The purpose of this paper is to clarify why the corporal punishment remains in sports groups focusing on Freud’s group psychology.
Most arguments on the corporal punishment was apt to deny or solve the corporal punishment until now. But, can the corporal punishment be really got rid of? Imamura says that if people have relations with each other, we can never avoid violence. If so, it is natural that the corporal punishment occurs in sports groups. Therefore, we must understand why the corporal punishment remains in sports groups. This paper tries to investigate the psychic structure that the corporal punishment remains in relations between a coach and players in sports groups. To do it, we regard the situation that keeping the corporal punishment as the extension line of normal human relations rather than abnormal.
Then, this paper focuses on “group psychology and the analysis of the ego” written by Freud. Freud says that the group is formed and kept up by the union of libido among members. We should take notice of the Freud’s argument in that respect that the ego of a coach spends all the ego of players. Freud calls the union of libido between members and a leader “being in loved”, and if “being in loved ” sublimates into “idealization”, the ego of members will be destroyed by losing their critical thinking on the character of their leader. Freud’s argument gives us a hint to consider why the corporal punishment remains in relations between a coach and players in sports groups.