important source of youth neglect is emotional homelessness in childhood. Today we know the enormous importance of the child’s sense of security for human development. The human child is more in need of love than any other living being. It needs protection and friendly guidance in order to grow into the extremely complicated human world.

Where it recognises the “antagonist” in the adult at an early stage as a result of his unkindness or unreliability, it closes itself off from its environment and falls into an isolation that is barely recognised in its extent by an uncomprehending environment.

Reconciliation of Children with Their Parents 

As early as 1927, the individual psychologist Alfred Adler wrote about the complaints of parents and children in his book “Knowledge of Man”:

“It is an often emphasised and sensitive fact that people pass each other by and talk past each other, cannot find union because they are strangers to each other, not only in the wider framework of a society, but even in the narrower circle of the family.

Nothing is more common than complaints from parents who do not understand their children, and from children that they are not understood by their parents. (…).

People would live together much better if there were greater knowledge of human nature, because certain disturbing forms of coexistence would no longer exist, which are only possible today because we do not know each other and are thus exposed to the danger of being deceived by outward appearances and falling for the pretences of others.” (4)

Adler’s teachings (1870-1937) have become a cornerstone of depth psychology and today it is impossible to imagine psychological research without them, even if individual psychology has only partially received the recognition it actually deserves and which it can claim for its ground-breaking achievements.

The moment we, as children, resent our parents, we are in the wrong, we are not in the know.

As a rule, the first task when a person comes into psychotherapy is to reconcile them with their situation – for example with their parents. The young person often feels insulted by them and resents them because they have allegedly done him wrong. For example, they have hit him or taught him a bunch of stupid things.

The task of psychotherapy is to remedy this and reconcile him with his parents. He must realise that the parents cannot be blamed because they were also let down and not informed. They did not know how to teach or inform their child. People will then realise that the parents were also the “poor devils”.

With prudence and perseverance, young people are able to develop their competences in small steps.

In my book “Sich die Ergebnisse der psychologischen Forschung zu eigen machen! Insights from my encounter with the psychologist Friedrich Liebling and his liberal psychotherapy”, I wrote on page 35f:

“In my opinion, young people face a variety of challenges in the course of their development, which they generally cope with well. However, in order to be able to tackle life’s tasks with courage, adolescents are dependent on being embedded in a supportive environment as a living world and an embedding culture.

They experience support and orientation when the family conveys values and virtues that are reinforced and consistently enforced in social institutions such as kindergarten and school. These include: Humanity, justice, truth, peaceableness, tolerance, a sense of community, the ability to deal with conflict and the willingness to compromise.

Practical participation in social activities is essential to consolidate these social values and virtues in adolescents.

I believe in young people, in their ability to learn, their creativity, their empathy, their sense of responsibility, their insightfulness and their willingness to change their attitudes and behaviour.

In most cases, all young people need is a little prudence and perseverance so that they can develop their skills in small steps.” (5)

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Dr Rudolf Lothar Hänsel is a school rector, educationalist and qualified psychologist. After his university studies, he became an academic teacher in adult education. As a pensioner, he worked as a psychotherapist in his own practice. In his books and specialist articles, he calls for a conscious ethical and moral education of values as well as an education for public spirit and peace.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Notes

(1) http://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/462752.die-jugend-der-welt-in-paris-die-jugend-muss-eine-vorreiterrolle-übernehmen.html

(2) A. a. O.

(3) Hänsel, Rudolf (2023). Making the results of psychological research your own! Insights from an encounter with the psychologist Friedrich Liebling and his liberal psychotherapy. Grafoprint d.o.o. Gornji Milanovac, Serbia

(4) Liebling, Friedrich (1992), Essays. Publisher Menschenkenntnis. Zurich

(5) Hänsel, Rudolf (2023). Making the results of psychological research your own! Insights from an encounter with the psychologist Friedrich Liebling and his liberal psychotherapy. Grafoprint d.o.o. Gornji Milanovac, Serbia, p. 35f.

Featured image is from Christopher Futcher