Rainer Mausfeld
Rainer Mausfeld (born 22 December 1949 in Iserlohn) is a retired German professor of psychology at Kiel University. He did research on the psychology of perception, cognitive science, and the history of psychology. His publications since 2015, about manipulation in media and politics and the transformation of representative democracy to neoliberal elite democracy, have gained considerable attention. Academic career. From 1969 to 1979, Mausfeld studied psychology, mathematics, and philosophy at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and mathematical psychology at the University of Nijmegen. Subsequently, he was a consultant at the Institute for Test and Talent Research of  the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes in Bonn until 1981. In 1984, Mausfeld received his doctorate from the University of Bonn with a thesis about Fechner-Scaling. The thesis focuses on the principles of the construction of psychophysical discrimination scales. In 1987, he became Visiting Research Professor at the University of California. In 1990, Mausfeld was resident, or habilitated, in Bonn with research work mainly on perceptual psychology, and in 1992, he accepted a professorship in general psychology at the University of Mannheim. In 1993, he moved to the University of Kiel. Among other projects, Mausfeld was head of the Deutsche  Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) project "Farbkonstanz" and, from 1995 to 1996, head of an international research group at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) in Bielefeld. Since 2004, he has been a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in its Psychology and Cognitive Science Section. Since 2009, Mausfeld has also published on topics outside psychophysics and perceptual psychology, such as white torture. Research topics. Mausfeld's research focused on perceptual psychology. He also worked on the theoretical foundations of experimental psychology and the psychology of understanding. He also deals with the rivalry between cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience in cognitive  science. Another area of interest is the history of ideas in the natural sciences. In contrast to attempts to explain psychological functions on a biological basis, he adopts an antireductionist stance. Color perception. Mausfeld argues that, contrary to naïve realism, color perception and other aspects of visual perception do not simply reflect an objective, mind-independent external physical world. Color is a subjective product of an organism's visual system, not an objective property of the physical world. The "measuring instrument" conception of perception—according to which the perceptual system is a kind of measuring device that informs the organism  about the physical input—is misguided. Mausfeld also criticizes the "atomistic" conception of perception, the idea that the perceptual system builds up perceptions—as things referring to the external world—from elementary perceptual variables (like sensations of brightness and color) that are tied to elementary physical variables (like intensity and wavelength of light). Studying color perception adequately requires studying more than "pure" color (e.g., hue, saturation, and brightness). Fully understanding color perception also requires studying texture, regularities governing the interaction of light with different types of surfaces, the ways in which perceivers internally represent regions of space, and many other  factors. The overall context of visual perception is crucial for color perception. Sensation is, according to Mausfeld, always shaped by perception. The senses are part of a complex structure in the mind. Nature and spirit. Mausfeld points out that knowledge of neural circuitry and activity is not enough to explain consciousness and thought processes. Not even the behavior of nematodes can be deduced from the activity of their 302 neurons. According to Mausfeld's view, the relationship between nature and mind must be below the neural level in the sphere of physics. Evidence is given by the fact that nature  is actually more enigmatic to us than our consciousness in itself. In modern physics, it has become clear that the physical does not have the properties of matter ascribed to it. Mausfeld sees the special aspect of consciousness in the simplicity and wholeness of the subjective experience, which, however, reveals itself to the psychologist as a complex interaction of unconscious factors. The intrinsic multiperspectivity of thinking, which first opens up the possibilities for thought and action alternatives to humans after Mausfeld results from the complex interplay of the most varied of factors. White torture and responsibility of science. In his  work, Mausfeld illustrates the role of psychologists in the development, application, and justification of modern white torture methods. His work states that the goals of these methods are not, as claimed, the extraction of information, but rather breaking the will, disciplining, humiliating, and shaming the victims. Mausfeld uses the example of torture research to define ethical and legal principles and limits of scientific work. He regards the observance of human rights as fully binding. Techniques of managing opinions and emotions. Features and framework of manipulation techniques. The most important feature of manipulative techniques, according to Mausfeld, is that they are  invisible. To be effective, they must occur below the threshold of our awareness and take advantage of the "weak points" of our mind. This "opinion management," as Mausfeld puts it, which equals propaganda in the sense of Edward Bernays, is the means the formal democratic order adopts to exercise domination without visible force by creating voluntary consent in the minds of citizens. The techniques aim to make invisible not only facts, but also possibilities of thinking and thus alternative actions" (domination of perception)." Mausfeld puts his criticism of manipulation techniques within the framework of a fundamental critique of the capitalist  economic and social order. Neoliberalism, in his view, has limited and narrowed the understanding of freedom to the choice of one's identity from an "identity basket" (i.e., to the "choice" of a given media-mediated lifestyle). Cognitive techniques. According to Mausfeld, cognitive techniques are more important than affective techniques, because opinions are more stable than emotions. Mausfeld examines the following methods: Analysis of "neoliberal postdemocracy". Why do lambs remain silent? In his 2015 publication (3rd edition 2018) " Warum schweigen die Lämmer? "(in English:" Why do lambs remain silent? How elitist democracy and neo-liberalism are destroying our society and  the basis of our lives.), "Mausfeld argues that the original definitions of democracy and freedom have been falsified in language and in the organization of power reminiscent of George Orwell's dystopia. In its present form, representative democracy is seen as merely an "oligarchical electoral democracy", and freedom is seen as merely the power of the economically successful. In his critique of democracy, he draws on the work of Ingeborg Maus and Alex Carey, among others. Securing power by the new elite, which is seen as primarily a financial elite, takes place in new forms of transforming power and manipulating  consciousness to make power "invisible." In his opinion, the media play a decisive role, spreading the neo-liberal ideology. Neo-liberalism, according to Mausfeld, is an emerging ideology that has succeeded in secretly establishing itself as the unique framing narrative and asserting itself as a seemingly unquestionable interpretation of reality "without any alternative". Phenomena of a 'deep state' as manifestations of authoritarian capitalism (2017). This is an essay Mausfeld authorized to be part of the anthology "Facade Democracy and Deep State. On the way to an authoritarian age", edited by Ulrich Mies and Jens Wernicke, argues that representative democracy was  invented for the express purpose of giving people an illusion of power. The proper centers of power, however, are largely invisible to the population and not affected by elections. They are not subject to public accountability and are organized in an authoritarian manner. Mausfeld answers the question of how state rule is organized in a strictly empirical way: the actual centers of political power have been thoroughly investigated, their power is far beyond any democratic control and can, at the same time, dictate virtually all important political decisions. Using a criterion given by the Federal Agency for Civic Education for  the question of whether a form of rule should be described as democracy, Mausfeld maintains that "Western capitalist democracies are a novel form of totalitarian rule." Yet, he dismisses the conception of a "deep state" as presented by Mike Lofgren. Mausfeld sees this concept as too simple. In his view, this term attributes causes in too concrete a manner to decisions of individual agents, thereby overlooking the subtler real mechanisms of social control. Private life. Mausfeld lives in Danish-Nienhof and is married to the psychologist and psychoanalyst Gisela Bergmann-Mausfeld.