John Flugel (13 June 1884 – 6 August 1955), was a British

experimental psychologist Experimental psychology is the work done by those who apply Experiment, experimental methods to psychological study and the underlying processes. Experimental psychologists employ Research participant, human participants and Animal testing, anim ...

and a practising

psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk th ...

Early life

Flügel was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

on 13 June 1884, to a German father and English mother.

Work

Flügel's book ''Psychoanalytic Study of the Family'' (1921) was acclaimed by

Eric Berne Eric Berne (May 10, 1910 – July 15, 1970) was a Canadian-born psychiatrist who created the theory of transactional analysis as a way of explaining human behavior. Berne's theory of transactional analysis was based on the ideas of Freud an ...

for its insights into the

Oedipus complex In classical psychoanalytic theory, the Oedipus complex is a son's sexual attitude towards his mother and concomitant hostility toward his father, first formed during the phallic stage of psychosexual development. A daughter's attitude of desire ...

. He also published ''Men and their Motives'' (1934) and ''The Psychology of Clothes'' (1930), the latter continuing to influence thinking on the subject into the 21st century. In ''Man, Morals and Society'' (1945), Flugel charted a movement from

egocentrism Egocentrism refers to difficulty differentiating between self and other. More specifically, it is difficulty in accurately perceiving and understanding perspectives other than one's own. Egocentrism is found across the life span: in infancy, ea ...

to social awareness by way of what he saw as a hierarchy of expanding loyalties. Reaching back to his old mentor, he also highlighted “the distinction that McDougall has sometimes made between an 'ideal', which is little more than an intellectual assent to a moral proposition, and a 'sentiment', which involves a real mobilisation”. He coined the phrase “

Great Male Renunciation The Great Male Renunciation () is the historical phenomenon at the end of the 18th century in which wealthy men of the Western world stopped using bright colours, elaborate shapes and variety in their dress, which were left to women's clothing ...

” () in 1930, referring to the historical phenomenon at the end of the 18th century in which wealthy Western men stopped using bright colors, elaborate shapes and variety in their dress, which were left to women's clothing. Instead, men concentrated on minute differences of cut, and the quality of the plain cloth. It is considered a major turning point in the history of clothing, in which the men relinquished their claim to adornment and beauty.

Personal life

In 1913 Flügel married Ingeborg Klingberg, who also became a psychoanalyst. They had one daughter. Flügel died in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1955.

Early life

Work

Personal life

References

Further reading