Biography

Paul Julius Adolf Helwig (27 May 1893 – 7 August 1963) was a German stage-manager, script-writer, philosopher and psychologist, who has contributed in an original way to the analysis of human behavior. He was born in Lübeck, Germany, and died in Munich.

His psychological approach has as a starting-point the chains of reactions and events which normally result from acting, and in which one remains involved because they present one possibilities to seize, problems to solve as well as challenges to take. This is typical for the literary drama, but can be seen in a less concentrated way in daily life. Problematic, if not pathological, behavior may arise if conditions for starting and continuing such a "drama of life" are insufficiently met. One of those conditions, the main one, is what Helwig calls "resistance": the resistance the physical and social environment offer to one's aims. If it is too much acting will be blocked, if it is too small action will be short-lived and be in want of intensity and impact.

Helwig characterizes his approach both as dramaturgical (1958) and behavioristic (1964), the latter because overt behavior is seen as the primary phenomenon, to be explained from the interaction action-environment instead of hypothetical inner forces and features. His "behaviorism" starts, however, from very molar behavior units, unlike American behaviorism.