Excerpt: The term ideology permits a multitude of definitions, but two elements are common to most of them: the basic supposition that the thought system (the “doctrine”) explains the world in its suchness, and, second, the fundamental, all- encompassing (and therefore generally binding) character of ideology. This study will examine what kind of a “reality” is constructed when one assumes one has found such an ultimate way of viewing the world. Furthermore, the various components of this construction will be defined abstractly (the passages in italics) and then substantiated with reference to their manifestations and with examples of their characteristic symptoms. These references are not intended as proof but, rather, as anecdotal, metaphorical, or anthological illustrations of the given effects; thus they are compiled from the most varied disciplines and sources without any claim to completeness. Let us set out the thesis itself: The actual content of the given ideology is of no consequence in regard to the reality created by acceptance of that ideology. It may completely contradict the content of another ideology. The results, however, are of a terrifying stereotypy.

Excerpt: A self-fulfilling prophecy is an assumption or prediction that, purely as a result of having been made, causes the expected or predicted event to occur and thus confirms its own “accuracy.” For example, if someone assumes, for whatever reason, that he is not respected, he will, because of this assumption, act in such a hostile, overly sensitive, sus-picious manner that he brings about that very contempt in others which “proves” again and again his firmly entrenched conviction. This mechanism may be commonplace and well known, but it is based upon a number of facts that are by no means part of our everyday thinking and which have a profound significance for our view of reality.

Based on Alfred Adler’s classic postulate of a lifestyle, the paper tries to show the reality-creating power of lifestyles using some literary examples. [Curator’s translation]

Excerpt: Shortly after his arrival in the USA, Watzlawick started to work as a research associate of the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto – an Institute whose members had implemented, both in their therapeutic work and in its systematic investigation, the general insights of Gregory Bateson and Don D. Jackson concerning the essential character of insane and pathological behaviour. In 1967 Watzlawick began to teach at Stanford University, was active as therapist and communication scientist, advised companies and concerns, and in his books described paradoxes and snares in communication. These publications demonstrate, in particular, the practical consequences of constructivist and systemic thinking: one realises how conceptions arise that lead to suffering, how they become rigid, and how they may be – owing to successful intervention – liquefied and dissolved again.