Optimal Marginality

Innovation and Orthodoxy in Fromm's Revision of Psychoanalysis

Bibliographic Data

ID2277012
AuthorsNeil Mclaughlin (0000-0002-1856-2250, McMaster University, corresponding author)
Year2001
Volume42
Issue2
Pages271-288
Publication date2001-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociological Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0253 • E-ISSN: 1533-8525
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1525/tsq.2001.42.2.271
OpenAlexW4237843171
LanguageEN
Citations received38
References cited81

The sociological study of intellectual innovation has long been polarized between romantic notions of the creative marginal intellectual and competing accounts stressing the benefits of national, organizational and network centrality in the production of knowledge. I offer the concept of "optimal marginality" as an attempt to move beyond this longstanding but increasingly stale debate. The relationship between a certain type of marginality and intellectual creativity is discussed in the context of a case study on innovation within psychoanalysis. German psychoanalyst Erich Fromm's contributions to the modern revision of Freudian theory is highlighted to illustrate the conditions under which marginality is likely to lead to innovations within theoretical systems and intellectual organizations. What types of marginality lead to innovation? Under what conditions does marginality lead to insight, and when does it lead to marginal ideas? Four ideal types are outlined and a research agenda is called for that operationalizes and tests these theoretical ideas in the context of comparative sociological analysis of intellectual creativity

Centrality · Context (archaeology) · Creativity · Epistemology · German · Intellectual history · Orthodoxy · Political science · Sociology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Philosophy · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Psychology

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