PREREQUISITES OF SOCIALIZATION 81
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peculiar distortion in the ideas and representations which
individuals have of one another. The pictures which human
beings form of one another are not the result of pure sense
impressions, but modifications of the actuality. In the
first place, there is a tendency toward generalization which
makes us see another as a type. We think of a man, not
primarily in terms of his individuality, but in terms of a
group or a class, in terms of a category which does not
fully cover his identity and with which he is not fully identical.
We know a man, not in his pure individuality, but as
exalted or degraded by the general type under which we
subsume him. Even of his purely individual side we form a
picture which is not identical with the actuality, but rather
with what he would be were he completely his ideal self.
We create out of fragmentary data about his personality
the complete picture of a fully realized individuality.
This tendency operates within the already existing society
as the a priori of further associations and socializations
between individuals. Within certain social spheres,
classes, or groups, individuals view one another, not from a
purely empirical standpoint, but on the basis of the a priori
that the fact of belonging to a certain group gives the
individual definite mental characteristics. In the circle of
scholars, officers, church members, civil servants, and
members of families, each individual regards the other under
the natural presupposition that he is a member of the
group. We see the individual, not simply as an individual,
but as a colleague, a comrade, or a fellow-partisan, as an
inhabitant of the same specific world as ourselves. The
same thing occurs in the relation between individuals of
different groups. The civilian who meets an officer cannot
divest himself of the thought that the officer is a military
man, and views him in that light. These unavoidable,
quite automatic presuppositions are the means by which
