Community Mental Health Journal Volume 2, Number 3, Fall, 1966

SOCIETY WITHOUT LABOR: SOME ISSUES IN THE CYBERNATED

PSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY

ROBERT REIFF, PH.D.* Social and psychological issues that may arise for those who will be working in a future cybernated society are discussed. An analysis of the psychological concomitants of the changes cybernation will effect in man's relationship with this work is attempted. Social sexual concomitants of shifting large sections of present day workers into human service occupations which are generally considered feminine are also considered. What is needed is a grand strategy of social change, a national plan involving every aspect of society which will take advantage of cybernation to construct a society without labor but which at the same time does not threaten present day laborers with exclusion from society. A great deal of controversy and public discussion has been taking place over the possible social effects of automation. Much of it centers around the questions of unemployment and leisure. Little attention has been devoted to the social and psychological issues that may arise for those who will be working in a future cybernated society. It has been said that man's work is his contact with reality. In a sense his work defines reality for him and his definition of reality plays a role in determining how he copes, defends and adapts. In short, his relationship to work plays a part in shaping his character and personality. The social reality of a production worker is different from the social reality of a middle class intellectual. Though we often act and think as though there is an unitary social reality of society, there is, in fact, a composite of different social realities. Middle class social scientists who are getting interested and active in the poverty program are beginning to realize this. What is needed is an analysis of the psychological concomitants of the changes cybernation will effect in man's relationship to work.

MEN AND MACHINES Prior to the first industrial revolution, man, with the aid of hand tools, was himself the means of production. The product came directly from the hands of the laborer and it reflected the variations of individual skills and talents of each worker. With the first industrial revolution, the machines became the extensions of man's muscle power and physical endurance. Man's relation to the means of production changed. Between man and the product there now stood the machine and now the product reflects the invariant redundancy of the machine. Man's relationship is with the machine directly and with the product only indirectly. This sounds very much like the old theory of alienation but it differs in that it does not imply that man's historical alienation from work is one of the roots of pathology. Firstly, man is not alienated from work. And, secondly, man's alienation from man is more closely associated with such phenomena as his concern with power and manipulativeness and to the social effects of mobility and universal education. While man and the product are no longer intimately related, modern man is intimately related to the machine, in fact, romantically so. Witness the love affair between the automobile and the American worker. The modern worker finds his gratification operating on the means of production instead of the product. Parenthetically, it is not without psychological significance that the colloquial designation of a machine by workers is invariably in the feminine gender; "she's a honey", "she's got power", "she handles easily", etc., while the colloquial designations and names of computers are invariably neuter in gender; "it", "brainiac", "Univac", "Geniac", etc. But to return to the indus-

*Dr. Reiff, a clinical psychologist, is Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for the Study of Social Intervention, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, N.Y.

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trial revolution, psychologically, the requirements of man's work changed from those of an artisan to those of an operator, with all the psychological implications that this change implies. Perhaps we ought to caI1 this the Industrial Physical Revolution to distinguish it from the Industrial Ideational Revolution which is the essence of the change being ushered in by cybernation. For now it is not man's muscle power or physical apparatus that is being extended by the machine but man's sensory and cognitive apparatus which is being replaced by the new machines. Psychologically, the requirements of man's work will change from those of an operator to those of an observer. ARTISAN, OPERATOROR OBSERVER The fundamental task of an artisan is to create a product out of his own personal manipulation of the materials he works with. He selects the materials and works them into the finished product. He is free to choose out of his own intuition, his own aesthetic judgment and a knowledge of his own individual resources and skills as well as the materials he uses in what way he will compose the product. He is, in fact, a composer. As such, it is his sense of creativity which is developed with its concomitant effect on his self-image and his relationship to the world of people and objects. The palpable characteristics of materials, goods, and of objects are of deep and immediate concern to him. His relationship to them is intimate and personal. He relies not only on his distal receptors but on his proximal receptors as well. His sense of touch, his proprioceptive and kinesthetic responses are crucial to his understanding of the characteristics of materials and objects. The product which he produces is an immediate and direct reflection of his total self, his internal and external physical as well as his aesthetic and intellectual components. What is an operator? To the worker on the production line or the operator of a bulldozer the quality of the materials of the product itself becomes less important to him and the capacity of the machine

takes precedence. The skill of an operator depends on such things as his reaction time, his spatial orientation, his ability to coordinate the movements of his body and control them. There is very little room for aesthetic judgment or for composition. His skill depends on coordinated and controlled repetitive movements, sometimes with a delicate sensitivity to time or spatial orientation. Psychologically, this requires an ability to extend the boundaries of his body image to the limits of the machine. What is developed by the operator primarily is the capacity for extending his physical self to encompass the power of the machine and to coordinate its work. In contrast to the artisan whose energies are organized by the goal of composition the operator's energies are organized by the goal of control of the powerful forces of the machine. He becomes the organizing center of the machine's power capacity by relating to the machine as though it was an entension of his physical self. We have yet to study and understand the psychological effects of this relationship. To what degree, for example, is the modern worker's emphasis on control over powerful forces which is the natural condition of the work situation, determining his own feelings of power or powerlessness and the way in which he copes with them. Let us speculate on what sort of man the observer would be like. It is easier to say what he would not be like. He would not be interested in the qualities of materials as the artisan or in the extensions of himself in the realm of physical power. Nor would he be interested in the single machine as an extension of his physical self. His relationship would be to the "system", of which he is the guardian, or more correctly the watchman. Will this create a man disinterested in the individual and one who more easily relates to social and interpersonal "systems"? If this is so, the growing unconcern for the individual seen in society today may become much worse. OBSERVER IS PASSIVE Furthermore, both the artisan and the operator start from an active posture. They

ROBERT REIFF

actively intervene to create change from raw material to the finished product. The observer, on the other hand, is totally passive and any change in the system is a signal of malfunctioning. His energies are organized by the goal of restoration of function of a system in which he plays no intrinsic role. He is a bystander, a watchman! Is it too speculative to suggest that such a person might transfer this attitude to society as well and develop the attitude that any change in the social system is a signal of malfunctioning? What will happen to the man who spends his day passively waiting for some signal to his distal receptors to organize him into action? What will be the effect of this kind of stimulus deprivation? The production worker is almost always part of a group. There are many opportunities for social relationships in the work situation. In fact, these social relationships are often crucial in providing satisfaction in the work situation. The observer, however, is completely alone. Inactivity and solitude are the fundamental characteristics of his work milieu. In fact, picture the night watchman who spends his "working" hours in silent empty rooms and barren halls in solitude and inactivity. So long as his solitude and inactivity persists, things are going well. When his solitude and inactivity are interrupted by some signal, it means something is wrong. This is not an exaggerated picture of the worker of the future cybernated society. It is a reality today. In England, one of the Trade Unions is demanding "lonesome pay" as a bonus for these conditions. We may learn a great deal about the worker of the future by studying the night watchman of today. We know now that people with certain clinical syndromes gravitate toward certain jobs because the nature of the work milieu enables them to function. We have observed, for example, a large number of schizophrenic characters seem attracted to night jobs in the Post Office. Night watchmen are often schizoid characters. Will the schizoid character be the well adjusted worker of the future cybernated society?

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WORKERS' IMAGE OF THE MALE

Work milieu is but one of the psychological problems. There are many others related to the nature of work in a cybernated society. One of the most frequently voiced solutions to the manpower problem threatened by cybernation is the shifting of large numbers of people into human service occupations. I believe that this certainly will be an important development. But here we will be faced with another psychological problem. As psychologists, we have paid little attention to the effect that work has on social concepts of male and femaleness. With a few exceptions, human service occupations have almost always been regarded as female activity. The influx of a large number of male workers into the human service occupations may have lasting effects on what it means to be masculine and may also have far reaching effects on family life, in fact on all aspects of living. We need to gather a great deal more knowledge than we already have about this problem so that we can facilitate this shift in a way which would minimize any damaging effects on the workers' social sexual self image. Should we not now begin in some way to redefine the meaning of these occupations? Should we not, for example, begin now to change the occupational title of male nurse and replace it with something like "Doctor's Assistant" or "Doctor's Aide"? How can we help to redefine human services so that they have a place for both male and female in our society? Another very important psychological problem area is in the values, aims, and goals of those involved in cybernation design. At present, all of the resources of cybernation seem to be focused on developing a completely rational society, leaving no room at all for the irrational. I wonder if it is possible to design a completely rational society without running the risk of increasing explosive irrationality. We need to know more about the balance between the rational and irrational forces within the psychological life space of people. Is it too far-fetched to suggest that it may be more efficient in the long run to build into our future plans for society some

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irrational elements? It might not even be too absurd to build into the machines some elements of games and chance. PROBLEM OF SURPLUSHUMANENERGY Finally, what about the risks of the future cybernated society? While it is important to note the opportunities offered by cybernation, there are also some very great risks that have to be insured against. Some of these risks are psychological. One of these is the problem of the surplus of human energy. If man is to be reduced in his work milieu to a completely passive person responding only to some signal of malfunction, what will happen to the surplus energy of this stimulus hungry man? We must be careful not to project on society our middle class intellectual solution to the problem of surplus of human energy. The favorite clich6 is "divert this physical energy into intellectual energy". There will always be some people in society, a large section I am sure, who will not want to or not be capable of diverting their physical energy into the intellectual pursuits of the middle class model. What social scientists think is good for people may not be what the people themselves think is good for them. In planning the future great society, consideration must be given to providing for each segment of society, or the result will be turmoil and confusion. It would be a mistake, for example, to reinforce current thinking that certain realistic fears about cybernation on the part of the workers are pathological or the result of neurotic anxiety. The worker is caught in a real dilemma. On the one hand, cybernation promises to greatly increase the material wealth of society while at the same time it is personally threatening him with disenfranchisement. Social scientists have emphasized how cybernation can be a great boon to society, but have had very little success presenting cybernation to the worker in a way which assures him that it will not result in an economic catastrophe to him personally, a loss of identity, and a reduction to a state of powerlessness. The conventional production line at the

present time requires men in order to operate it. Without manpower the production line is a useless thing. The present organization of production makes it possible for those working on the production line to exercise some degree of control. It is a basis for economic power and political clout through which the worker can express and fight for his needs and desires. The worker fails to see where his basis of power will be in the cybernated society. Already there is evidence, particularly in the civil rights movement, that deprived of economic power, people turn to civil disobedience, direct political demonstrations, riots, etc. instead of strikes. Cybernation may destroy the economic weapon as a form of political clout. That is why the argument over whether or not there will be large scale unemployment is not the real problem. Even if there should be 100% employment in a cybernated society, the workers are still facing the loss of an economic weapon on which they have relied for more than a hundred years for their political power. A GRANDSTRATEGYNEEDED It is naive to expect that workers (the unions) will submit to the chipping away of the bases of their economic and political power without tenacious resistance. No one has come up with a satisfactory answer to this one. The unions are primarily engaged in a rear guard holding operation; the employers in aggressive probing without risking a decisive battle. Each side is engaged in a series of tactical skirmishes without a strategy. The problem cannot be solved on an industry to industry basis. Failure to develop a long range national plan will perpetuate guerilla warfare between labor and industry and lead to unnecessary and costly psychological casualties and social chaos. What is needed is a grand strategy of social change, a nationally planned design involving every aspect of society which will enable us to take advantage of cybernation to construct a society without labor but which, at the same time, does not threaten present day laborers with exclusion from society.

Society without labor: Some psychological issues in the cybernated society.

Social and psychological issues that may arise for those who will be working in a future cybernated society are discussed. An analysis of the psycholo...
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