De joden in Amsterdam

K. Lewin particularly brought to the fore in his definition of the concept marginal man.

The data collected in this study lend support to the point argued by Lewin, namely that where the member of the minority group has more contact with the culture and with the fellow members of that group, he will be less characterised by feelings of insecurity and instability which threaten marginal man.

In this inquiry the Amsterdam Jew shows himself to be strongly marginal in the sense Kurt Lewin gave to it. This is shown, for instance, in his uncertainty about various aspects of his being a Jew and in his fear of being conspicuous as a Jew in a non-Jewish society.

Besides he often presents the picture of the desolate man, as he has frequently been described in Western literature since Kafka, sometimes as specifically Jewish, sometimes as generally applicable to the inhabitant of the Western urban agglomerations in the twentieth century.

In conclusion we have completed this thesis with some indications of a therapeutical nature.

144