Character Structure In David Riesman's The Lonely Crowd

In studying the psychological reactions of a social group we deal with the character structure of the group, that is, of individual persons; we are interested, however, not in the peculiarities by which these persons differ from each other, but in that part of their character structure which is common to most members of the group. We call this character the social character.” (qtd. Ozanne 520)
Fromm stressed that what creates a social character is not based on specific characteristics of an individual, which may vary and are taken as a whole, but on selected common share of most members of a social group. Yet what defines “a social character” is “the essential nucleus of the character structure of most members of a group which has developed

Combining the European tradition of critical theory with the American tradition of empirical social criticism, the diagnosis refers to a period of time before the year 1950 when the book was published (Horowitz 1011). The treatise has been incorrectly interpreted numerous times, simply as a critique of a postwar society in the United States, while Riesman’s intention was to create “a discussion of the emotional life of information” (Lewis-Kraus 1). Riesman described the American society after the end of the inner-directed, production-oriented society, and the beginning of the other-directed one, “shaped by the market orientation of a consumer culture” (Horowitz 1006). Lee Siegel claims that Riesman’s exertion proved that people in the stage of transition after struggling with their own instincts and judgments emerged into a new society where they were unable to reclaim their independence, in contrast to the other-directed society where they were subjected to someone else’s

The mechanism that Riesman attributes with the society of incipient decline is said to resemble not a gyroscope, but a radar. Unlike a gyroscope which allows the inner-directed person not to be assigned to one specified mode of conformity, but rather any environment thanks to the limited influence of a peer group, a radar allows the other-directed person to feel comfortable in any situation, for any connection they make and lose is very artificial due to already belonging to the influential peer group (24-26). Such a device is implemented, again, early in life, and later by parents. It is supposed to guide the individual and at the same time seek other opinions and actions ready to follow. What is said by Riesman about the role of parents is actually that, firstly, their behavior can be detected by a child’s radar (it does not mean that it is the preferred or the sought one), and, reciprocally, a child’s behavior can be detected by the other-directed parent. However, the difference is that they virtually do not have control over their child’s decisions; instead of changing them, they can mildly suggest what is preferred by them. Therefore, in comparison with parents in the inner-directed society, the other-directed parents have minimal or