Erich Seligmann Fromm is a world-famous American psychologist and humanistic philosopher of German origin. His theories, although rooted in Freudian psychoanalysis, focus on the individual as a social being who uses the powers of reasoning and love to move beyond instinctual behavior.
Fromm believed that people should be responsible for their own moral decisions, and not just for complying with the norms imposed by authoritarian systems. In this aspect of his thinking he was influenced by the ideas of Karl Marx, especially his early "humanistic" thoughts, and his philosophical works therefore fall under the neo-Marxist Frankfurt School - a critical theory of industrial society. Fromm rejected violence, believing that through empathy and compassion, people can rise above the instinctive behavior of the rest of nature. This spiritual aspect of his thinking may have resulted from his Jewish background and Talmudic education, although he did not believe in a traditional Jewish God.
The humanistic psychology of Erich Fromm had the greatest influence on his contemporaries, although he distanced himself from its founder, Carl Rogers. His book, The Art of Loving, remains a popular bestseller as people seek to understand the meaning of “true love,” a concept so profound that even this work only scratches the surface.
Early biography
Erich Fromm was born on March 23, 1900 in Frankfurt am Main, then part of the Prussian Empire. He was the only child in an Orthodox Jewish family. His two great-grandfathers and his paternal grandfather were rabbis. His mother's brother was a respected Talmudist. At the age of 13, Fromm began studying the Talmud, which lasted 14 years, during which he became familiar with socialist, humanist and Hasidic ideas. Although religious, his family, like many Jewish families in Frankfurt, was engaged in trade. According to Fromm, his childhood took place in two different worlds - the traditional Jewish one and the modern commercial one. By age 26, he had rejected religion because he felt it was too controversial. However, he retained his early memories of the Talmud's messages of compassion, redemption, and messianic hope.
Two events in the early biography of Erich Fromm seriously influenced the formation of his views on life. The first happened when he was 12 years old. It was the suicide of a young woman who was a family friend of Erich Fromm. There were many good things in her life, but she could not find happiness. The second event occurred at the age of 14 - the First World War began. According to Fromm, many usually kind people became evil and bloodthirsty. The search for understanding the causes of suicide and militancy underlies many of the philosopher’s thoughts.
Fromm's directions
E. Fromm personally focuses on the contradictory nature of human existence, which is understood not as a subjective personal activity, but as an ontological fact. In the process of personal development, the philosopher identifies the following dichotomies: patriarchal and matriarchal principles of the organization of human life, authoritarian and humanistic consciousness, exploitative and receptive (obedient) types of character, possession and being as two ways of individual life, existential and historical human existence, negative “freedom from ” and the positive “freedom for.” He suggests that the personal and ontological foundations of human existence, on the one hand, complement each other, creating at the same time the uniqueness and universality of human existence, and on the other hand, contradict each other, since uniqueness and universality are incompatible. Developing a doctrine that is a synthesis of psychoanalytic, existential, philosophical and anthropological, Marxist ideas, Fromm tries to find ways to dissolve the dichotomy of human existence, eliminate various forms of human alienation, indicate ways to restore Western civilization, and outline prospects for the free and creative development of the individual. Rejecting Freud's biologism, he revised the symbolism of the unconscious and shifted the emphasis from repressed sexuality to socioculturally determined conflict situations; introduced the concept of “social character” as the connection between individual psychology and the social structure of society; examined the main trends of Western culture with its consumer values, depersonalization, dehumanization of social character, alienation. He connects the elimination of historical contradictions depending on social conditions with the construction of a society based on humanistic ethics, with the activation of the individual through humanistic management, with the spread of psycho-spiritual orientations equivalent to the religious systems of the past.
Fromm believes that the true value of a person is the ability to love, because in his understanding, love serves as a criterion of existence and provides an answer to the problem of human existence. In the process of mastering the art of love, the structure of a person’s character changes, as a result of which, according to Fromm, respect for life, a sense of identity, a need for connection with the world, an interest in unity with it, which contributes to the transition from egoism to altruism, from possession to being, prevails. from "cybernetic religion" to a new, humanistic spirit characterized by non-theistic, non-institutional religiosity.
Fromm is certainly multifaceted. He refers to various cultures, to mythology and religious texts, to Eastern religion and world philosophy. He seeks to rethink the basic premises of philosophy, ethics, psychology and cultural studies. At the same time, he never loses his own theme, always returning to the ideas of his early works, which Fromm enriched during his long, fruitful life.
Teaching activities in Germany
In 1918 Fromm began his studies at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. The first 2 semesters were devoted to jurisprudence. During the summer semester of 1919, he transferred to the University of Heidelberg to study sociology with Alfred Weber (brother of Max Weber), Karl Jaspers and Heinrich Rickert. Erich Fromm received a diploma in sociology in 1922 and completed his studies in psychoanalysis at the Psychoanalytic Institute in Berlin in 1930. That same year he started his own clinical practice and began working at the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research.
After the Nazis came to power in Germany, Fromm fled to Geneva and, in 1934, to Columbia University in New York. In 1943, he helped open the New York branch of the Washington School of Psychiatry, and in 1945, the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis and Psychology.
Philosophy
In the mid-1920s, Erich Fromm became a psychoanalyst and opened a private practice, which he did not stop for 35 years. Communication with patients provided rich material for the analysis of biological and social factors in the formation of the human psyche.
Psychoanalyst Erich Fromm
In Frankfurt, working at the Institute for Social Research from 1929 to 1932, Fromm interpreted and classified his observations. During these years, he wrote and published his first works on the methods and tasks of psychology.
In 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to power, the scientist moved to Switzerland, and a year later to America. In New York, Fromm was taken to Columbia University, entrusted with teaching psychology and sociology. In the early 1940s, the German scientist was at the forefront of the formation of the Washington School of Psychiatry, and in 1946 he became the founder of the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry.
Erich Fromm at work
In 1950, the psychoanalyst moved to the capital of Mexico and worked for 15 years as a teacher at the National Autonomous University, the largest in the Americas. Erich Fromm studied social projects of different eras and published the work “A Healthy Society,” in which he criticized the capitalist system.
In 1960, the scientist became a member of the American Socialist Party and even wrote the program principles, which the party members rejected after much debate. Erich Fromm gave lectures to students, wrote scientific works and participated in rallies. The eminent psychoanalyst and sociologist was invited to the universities of New York and Michigan.
Fromm's works were extremely popular. The book “Escape from Freedom,” published in the early 1940s, became a bestseller. The scientist studied changes in the psyche and behavior of a person in Western culture, examined how his desire for individuality leads to loneliness. In his work, Fromm paid special attention to the period of the Reformation and the teachings of theologians John Calvin and Martin Luther.
In 1947, the scientist wrote a continuation of the popular study on flight from freedom, calling it “Man for Himself,” in which he developed a theory of human self-isolation in the world of Western values and culture. Erich Fromm saw the cause of neuroses in the moral defeat of a person in the struggle for freedom, and called the task of psychoanalysis the disclosure by an individual of the truth about himself.
John Calvin and Martin Luther
In the mid-1950s, the founder of humanistic psychoanalysis published the book “Healthy Society,” in which he raised the topic of the relationship between society and man. In this work, Erich Fromm tried to “reconcile” the opposing theories of Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx. The first believed that man is antisocial by nature, the second - that the individual is a “social animal.” The book became a bestseller, which was disassembled into quotes. One of them:
“In the 19th century. the problem was that God was dead; in XX – that a person is dead.”
Studying human psychology and behavior in different strata of societies and countries, the psychoanalyst came to the conclusion that the least suicides occur in the poorest countries. And Fromm called cinema, radio, television, and public events “ways of escape” from nervous disorders, and if these “benefits” are taken away from the people of Western civilization for 4 weeks, then many thousands will be diagnosed with neurosis.
Books by Erich Fromm
In the mid-1960s, Fromm presented fans with a new work called “The Soul of Man.” In the book, the German psychologist focused on the essence of evil. In a certain sense, this work became a continuation of another, called “The Art of Loving.” Discussing the nature of evil, Erich Fromm concluded that violence is a product of the desire to rule, and it is not so much sadists and monsters who are dangerous as ordinary people who have concentrated power in their hands.
In the 1970s, Erich Fromm, continuing to analyze the most pressing problems of the era, published the work “The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness,” in which he developed the theme of the nature of human self-destruction.
Personal life
Erich Fromm was married three times. His first wife was Frieda Reichmann, a psychoanalyst who gained a good reputation for her effective clinical work with schizophrenics. Although their marriage ended in divorce in 1933, Fromm acknowledged that she taught him a lot. They maintained friendly relations until the end of their lives. At the age of 43, Fromm married a fellow emigrant from Germany of Jewish origin, Henny Gurland. Due to problems with her health, the couple moved to Mexico in 1950, but the wife died in 1952. A year later, Fromm married Annis Freeman.
Life in America
After moving to Mexico City in 1950, Fromm became a professor at the National Academy of Mexico and created the psychoanalytic sector of the medical school. He taught there until his retirement in 1965. Fromm was also a professor of psychology at Michigan State University from 1957 to 1961 and an adjunct professor of psychology in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at New York University.
Fromm changes his preferences again. A strong opponent of the Vietnam War, he supports pacifist movements in the United States.
In 1965, he ended his teaching career, but for several more years he lectured at various universities, institutes and other institutions.
Last years
In 1974 he moved to Muralto, Switzerland, where he died at his home in 1980, just 5 days short of his eightieth birthday. Until the very end of his biography, Erich Fromm led an active life. He had his own clinical practice and published books. Erich Fromm's most popular work, The Art of Loving (1956), became an international bestseller.
Psychological theory
In his first semantic work, Escape from Freedom, first published in 1941, Fromm analyzes the existential state of man. He does not consider sexual reasons as the source of aggressiveness, destructive instinct, neurosis, sadism and masochism, but presents them as attempts to overcome alienation and powerlessness. Fromm's idea of freedom, in contrast to Freud and the critical theorists of the Frankfurt School, had a more positive connotation. In his interpretation, it is not liberation from the repressive nature of technological society, as, for example, Herbert Marcuse believed, but represents an opportunity to develop human creative powers.
Erich Fromm's books are renowned both for his social and political commentary and for their philosophical and psychological underpinnings. His second semantic work, Man for Himself: A Study in the Psychology of Ethics, first published in 1947, was a sequel to Flight from Freedom. In it, he focused on the problem of neurosis, characterizing it as a moral problem in a repressive society, the inability to achieve maturity and personal integrity. According to Fromm, a person's capacity for freedom and love depends on socio-economic conditions, but is rarely found in societies where the desire for destruction prevails. Taken together, these works set forth a theory of human character that was a natural extension of his theory of human nature.
Erich Fromm's most popular book, The Art of Loving, was first published in 1956 and became an international bestseller. It repeats and expands on the theoretical principles of human nature published in the works “Escape from Freedom” and “Man for Himself,” which were also repeated in many other major works of the author.
A central part of Fromm's worldview was his concept of the self as a social character. In his view, basic human character stems from the existential frustration of being part of nature and feeling the need to rise above it through the ability to reason and love. The freedom to be a unique individual is scary, which is why people tend to surrender to authoritarian systems. For example, in Psychoanalysis and Religion, Erich Fromm writes that for some, religion is the answer, not an act of faith, but a way to avoid intolerable doubts. They take this decision not out of devotional service, but out of search for security. Fromm extols the virtues of people taking independent action and using reason to establish their own moral values rather than following authoritarian norms.
Humans have evolved into beings aware of themselves, their own mortality and powerlessness before the forces of nature and society, and are no longer one with the Universe, as they were in their instinctive, pre-human, animal existence. According to Fromm, the awareness of a separate human existence represents a source of guilt and shame, and the solution to this existential dichotomy is found in the development of the uniquely human abilities to love and reflect.
One of the popular quotes from Erich Fromm is his statement that a person’s main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become who he really is. His personality is the most important product of his efforts.
Erich Fromm: humanistic theory of personality
No theorist could describe the social determinants of personality as expressively as Erich Fromm. As a representative of the humanistic movement, Fromm argued that human behavior can only be understood in the light of cultural influences existing at a given specific moment in history. He was convinced that needs unique to humans evolved over the course of human history, and various social systems, in turn, influenced the expression of these needs. From Fromm's point of view, personality is the product of a dynamic interaction between innate needs and the pressure of social norms and prescriptions. He was the first to formulate a theory of character types, based on a sociological analysis of how people in society actively shape the social process and culture itself. Biographical sketch
Erich Fromm was born in 1900 in Frankfurt, Germany. He was the only child of Jewish parents. Fromm grew up knowing two different worlds - Orthodox Jewish and Christian, where he occasionally encountered anti-Semitism. Fromm's family was far from ideal. He described his parents as “very neurotic” and himself as an “unbearably neurotic child” (Funk, 1982).
When World War I broke out in Europe, Fromm was 14 years old. Although he was too young to fight, he was amazed by the human irrationality and destructive tendencies around him. He later wrote: “I was a deeply troubled young man, tormented by the question of how this war was possible, and also by the desire to understand the irrationality of the behavior of the human masses and the passionate desire for peace and understanding between peoples” (Fromm, 1962, p. 9). The answers to these questions show the enormous influence of Freud and Karl Marx. Freud's works helped him understand that people are not aware of the reasons for their behavior. By reading Marx, he learned that socio-political forces significantly influence people's lives.
Unlike Freud, Jung and Adler, Fromm did not have a medical education. He studied psychology, sociology and philosophy, receiving a PhD from the University of Heidelberg in 1922. He continued his psychoanalytic training at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute. In 1934, Fromm emigrated to the United States to escape the Nazi threat. He began a private practice in New York. Fromm published his first book, “Flight from Freedom,” in 1941. In it he showed the special importance of the ways in which social forces and ideologies shape the structure of an individual's character. This direction, developed in a large number of subsequent books, brought Fromm membership in the International Psychoanalytic Association (Roazen, 1973).
In 1945, Fromm became a member of the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry. He subsequently lectured at many US universities and served as professor of psychiatry at the National University of Mexico City from 1949 until his retirement in 1965. Together with his wife, Fromm moved to Switzerland in 1976, where he died of a heart attack in 1980.
Humanistic theory: basic concepts and principles
Fromm sought to expand the horizons of psychoanalytic theory, emphasizing the role of sociological, political, economic, religious and anthropological factors in the formation of personality. His interpretation of personality begins with an analysis of the human condition and its changes, from the end of the Middle Ages (late 15th century) to our time. At the end of his historical analysis, Fromm concluded that an essential feature of human existence in our time is loneliness, isolation and alienation (Fromm, 1941/1956). At the same time, he believed that each historical period was characterized by the progressive development of individuality as people struggled to achieve greater personal freedom to develop all their potentialities. However, the significant degree of independence and freedom of choice that people living in modern Western society enjoy has been achieved at the cost of losing a sense of complete security and developing a sense of personal unworthiness. In Fromm's view, today's men and women face a painful dilemma. Unprecedented freedom from strict social, political, economic and religious restrictions (as is the case today in American culture) required compensation in the form of a sense of security and a sense of belonging to society. Fromm believed that this gap between freedom and security was the cause of unparalleled difficulties in human existence. People fight for freedom and independence, but this struggle itself causes a feeling of alienation from nature and society. People need to have power over their lives and to have choices, but they also need to feel united and connected to other people. The intensity of this conflict and the methods of its resolution depend, according to Fromm, on the economic and political systems of society.
Escape mechanisms
How do people overcome the feelings of loneliness, unworthiness and alienation that accompany freedom? One way is to give up freedom and suppress your individuality. Fromm described several strategies people use to "escape freedom." The first of these is authoritarianism, defined as “the tendency to unite oneself with someone or something external in order to regain the power lost by the individual self” (Fromm, 1941/1956, p. 163). Authoritarianism manifests itself in both masochistic and sadistic tendencies. In the masochistic form of authoritarianism, people show excessive dependence, subordination and helplessness in relationships with others. The sadistic form, on the contrary, is expressed in the exploitation of others, domination and control over them. Fromm argued that both tendencies are usually present in the same individual. For example, in a highly authoritarian military structure, a person may voluntarily obey the commands of senior officers and humiliate or brutally exploit subordinates. The second way of escape is destructiveness. Following this tendency, a person tries to overcome feelings of inferiority by destroying or conquering others. According to Fromm, duty, patriotism and love are common examples of rationalization of destructive actions.
Finally, people can overcome loneliness and alienation through absolute obedience to social norms governing behavior. Fromm applied the term automaton conformity to a person who uses this strategy, due to which he becomes absolutely like everyone else and behaves in a generally accepted way. “The individual ceases to be himself; he turns into the type of personality required by the cultural model, and therefore becomes absolutely like others - the way they want him to be” (Fromm, 1941/1956, p. 208). Fromm believed that such a loss of individuality was firmly rooted in the social character of most modern people. Like animals with protective coloration, people with automaton conformity become indistinguishable from their surroundings. They share the same values, pursue the same career goals, purchase the same products, and think and feel like almost everyone in their culture.
According to Fromm, in contrast to the three listed mechanisms of escape from freedom, there is also the experience of positive freedom, thanks to which one can get rid of feelings of loneliness and detachment.
Positive freedom
Fromm believed that people can be independent and unique without losing a sense of unity with other people and society. He called the type of freedom in which a person feels part of the world and at the same time does not depend on it, positive freedom. Achieving positive freedom requires people to be spontaneously active in their lives. Fromm noted that we observe spontaneous activity in children, who usually act in accordance with their inner nature, and not in accordance with social norms and prohibitions. In his book “The Art of Love” (1956/1974), one of the most famous, Fromm emphasized that love and work are the key components through which the development of positive freedom through the manifestation of spontaneous activity is achieved. Through love and work, people reconnect with others without sacrificing their sense of individuality or wholeness.
Existential human needs
So far we have said that Fromm describes human existence in terms of separation from nature and isolation from others. In addition, in his opinion, human nature contains unique existential needs. They have nothing to do with social and aggressive instincts. Fromm argued that the conflict between the desire for freedom and the desire for security represents the most powerful motivational force in people's lives (Fromm, 1973). The freedom-security dichotomy, this universal and inevitable fact of human nature, is determined by existential needs. Fromm identified five basic human existential needs.
1. The need to establish connections.
To overcome the feeling of isolation from nature and alienation, all people need to care about someone, take part in someone and be responsible for someone. The ideal way to connect with the world is through “productive love,” which helps people work together and at the same time maintain their individuality. If the need for connection is not satisfied, people become narcissistic: they defend only their own selfish interests and are unable to trust others.
2. The need to overcome.
All people need to overcome their passive animal nature in order to become active and creative creators of their lives. The optimal solution to this need lies in creation. The work of creation (ideas, art, material values or raising children) allows people to rise above the randomness and passivity of their existence and thereby achieve a sense of freedom and self-worth. The inability to satisfy this vital need is the cause of destructiveness.
3. Need for roots.
People need to feel like an integral part of the world. According to Fromm, this need arises from birth, when biological ties with the mother are severed (Fromm, 1973). Towards the end of childhood, every person gives up the security that parental care provides. In late adulthood, each person faces the reality of being cut off from life itself as death approaches. Therefore, throughout their lives, people experience a need for roots, foundations, a sense of stability and strength, similar to the feeling of security that a connection with their mother gave in childhood. Conversely, those who maintain symbiotic ties to their parents, home, or community as a way to satisfy their need for roots are unable to experience personal integrity and freedom.
4. The need for self-identity.
Fromm believed that all people experience an internal need for identity with themselves - a self-identity through which they feel different from others and realize who they are and what they really are. In short, every person should be able to say: “I am I.” Individuals with a clear and distinct awareness of their individuality perceive themselves as masters of their lives, and not as constantly following someone else's instructions. Copying someone else's behavior, even to the point of blind conformity, does not allow a person to achieve true self-identity, a sense of himself.
5. The need for a belief system and commitment.
Finally, according to Fromm, people need a stable and constant support to explain the complexity of the world. This orientation system is a set of beliefs that allow people to perceive and comprehend reality, without which they would constantly find themselves stuck and unable to act purposefully. Fromm particularly emphasized the importance of developing an objective and rational view of nature and society (Fromm, 1981). He argued that a rational approach is absolutely necessary for maintaining health, including mental health.
People also need an object of devotion, a dedication to something or someone (a higher goal or God), which would be the meaning of life for them. Such dedication makes it possible to overcome an isolated existence and gives meaning to life.
Viewing human needs in an economic-political context, Fromm argued that the expression and satisfaction of these needs depends on the type of social conditions in which the individual lives. In essence, the opportunities that a particular society provides for people to satisfy their existential needs shape their personality structure—what Fromm called “basic character orientations.” Moreover, in Fromm's theory, like Freud's, a person's character orientations are viewed as stable and not changing over time.
Social character types
Fromm identified five social character types that prevail in modern societies (Fromm, 1947). These social types, or forms of establishing relationships with others, represent the interaction of existential needs and the social context in which people live. Fromm divided them into two large classes: unproductive (unhealthy) and productive (healthy) types. The category of unproductive ones includes receptive, exploiting, accumulating and market types of character. The category of productive represents the type of ideal mental health in Fromm’s understanding. Fromm noted that none of these character types exists in a pure form, since unproductive and productive qualities are combined in different people in different proportions. Consequently, the influence of a given social character type on mental health or illness depends on the ratio of positive and negative traits manifested in the individual.
Receptive types
are convinced that the source of everything good in life is outside of themselves. They are openly dependent and passive, unable to do anything without help, and think that their main task in life is to be loved rather than to love. Receptive individuals can be characterized as passive, trusting and sentimental. In extremes, people with a receptive orientation can be optimistic and idealistic.
Operating types
take whatever they need or dream of through force or ingenuity. They, too, are incapable of creativity, and therefore achieve love, possession, ideas and emotions by borrowing all this from others. The negative traits of an exploitative character are aggressiveness, arrogance and self-confidence, self-centeredness and a tendency to seduce. Positive qualities include self-confidence, self-esteem and impulsiveness.
Accumulating types
trying to possess as much material wealth, power and love as possible; they strive to avoid any attempts on their savings. Unlike the first two types, “hoarders” gravitate toward the past and are scared off by everything new. They resemble Freud's anal-retentive personality: rigid, suspicious and stubborn. According to Fromm, they also have some positive characteristics - forethought, loyalty and restraint.
Market type
comes from the belief that personality is valued as a commodity that can be sold or profitably exchanged. These people are interested in maintaining a good appearance, meeting the right people, and are willing to demonstrate any personality trait that would increase their chances of success in selling themselves to potential customers. Their relationships with others are superficial, their motto is “I am what you want me to be” (Fromm, 1947, p. 73).
In addition to being extremely aloof, market orientation can be described by the following key personality traits: opportunistic, aimless, tactless, unscrupulous, and empty-handed. Their positive qualities are openness, curiosity and generosity. Fromm viewed the “market” personality as a product of modern capitalist society, formed in the USA and Western European countries.
In contrast to the unproductive orientation, the productive nature
represents, from Fromm’s point of view, the ultimate goal in human development. This type is independent, honest, calm, loving, creative and performs socially useful actions. Fromm's work shows that he viewed this orientation as a response to the contradictions of human existence inherent in society (Fromm, 1955, 1968). It reveals a person’s ability for productive logical thinking, love and work. Through productive thinking, people learn who they are and therefore free themselves from self-deception. The power of productive love enables people to passionately love all life on Earth (biophilia). Fromm defined biophilia in terms of caring, responsibility, respect, and knowledge. Finally, productive work provides the ability to produce the necessities of life through creative self-expression. The result of the manifestation of all the above forces, which are characteristic of all people, is a mature and holistic character structure.
Essentially, productive orientation in Fromm’s humanistic theory is the ideal state of a person. Hardly anyone has achieved all the characteristics of a productive personality. At the same time, Fromm was convinced that as a result of radical social reform, the productive orientation could become the dominant type in any culture. Fromm envisioned a perfect society as one in which basic human needs are satisfied (Fromm, 1968). He called this society humanistic communal socialism.
Fromm's theory attempts to show how broad sociocultural influences interact with unique human needs in the process of personality formation. His fundamental thesis was that character structure (personality types) is related to certain social structures. In keeping with the humanist tradition, he also argued that radical social and economic change could create a society in which both individual and social needs could be satisfied.
Unfortunately, most of Fromm's theoretical beliefs, especially his theory of character development, were formulated so globally that they are beyond empirical study. In fact, very few such attempts have been made (Maccoby, 1981, 1988). Case studies and observations of other cultures provide the only source of support for his concept. Nevertheless, Fromm's books have not lost their popularity both in professional circles and among ordinary readers around the world. Countless people find his compelling and thought-provoking commentary on a wide range of social issues relevant to our time.
Love concept
Fromm separated his concept of love from popular concepts to such an extent that his reference to it became almost paradoxical. He considered love to be an interpersonal, creative capacity rather than an emotion, and he distinguished this creativity from what he saw as the various forms of narcissistic neuroses and sadomasochistic tendencies that are usually cited as evidence of "true love." Indeed, Fromm views the experience of "falling in love" as evidence of an inability to comprehend the true nature of love, which he believed always has elements of care, responsibility, respect and knowledge. He also argued that few people in modern society respect the autonomy of other people, much less objectively know their real needs and needs.
Links to the Talmud
Fromm often illustrated his main ideas with examples from the Talmud, but his interpretation is far from traditional. He used the story of Adam and Eve as an allegorical explanation of human biological evolution and existential angst, arguing that when Adam and Eve ate from the “tree of knowledge,” they realized that they were separate from nature while still being part of it. Adding a Marxist perspective to the story, he interpreted Adam and Eve's disobedience as justifiable rebellion against an authoritarian God. Man's destiny, according to Fromm, cannot depend on any participation of the Almighty or any other supernatural source, but only through his own efforts can he take responsibility for his life. In another example, he mentions the story of Jonah, who was unwilling to save the people of Nineveh from the consequences of their sin, as evidence of the belief that most human relationships lack care and responsibility.
Fromm's uncompromising humanism
Fromm characterized his philosophical and ideological position as radical humanism. His radicalism was expressed in the rejection of any superhuman attitudes, demands and goals. Fromm insisted that production, education, politics and culture should not work for the purposes of the economy, state or society, but only to satisfy human needs and alleviate human suffering. Only man in his entirety is the highest value, and his main task is to establish such relationships with others that can be characterized as love, that is, unconditional acceptance of the other and his self-esteem as a person in all its manifestations.
At the same time, Fromm argues in his works that instrumental rather than personal relationships prevail between people, when, in the eyes of the subject, the other is not at all different from the tool or function that he performs. By equating a person with a function (taxi driver, worker, medical personnel, housewife), the subject ceases not only to perceive him as a person, but also to see him as a living person.
As one of the reasons for this situation, Fromm points to the existential problem of human existence in modern society - the problem of freedom. The philosophical and scientific concepts of Freud, Marx and others revealed the deep foundations of human and social behavior and freed it from the shackles of “predestination”, fate and the influence of supernatural or unpredictable forces. Thus, man gained freedom. But this is “freedom from” or negative freedom. It takes a person out of the influence of prevailing conditions, but leaves him alone before the complex and uncontrollable world of social relations, which begins to impose itself on him. In the absence of reference points and out of fear of taking responsibility for one’s own decisions, a person tries to escape freedom, which is expressed in various forms of social existence.
In totalitarian societies, the individual submits himself to an external force, such as the authority of a leader, while in market societies, on the contrary, he tries to integrate into this external force, to become part of it (for example, when a person works, he positions himself as a profitable “commodity” ).
Humanistic credo
In an addendum to his book The Human Soul: Its Capacity for Good and Evil, Fromm wrote part of his famous humanistic credo. In his opinion, a person who chooses progress can find a new unity through the development of all his human powers, which is carried out in three directions. They can be presented separately or together as love of life, humanity and nature, as well as independence and freedom.
Fromm's philosophical concept
Let's take a closer look at Fromm's philosophical concept to understand what makes his work so interesting to both professionals and non-specialists, and what his personal contribution to philosophy is.
He worked mainly as a reformer of psychoanalysis. Fromm is an insightful and deep psychologist who was able to reveal the origins of human passions and the motives of human behavior. He gave a historical dimension to psychoanalysis. When Fromm analyzed the possibilities of human emancipation, he demonstrated a rich sociological imagination. He explored the subtle mechanisms of the psyche against the backdrop of a multidimensional socio-historical context.
Fromm wrote: “I have never agreed to be assigned to the new “school” of psychoanalysis, whatever it may be called, the “cultural school” or “neo-Freudianism.” I am convinced that these schools produced valuable results, but some of them overshadowed many of Freud's discoveries. I'm definitely not an "orthodox Freudian." After all, a theory that has not changed for 60 years is, for this very reason, no longer the original theory of its creator, but a fossilized repetition of an earlier one, and as such actually becomes a relation. Freud carried out his fundamental discoveries in a very specific philosophical system, the system of mechanistic materialism, the adherents of which were the majority of natural scientists at the beginning of our century. I believe that Freud's ideas need to be developed further in another philosophical system, namely the system of dialectical humanism."
How did Fromm's reformation of psychoanalysis manifest itself? Firstly, unlike Freud, he understood human nature primarily as historically determined, without downplaying the role of biological factors. He rejected Freud's view that the human problem could properly be formulated in terms of biological and cultural factors (The Greatness and Limitations of Freud's Thought, NY, 1980, last year).
Freud believed that man is a closed system, “a thing in itself.” In his opinion, nature has endowed man with certain biologically determined drives, and personality development serves as a response to the satisfaction or disappointment of these drives. Fromm, on the other hand, showed that the main approach to the study of human personality should be an understanding of a person’s relationship to the world, to other people, to nature, and to himself. In his opinion, man is essentially a social being. Consequently, the key problem of psychology is not in revealing the mechanism of satisfaction or disappointment of individual impulses, but in man's relationship to the world.
The difference between Freud's biological approach and Fromm's social thought is significant and radical. Freud understood the role of unconscious psychosexual energy in human life. He rightly emphasized that this affects all areas of personal activity, both emotional and intellectual. According to Fromm, disappointment or eroticism in themselves does not lead to the fixation of corresponding attitudes in a person’s personality. The meaning of fantasies and bodily sensations lies not in pleasure or exaltation, but in the fact that they express a specific attitude towards the world around us.
Political ideas
The culmination of Erich Fromm's social and political philosophy was his book The Healthy Society, published in 1955. In it he argued in favor of humanistic democratic socialism. Drawing primarily on the early work of Karl Marx, Fromm sought to reemphasize the ideal of personal freedom absent from Soviet Marxism and more commonly found in the writings of libertarian socialists and liberal theorists. His socialism rejected both Western capitalism and Soviet communism, which he saw as a dehumanizing, bureaucratic social structure that led to the almost universal modern phenomenon of alienation. He became one of the founders of socialist humanism, promoting the early writings of Marx and his humanist messages to the US and Western European publics. In the early 1960s, Fromm published two books on Marx's ideas (Marx's Concept of Man and Beyond Enslaving Illusions: My Encounter with Marx and Freud). Working to stimulate Western and Eastern cooperation between Marxist humanists, in 1965 he published a collection of articles entitled Socialist Humanism: An International Symposium.
The following quote from Erich Fromm is popular: “Just as mass production requires the standardization of goods, the social process requires the standardization of man, and this standardization is called equality.”
Neo-Freudianism as a new word in psychoanalysis
Neo-Freudianism, which Fromm represents along with K. Horney, H. Sullivan and others, is one of the interesting trends in modern American philosophy and psychology that emerged in the late 1930s as a result of a combination of psychoanalysis with American sociological and ethnographic theories. Shifting the emphasis from intrapsychic processes to interpersonal relationships, neo-Freudianism interprets psychological norms as an individual's adaptation to the social environment. Rejecting Freud's doctrines of libido and sublimation, neo-Freudianism sees in the unconscious a connection between social and psychic structures. A characteristic feature of neo-Freudianism is the “sociologization” of psychology and, conversely, the psychologization of social phenomena themselves.
Erich Fromm based his ideas on the works of Marx and Freud. He supported Freud's theory of the importance of the unconscious, while emphasizing Marx's ideas about the importance of society in shaping personality. Erich Fromm considered society the most important factor in the normal formation of personality. According to Fromm, society includes not only a person’s immediate environment, but also the social order in which he lives. Based on Marx's ideas about the emergence of alienation under capitalism, Fromm understood this as the psychological alienation of people from their peers.
Fromm believed that two unconscious needs of the individual - to be accepted in society, to have common values and views with society (the need for rooting) and freedom of action, departure from society, from moral requirements (the need for individualization) - are the driving forces that constantly shape internal conflict and force the individual to develop. Finding a compromise between these two needs benefits not only the individual, but also the entire society. It is very difficult to reconcile these conflicting needs - when individualization dominates, a person soon begins to feel the need for roots, for belonging to society, it is too difficult for him to be free. When the need for rooting is completely satisfied, a person loses face. As an example, Fromm cited the rise of fascism and the socialist system, which set patterns of human behavior.
Fromm explained this problem by saying that when a person strives for freedom and achieves it, he does not know what to do with it. Fromm argues that the only correct desire for freedom is the desire for freedom for the sake of a cause. That is, it is not the desire for complete freedom, but independence from certain factors that prevents a person from achieving some goal. The desire for such freedom and goal achievement cannot be burdensome for a person; he enjoys this freedom, and it does not make him want to gain a foothold. Fromm called love the main goal to which a person strives for the sake of this freedom. Moreover, he put a broad meaning into this concept: the desire to be with his loved ones, to do what he loves, and so on. In connection with this understanding of love as the most important goal in human life, Fromm emphasized the need for a new society based on universal love - “humanistic idealism.”
Participation in politics
Erich Fromm's biography is marked by his periodic active participation in US politics. He joined the US Socialist Party in the mid-1950s and did everything he could to help it represent a viewpoint different from the prevailing "McCarthyism" of the time, which was best expressed in his 1961 article "Can Man Prevail?" A Study of Fact and Fiction in Foreign Policy.” However, Fromm, as a co-founder of SANE, saw his greatest political interest in the international peace movement, the fight against the nuclear arms race and US involvement in the Vietnam War. After Eugene McCarthy's candidacy failed to receive Democratic Party support in the 1968 presidential nomination, Fromm left the American political scene, although in 1974 he wrote an article for hearings held by the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations entitled " Remarks on the policy of détente."
Heritage
Fromm did not leave a noticeable mark in the field of psychoanalysis. His desire to substantiate Freud's theory with empirical data and methods was better succeeded by other psychoanalysts such as Erik Erikson and Anna Freud. Fromm is sometimes cited as the founder of neo-Freudianism, but he had little influence on the movement's followers. His ideas in psychotherapy had success in the field of humanistic approaches, but he criticized Carl Rogers and others to such an extent that he isolated himself from them. Fromm's theories are not usually discussed in personality psychology textbooks.
His influence on humanistic psychology was significant. His work has inspired many social analysts. An example is Christopher Lasch's The Culture of Narcissism, which continues efforts to psychoanalyze culture and society in the neo-Freudian and Marxist traditions.
His sociopolitical influence ended with his involvement in American politics in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Nevertheless, Erich Fromm's books are constantly being rediscovered by scholars who are individually influenced by them. In 1985, 15 of them founded the International Society named after him. The number of its members exceeded 650 people. The Society is dedicated to encouraging scientific work and research based on the work of Erich Fromm.
