If Jung and Freud were European football pundits:

KEY POINTS

• The coaching philosophy of head coaches is moulded by their own experiences and trauma.
• The collective fans of European football could learn from Freud and Jung.

The Freud and Jung banter

If they were alive today, Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung might be bantering about the goings-on at the belated Euro 2020 football tournament. Sigmund might have a spring in his step about the Czech Republic team sitting at the top of Group D, no doubt taunting his English neighbours whose team currently lies underneath. Carl might be feeling nervous, neurotic even, knowing that Switzerland needs a win against Turkey to have any chance of going through to the last 16, and dreading another one of Sigmund’s sarcastic texts should Switzerland be knocked out at the group stage.

Where is the psychological perspective?

Despite the rise of sport psychology, there appears to be a lack of psychological perspective of professional football (soccer) in the media (all offers will be carefully considered). The pioneers of modern psychology would have plenty to say. I have no doubt that Freud and Jung would have made entertaining and informative pundits. Their analysis on the philosophies of each team and how they have been moulded by historical trauma could be debated at length, together with a dissection of the significant career events of head coaches.

Freud’s analysis

Analysis of the former playing careers of the international head coaches reveals that nearly all have histories that are focused on defending or stopping the creativity of the opposition. Freud might be concerned that thoughts of attacking may have been buried or suppressed in these individuals. He may suggest a few sessions on the couch to unleash a more entertaining style of play or a change in personnel.

Do we need more goal-scoring coaches?

Only three of the 24 head coaches competing, were forwards in their playing careers. This includes the Italian head coach, the nation’s first such coach in the modern era. Roberto Mancini has transformed the way the Italian team plays and as things stand, after each team has played two matches, the Italians are the top goal scorers in the competition.

Mancini’s new style for Italy

Mancini’s playing career was focused on creating and scoring goals. Mancini was moulded during these formative years and so Freud would surely be unsurprised to see Mancini’s team focused on scoring too. This is not just good news for Italians whose teams tend to hang around until the end of competitions. Fans from other nations are, some may argue for the first time, enjoying watching Italy prioritise attacking.

Football Associations

In the interest of the viewing public then, and to improve the spectacle of each game, Freud might call on football associations across Europe to appoint head coaches who spent their playing days creating and scoring rather than preventing goals. Jung would no doubt disagree at once. Of course, Jung would then have to come up with a reason for disagreeing. He might draw on his own famous quote: “We are not what happened to us, we are what we wish to become”. This might be good advice for England head coach Gareth Southgate.

Southgate’s Trauma

Southgate’s traumatic history is known to most lovers of the game. As a player, he was positioned in the heart of England’s defence at Euro 1996. It was a tournament that England came close to winning yet did not. The trauma for Southgate was greater still, for it was he who had a penalty saved, England’s last kick of the tournament. Freud might suggest that the experience is still being felt by the child within the England head coach, as a way of explaining why Southgate insists on playing two protective, defensive midfielders in front of his former playing position.

Archetypal Players

Most other teams in the competition seem to favour one midfield anchor, and in the case of the top teams, this player is not focused entirely on defending. Jung might describe the French player, N’Golo Kanté as the archetype of this position in international football.

Creativity from the Depths

Freud might then suggest that Southgate should be searching for a player with more creativity welling up from the unconscious than seems apparent within the tireless, tackling incumbents. Freud might quip that some players seem to love the tackle more than they love the ball! Reflecting on this, Jung might remind us that: “The creative mind plays with the objects it loves” and then support the collective clamour for selecting the ball-playing Jack Grealish.

Loving the Beautiful Game is Never Easy

For lovers of the beautiful game across the European continent, sadly, only one team can lift the Euro 2020 trophy. This will leave the majority of fans suffering, adding another trauma to all those years of hurt. As Freud might remind us after the final has been played and before the studio is dismantled: “We are never so defenceless against suffering as when we love”.

Blog originally written for Psychology Today.  See the original article here 

Empathy and Schadenfreude in Sports

A fan’s perspective.

When it comes to sport on TV, what’s the next best thing to sharing in the experience of your own team’s victory? Whatever your sport, you probably prefer to watch your own team rather than any other. You may sit there on the edge of your sofa, with every cell in your body cheering them on to win. But do you ever tune in to watch a team you dislike hoping you’ll get to see them lose? Maybe your team’s biggest rival?

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude, the pleasure derived in another’s misfortune, has been described as both the ultimate failure of empathy and empathy’s shadow, yet it actually relies on empathy.

Empathy does not insist on pity or a compassionate response. When we witness misfortune, we wince with pain before we laugh; because we became the other in the moment. Whilst being the other, we feel the pain, then rationalise to understand that, all considered, we are glad the other is experiencing it for real.

Although neuroscientists often refer to schadenfreude as an extremely complicated emotion, the process essentially involves the activation of the reward centre of our brain. Schadenfreude looks like pure joy as well as feeling like it. Context can exacerbate this. If the failure of another team increases the chances of success for your own team, your joy is enhanced.

Competitive Nature

The competitive nature of sport offers a fantastic opportunity to analyse this enjoyment of another’s suffering. In 2010, two psychologists, Jaap W. Ouwerkerk of VU Amsterdam and Wilco W. van Dijk of Leiden University, both avid football fans, were watching the football World Cup at home on a Dutch TV channel. Their team was still in the tournament and they often switched over to a foreign broadcaster when they were doing particularly well, in order to enjoy the foreign commentator’s praise. After the Dutch exited the competition, the psychologists turned their attention to their biggest rivals, Germany.

In the semi-final against Spain, to the psychologist’s delight, the Spanish team scored the winning goal just minutes before the end. The psychologists found themselves turning over to ADR, a German channel, in order to enjoy the sound of German commentators wallowing in the catastrophe of their imminent defeat and exit from the competition.

Reflecting on their behaviour was interesting enough, but they soon discovered they were not alone. They found that the number of Dutch viewers of ADR had peaked at 352,000 just before the end of the game when the Germans were staring at defeat.

The Dutch fans wanted to share and “feel into” the experience, in order to gain a better understanding of the pain being felt by their rivals and their fans. The more they could understand the pain, the more they enjoyed it. Research on empathy shows that empathising is easier if we know someone well. The better you know someone the more easily you will understand their pain.

Supporting Sports Teams

When it comes to supporting sports teams, many of us enjoy the banter at work on a Monday morning after the weekend’s fixtures. Consider that guy who sits next to you for five days a week, who you know really well—maybe you consider him your friend. You like most things about him, but not the team he supports. You know when they lose, he suffers, yet you yearn for that and it’s the first thing you’ll mention when you see him. This works both ways. He loves the sport as much as you. He knows how hurt you are when your team loses and he’ll be there waiting for you, particularly if your team has been superior for a long time.

Superiority often annoys us. The status of a team or a professional athlete can be achieved by being recognized and respected by others for good performance or through unethically achieved dominance or aggressive behaviour. Hubris in society tends to lead to a rebalancing. If “superior” teams or individuals are seen to fail, the joy expressed, sometimes referred to as “malicious joy,” can bring them back down to earth. Malicious joy also increases one’s own self-esteem.

Sharing in the joy of your own team’s success may be the most obvious example of fan empathy, but empathy offers different paths to enjoyment. It may not be something you are proud to admit, but be honest: What’s the next best thing to watching your own team win?

References

Van Dijk, W. W., & Ouwerkerk, J. W. (2014). Intergroup Rivalry and Schadenfreude. In book: Schadenfreude: Understanding Pleasure at the Misfortune of Others (pp.186-199) Chapter: 12. Cambridge University Press

Blog originally written for Pyschology Today.  See the orignal article here 

Peter Sear, Founder, The Empathic Minds Organisation