ERICH FROMM

A guide to Erich Fromm Biography Personality Orientations The New, Sane Society Links Suggested Reading Personality Type Tables Interview

Erich Fromm was arguably one of the most penetrating psychoanalysts of the 20th century. He contributed a lot to the field, especially in his seminal piece, "Escape from Freedom." In this work he describes how man is confronted with the problem of his own detatchment from nature, leaving him naked and alone. He argues that man, with his superior intelligence recognizes his own existance as well as this split and looks for ways in which he may once again become one with nature and what he is to do with his newfound knowledge of himself.

Fromm drew upon the works of Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx as primary influences on his social and psychological theories, developing penetrating theories on concepts such as alienation, submissiveness, love and freedom. He used religious texts to explain and relate many of his theories. His Ideas on religion were also heavily influenced by Ludwig Feuerbach, a student of Hegel, and Fromm cites Feuerbach's works often. In his last major works he expanded on theories developed in "Escape from Freedom," describing a death drive and the conflict between having and being.

His concepts of Marx's theories led him to become a socialist humanist, and he worked with many peace movements such as The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy (SANE), which he co-founded. Fromm was always concerned with the nuclear arms race and mentioned its' dangers often in his works.

Purpose The purpose of this portion of my site will be to create a comphrehensive guide to the ideas and works of Erich Fromm, and to provide links to a wide array of online resources which serve this end. Ideally, I hope that this will serve to disseminate his ideas and provide a greater understanding of his life and ideas. This end is of particular interest to me due to the affect that his works have had on my life since I was 15 and because his penetrating, humanist analysis of the issues he confronted seem to lead to more productive, sane solutions to the problems rather than divisive and destructive answers, like most of our world leaders promote today.

Biography Erich Fromm was born in Frankfurt, Germany on March 23, 1900. His family was Orthodox Jewish, which may explain his deep interest in the Talmud. He does not describe his family life as a good one, his mother suffering from depression and his father was cold.

Perhaps the most compelling event that would lead him to study human nature occurred when he was only 12. At that age, he witnessed a painter he describes in his autobiography as "beautiful, attractive, and in addtion a painter" commit suicide when her own father died. More surprising to Fromm was that she stipulated in her will that she wanted to be buried with her father. Later, he describes, he was frighted by the warmongering in Germany at the start of the first World War.

Erich Fromm began studying law at the University of Frankfurt am Main in 1918. That Summer he started studying Sociology at the University of Heidelberg under Max Weber's brother, Alfred Weber. He Received his Ph.D. in 1922 and studied Psychoanalysis at the Psychoanalytical Institute in Berlin until 1930. In the meantime, he had officially withdrawn from his Jewish faith in 1926, though the Old Testament and the Talmud would remain central themes in his works and studies. He started his own practice in 1930, but only 4 years later the Nazi threat forced him to flee to New York, where he stayed for 20 years and wrote "Escape from Freedom" and "Man For Himself." In 1950 he moved to Mexico City and became a professor at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. He established a psychoanalytic section at the university's medical school. He also taught at Michigan State University and New York University until 1965 when he "retired." He moved to Switzerland and continued his medical practice until his death 5 days before his 80th birthday.

Personality Orientations Erich Fromm described 6 major personality orientations: receptive, exploitative, hoarding, marketing, productive and necrophilous. The first four are pathological and self-destructive, while the fifth represents a positive and open personality. The last one is the lover of death, which opposes the rest: while all the others are attempts at defining and understanding life, necrophilia attempts to destroy life. These personalities were first discussed in "Man for Himself" and Expanded on in "To Have or to Be?," "The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness" and others. If you'd like, you can take a test to see which one you might fit under (don't take it literally, only a professional analysis can give you an idea of how you think, and most people are a blend of these types anyways!). He also used tables to describe the various orientations, which you can see here.

Receptive orientation: The receptive individual is characterized by a heavy lack of creativity. These people tend to expect things which they desire to come to them and rarely feel confidant in their own abilities. The receptive character is usually very quiet, and finds it hard to make his or her own decisions, relying on the input of others. Often, these people find themselves seeking a parental figure who may take care of them; they tend to be those children that never grew up. Families with an overbearing, controlling nature often produce people like this. Often the parents either make no attempt to teach their children how to mature, or the children are simply given everything they request without question. Poor, heavily controlled populations such as in feudal Europe can generate a lot of these people.

Exploitative orientation:The exploitative character manipulates others to get his way. These people love to lead, and sometimes disdain those that they feel are below them. Exploitative people are confident in their image and tend to support authority - as long as it works for them. To these people, taking from others is often more an end than the possession that is gained. Exploitative people have a hopeless alliance with their victims: they are at once enemies and at the same time the exploiter needs them and identifies his own person in relation to how he is able to manipulate the victim. These people hate themselves as much as those that they take advantage of. These people are the ruling class: by either necessity to maintain class or learned motive, they create a fantasy where they are more than one person, losing themselves in the process.

Hoarding orientation: The hoarding character views the world as possessions: people are possessed, ideas are possessed, love is possessed. This kind of person cannot bear losing these "possessions," and relates to them to such a degree that they are their possessions. The hoarder is a conservative: they cannot stand for their environment to be disturbed, and would rather have it be destroyed than become foreign. He cannot stand a lack of order, in the material organization of his life or in his punctuality. This personality finds release from his or her problems by hostility towards the problem or a gradual acceptance and loyalty to the problem. In making the world an object, the creative faulties of the person to relate to the world become irrelevant. In other words, the apparent lifelessness of the hoarder's world creates an atmosphere in which activity is either alienating or possessive and suspicious. "...to them, death and destruction have more reality than life and growth." Fromm describes their orientation as believing that "there is nothing new under the sun."(Man for Himself, Pg. 67)

Marketing orientation: The marketing orientation describes the mindset in which a man perpetally molds himself into society's image in order to fit the expected norms of society. He sees the world as a marketplace, where new symbolizes good and desirous, wheras old becomes ugly and useless to him. Fromm described this mindset as saying, "new is beautiful," as opposed to the historical mindset which has been one of keeping and maintaining possessions for later, commodity oriented use: "old is beautiful." Marketing characters exhibit signs of extreme conformity and solve their problems as if they were simply manifestations of the market. These people look for mates as commodities to be scrutinized for positive traits which may have little to do with love, and create barriers between themselves and others defined by abstractions such as religiosity, monetary value and social status. Families which own or manage businesses or encourage conformity and a scholastic focus on the job market - that is, most families in industirialized nations today - tend to create marketing characters. This personality, Fromm said, only started to emerge with contemporary society and its focus on marketability.

Necrophilous orientation: This kind of person stands alone from the others in that he, instead of attempting to find a solution to life, seeks to destroy it. These people are often fascinated by death, and find war and destruction as not necessary, but desireable. These people have escaped entirely from the problem of man's seperation of nature and his knowledge of hisself. He points to the spanish general Milln Astray's motto, "Viva la Muerte!" and criticism by Miguel de Unamuno, describing the general's words as "a necrophilous and senseless cry." The necrophiliac not only responds to life with destruction, but experiences life itself as

death. He sees the world as dead and inanimate, devoid of joyful prospects and fully hopeless. You will find the Necrophiliac speaking heavily in terms of feces, destruction and toilets (Fromm notes that "shit" has become a widespread term, but that it is easy enough to discern those who use in convention as opposed to those who use it due to necrophilic tendancies).(The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, p.368) Another characteristic of the necrophiliac character is his mechanistic character. The necrophile finds more joy in mechanical, lifeless activity and entities than in living, dynamic entities. In this way there is much similarity to the Hoarding character; however, the difference remains that he is not simply a conservative, who wants to maintain the current order of his life and defend against the outside, living world, but seeks to destroy those external entities.

Productive orientation: This is, to fromm, the "man without a mask." He has found a legitimate solution to life, and that is to learn to contintually relate and become one with the world and its dilemmas, thus solving the problem of his disassociation from nature and his knowledge of the self. He also draws a relation to his "spontaneous" character which he described in "Escape from Freedom," who is not chained by the artificial and unrealistic compulsions of social domination, but finds himself rationally and personally responding to problems. This character has managed to escape the confines of dogmatic, staic ideology and finds his ideas continually challenged and is not afraid to change them. By becoming one with his ideas, their health becomes more relevant, and he no longer feels as if they are a static possession, but a tool that if seen to be false must be revised. The productive individual has also learned to love truly; while other personalities find awys to escape love and distance themselves, the productive man has no fear of accepting things and peopel for who they are and loving them accordingly. He recognizes that to love one person you must love all, because the essential nature of man is by and large universal; if one loves a person for not being racist and they wake up tomorrow, has that love truly been real? The productive man is also the man of the future; in Fromm's eye's he is Marx's new man. Because he can become one with the external world and his fellow man, he finds relating to others and relieving alienation a simple process that simply follows in his nature. By calling him the "man without a mask," Fromm is in fact saying that at heart we are all socialists, or even communists!

The New, Sane Society Fromm Also describes 8 essential characteristics of a new society which is largely populated by people with the Productive Orientation.

-Solutions to problems of economic change that do not lead to centraalization or fascism -A combination of planning and decentralization which gives up the "free market myth" -Giving up the obsession with unlimited growth in the stead of selective, humanistic growth -Work conditions which do not motivate by greed, but by productive, enriching drives such as compassion and need -Further scientific progress but prevent it from becoming a threat to the human race (i.e. Nuclear arms) -People experience joy and health without the "maximum pleasure drive" -Basic security but a lack of dependance on a central bureaucratic system -An arise in "individual initiative," much like that of the homesteaders.

"National Council of the Voice of the American Conscience" Erich Fromm attempted, with the 1968 printing of "The Revolution of Hope," to organize a movement for a more humanistic society, and described its potential formation. He asked readers to send in suggestions on a form cut out from the last page of the book itself.

External Links: Wanted: An Erich Fromm Party - an interesting article from The Guardian Neil McLaughlin: Origin Myths in the Social Sciences: Fromm, the Frankfurt School and the Emergence of Critical Theory - extremely good article on the split between Fromm and the Frankfurt Institute Hugh Gillilan: "In Appreciation"

Suggested Reading / Bibliography: "To Have Or To Be?" - This is my favorite; he describes the modes of having as opposed to those of being, and explains how class society has created a mentality of possessiveness and a relationship with oneself as manifested chiefly as a

relationship with possessions, and not the self. "Escape from Freedom" - This was the work that made him so well - known. He descibes authoritarian, passive and spontaneous personalities and describes how people subsume their personalities into dehumanizing entities through activities like nationalism and religion. His spontaneous character is what he based his productive character orientation on. "The Art Of Loving" - This is a quick read which explains Fromm's ideas on love of many things: the world, your spose, your friends, and people in general. This is probably his most popular book. "Man For Himself" - This is one of his best works, in which he describes how man subsumes his personality into certain modes of having as an escape from responsibility and freedom, and explains that a Man acting in his true interest acts in the interests of all of society. "The Sane Society" - Fromm describes the general insanity of our current culture and describes an alternative social future. "Marx's Concept Of Man" - He attempts to descirbes Karl Marx's concepts on man, society, and socialism and includes a plethora of material previously untranslated by Marx and a few others. "The Anatomy Of Human Destructiveness" - This is practically a tome of ideas; Fromm describes various forms of destructivness as they relate to the arious personality types, introduces the Necrophilous character and does an anaylsis of Hitler, among others, referencing various historical documents and journals.

Ludwig Feuerbach - "The Essence Of Christianity" - Fromm drew a lot of his ideas from Feuerbach and the book is a good read for anybody interested in Fromm, Christianity, or philosophy in general.

Victor Daniels' Website in

The Psychology Department at

Sonoma State University

Erich

Fromm

LECTURE NOTES ON ERICH FROMM (12-2-2003)

Disclaimer: In these lecture notes, posted online for the benefit of my students, I have quoted more than the usually allowable 350-450 words from The Sane Society. If any copyright holder objects, please let me know and I will stop.

OVERVIEW: Erich Fromm was one of the two twentieth-century psychologists, along with the Gestalt psychologist Kurt Lewin, who most explcitly applied their psychological ideas to an analysis of society. Others who did so, but not in such a thoroughgoing manner, included Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Paolo Freire. I think it reasonable to say that in a real sense, all these figures were not only psychologists but also social philosophers. The scope and compass of Fromm's own thinking and investigations is nothing short of astonishing.

"Neo-Freudian." Fromm was given this label along with Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, & Harry Stack Sullivan. All four members of this group were far more concerned with social relationships than the orthodox psychoanaolysts.

A bridge theorist. Like Adler and Horney, Fromm ccan be regarded as a "bridge theorist" between psychoanalysis and humanistic psychology. At the same time, he undertook a far more thorough psychological analysis of society than any humanistic psychologist.,

A basic theme in Fromm's thought: We feel lonely and isolated because we have become separated from nature and from other human beings.

MINI- BIOGRAPHICAL

Fromm was born in 1900 in Frankfurt. Doctorate from University of Heidelberg. Psychoanalytic training at Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute. Also studied at the University o. Munich. He held a doctorate in sociology as well as being a trained psychoanalyst.

Came to U.S. in 1933, first at Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, then moved to New York City. Started a private practice. Began to recognize that what was going on in the culture and the society affects people in dramatic ways.

His first wife was the noted psychoanalyst Frieda Fromm-Reichmann.After her death he married Karen Horney. Both these women were around 15 years older than

Fromm and were a real sense mentors. Eventually he and Horney came to a parting of the ways. The two had a strong and noticeable influence on each other. Horney's personality typology can be seen within Fromm's later, more fully developed typology, as can her stress on awareness.

Fromm spent a considerable share of his latter career in Mexico. Profoundly influenced Mexican psychology. When I did a tour of Mexican psychology departments in 1976, there were three principal schools: Psychoanalytic, especially at the Universidad Nacional; behaviorist, especially at the Universidad de Jalapa; and Frommian, especially at the Universidad de Puebla. (There was also a humanistic emphasis, both in the Universidad de Yucatan and the Jesuit Universidad Iberoamericana, which is sort of the Harvard of Mexico.)

Fromm moved to Switzerland in 1976,and died in 1980, 6 days before his 80th birthday. (Karen Horney had died in 1952). For much more information about his life, see the three items at the top of the Erich Fromm Links page.

EARLY INFLUENCES. Early influences on Fromm included Freud's instinct theory. The part of it that most influenced Fromm was the idea that the person was driven from within and without, and Freud's emphasis on aggressive drives. Socialist thought also influenced Fromm. For a time he was a member of the "Frankfurt School" of "Marxist-Freudians," called Critical Theory in Sociology, but eventually lost popularity there because they considered him too humanistic and not sufficiently committed to the idea of economic determinism. He was influenced by Marx's analysis of the kind of capitalism that makes people into objects. Indeed, Fromm held that the full spiritual development of the human being and society were the central items to consider, and that economics should serve that end. He also provides, in The Sane Society, the best mini-history of socialist thought that I have seen, an incisive critique of how its spiritual essence was lost both in Soviet Communism and also in Western European materialistic socialism, and an analysis of how Marx's own writings paved the way for their misinterpretation and misuse by Lenin and Stalin. If you're interested in spending an hour actually finding a little out for yourself about socialist thought, this is a penetrating and fascinating historical analysis.

AN "EXISTENTIAL DICHOTOMY." This is like an existential dilemma with an additional dimension. It refers to a problem that has no solution because none of the alternatives it presents is fully satisfactory. We desire immortanity, but face death. We desire a certain kind of world, but find the world into which we were born unsatisfactory. Existential dichotomies are an inescapable part of life. Gregory Bateson's concept of the "double bind" is very close. The difference is that with the double bind, both options lead to some kind of painful or punishing experience. It is akin to Kurt Lewin's "avoidance-avoidance conflict."

FREEDOM IN MEDIEVAL AND MODERN SOCIETY.(Primary reference: Escape from Freedom.)Freedom was another central interest for Fromm, both from internal drives and also from external compulsions. Fromm did not take freedom lightly

"What characterizes medieval society...is its lack of individual freedom. Everyone is chained to his role in the social order. Had to stay where born. Personal, economic, and social life are dominated by rules and obligations. But although the person was not free, neither was he alone and isolated. Was rooted in a socialized whole. Life had a meaning which left no place for doubt. A person was identical with his role. Roles. Today we like to say we're a person first, and the role comes second. In the old day's one's place was given. In medieval times the knight was as locked into a role as the peasant. He was a vassal of the kingdom. He couldn't change his role, make a choice. By contrast, in modern society we're not sure what our role is. In a sense, freedom is scary. We are isolated, alone, and afraid. Capitalism and freedom. Capitalism contributed to the growth of freedom, to a critical, responsible self. It also made people more alone. Put the individual entirely on his own feet. Furthered the process of individualization. The more man gains freedom, the more he becomes an individual. Escape from making choices. Much of Fromm's work had to do with how a person tries to escape from having to choose. We try to get the other person, or the institution, to take action for us. But this alienates us from our own power and responsiveness. (Erik Erikson talks about choice a little differently, linking it to his central interest, identity. One of his stages has to do with purpose. We have to struggle with what our purpose is. What am I going to do with this? What's my purpose?) MECHANISMS OF ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM

Authoritarianism. Submission or domination. In masochistic form, we allow others to dominate us. In sadistic form, we try to dominate and control the behavior of others. A common feature of authoritarianism is the belief that one's life is determined by forces outside oneself, one's interests, or one's wishes, and the only way to be happy is to submit to those forces. The authoritarian submits to those who are higher up and steps on those who are below. Destructiveness. "The destruction of the world is the last, almost desperate attempts to save myself from being crushed by it." Destructiveness is often rationalized as love, duty, conscience, or patriotism. Automaton Conformity. . People cease to be themselves and adopt the type of personality proffered by their culture. Fromm notes a similarity between his mechanisms of escape and Horney's neurotic trends, but her emphasis was on anxiety and his was on isolation. IDOLATRY. In idolatry we bow down and submit to the projection of one partial quality in ourselves. We do not experience ourselves "as the center from whcih living acts of love and reason radiate. We and our neighbors become things. Many contemporary religions have basically regressed into idolatry. "Man projects his power of love and of reason unto God; he does not feel them any more as his own powers, and then he prays to God to give hom back some of what he has projected onto God."

The same phenomenon occurs "in the worshipping submission to a political leader, or to the state.. . . It makes little difference by what names this idol is known: state, class, collective, or what else."

ALIENATION. We can be alienated from society, from each other, or from ourselves. The alienated personality loses much of his or her sense of self, since this sense of self comes from experiencing myself as the subject of my experiences, my thoughts, my emotions, my decisions, and my actions.

We can fully fathom the nature of alienation only by considering the routinization of modern life and our repression of awareness of the basic problems of human existence.

We can fulfill ourself only if we stay in touch with the basic facts of existence, from love and solidarity to our aloneness and the fragmentary character of our lives.

AUTHORITY. Much of the authority in the mid-20th century has changed its character from overt authority to anonymous, invisible, alienated authority. "Who can attack the invisible? Who can rebel against Nobody?"

"Parents do not give commands any more; they suggest that the child 'will want to do this.'"

With overt authority there was conflict. and rebellion against irrational authority. "But if I am not aware of submitting or rebelling, if I am ruled by an anonymous authority, I lose the sense of self, I become a "one," a part of the "It."

Anonymous authority operates through the mechanism of conformity. I must not be different, not "stick out." I must be ready to change when the pattern changes. I don't ask whether I'm right or wrong, but whether I'm "adjusted." "Nobody has power over me, except the herd of which I am a part, yet to which I am subjected."

CHARACTER (In Wilhelm Reich's sense--not in the sense of someone who is honest and trustworthy.)

Difficult to change. Character is not just how we make a decision in the moment about what we do or don't do. It's not will. Something stronger is at work which is much stronger than will or resolve. a. We are creatures of habit. We can put ourselves on autopilot so we self-correct in accord with our accustomed programs. Character includes what's passed on by previous generations, both through learning and genetics. There is an interplay between the genetic factor and the society in which we find ourselves growing up. Character is the whole of all that. It is something shaped quite early by what takes pplace in a family, community, society,

and genetic factors, moved in the direction in which the culture pushes. c. Character takes different turns: PRODUCTIVE ORIENTATIONS and UNPRODUCTIVE ORIENTATIONS. THE PRODUCTIVE CHARACTER -- central for Fromm. Character is so ingrained that it's very difficult to change, but if we understand what's happening, there is some room for movement. (There is some similarity between Fromm's types and Adler's "style of life." As a person does things, he or she has a certain way of going about it.) Most of the people with whom we are involved in social relationships don't want us to change, because we're predictable and they know how to relate to us. The productive orientation is "the active and creative relatedness of man to his fellow man, to himself, and to nature." Love is an aspect of this. This is an obvious historical progression from Alfred Adler's "socially interested person." THE FOUR NONPRODUCTIVE PERSONALITY ORIENTATIONS.(Primary reference: Man for Himself). All these nonproductive orientations are an escape from freedom --an attempt to avoid taking responsibility for ourselves. Yet we all have some degree of each of these orientations. They can be positive or negative, depending on their nature and extremity.

The receptive orientation. When extreme, the receptive orientation is the victim personified. The done-to who is not a doer. But in a subtle way they may manipulate. [In medieval times, Fromm points out, we wouldn't worry about this, but would just be whatever our social class said we would be.] The hopeful aspect is that all these types can be transformed into something more positive. For example, passivity can become acceptance. An overly submissive person may move into devotion, commitment. This can be different from the submissive quality of just taking in what the authority says without chewing on it. It may become a realistic loyalty. The person with unrealistic perceptions may become more realistic. Can develop ideals that can move them toward action in the world.

The exploitive orientation. Sometimes referred to as narcissistic. Expects to take, to grab, to snatch away from others. I'm gonna go out and get mine despite you. The world is not a safe place, I want to keep from the wolf from the door. This person feels they have to steal what they get. Pretty aggressive. One woman was an incest victim. The mother was cold and frightened. The father turned to his daughter and had an incestuous sexual relationship for about 8 years, until at age 16 she found the strength to say, "No more." This experience had such a destructive effect on her that the only way she could have a relationship with another man was to take him away from another woman. Somehow she took it on that she had taken her father

away from her mother. The exploiter does not creat ideas but steals, plagiarizes them. Tends to be aggressive, egocentric, arrogant, seducing, conceited.

The hoarding orientation. Strives to accumulate possessions, power, love, and avoid disposing of any of these. Tight, constipated, squinty. Demands order, neatness. Resembles Freud's anal-retentive character type. Likes to have something, not necessarily use it. Likes to have people in their back pocket, like politicians. Many people who lived through the Great Depression developed this character orientation. Similarly, rats that are severely deprived of food at one point will, later in their lives, engage in hoarding of large amounts of food.

The marketing orientation. The In the 1950s and 1960s Sociologist David Riesman wrote about the "other directed person." This was pretty close to what Fromm meant with the receptive individual. We need receptivity. We need to take in, to be loved, but a person may not know much about how to love. The receptive type feels that his or her central task is to be loved-- "I am the center of the universe."The marketing economy says we have to sell ourselve, make ourselves into an object, commodity.There is an bsession with "packaging," with our facade.The person with the marketing orientation aims to sell himself or herself successfully on the market. This person does not experience hismself or herself as an active agent, and to a great degree is alienated from his or her human powers. The sense of self stems from the socioeconomic role one plays. "Huiman qualities like friendliness, courtesy, kindness are transformed into commodities, into assets of the "personality package" that can bring a higher price on the personality market." A person's sense of his or her own value always depends on extraneous factors, on the fickle judgment of the market about the person's value.

Blends. In real life we always deal with blends, for a person is never exclusively one of the nonproductive orientations or the productive orientation.

From negative to positive. The nonproductive orientations can be considered to be distortions of orientations that are normal and necessary.Where you put the emphasis is important. All the negative tendencies come from an impoverished view of self and world, but a person can move towar expressing them positively. Every person must be able to accept, to take to save, and to exchange. Every person must also be able to follow authority, guide others, and assert himself. Growth is possible from a starting point of any of the orientations. You don't have to become something radically different--you can change within the context of where

you begin. So movement from a negative to a positive, productive stance is possible within the context of each orientation.So every "nonproductive orientation" has both a positive and negative aspect, depending on the degree of productiveness in the overall personality.

Receptive Orientation (Accepting)

POSITIVE ASPECT accepting responsive devoted charming adaptable polite optimistic trusting

NEGATIVE ASPECT

passive opinionless submissive parasitical unprincipled spineless

wishful thinking gullible

Exploitative Orientation (Taking) POSITIVE ASPECT active takes the initiative makes claims (and heasr those of others) proud self-confident impulsive captivating

NEGATIVE ASPECT exploitive aggressive Egocentric Conceited Arrogant rash seducing

Hoarding Orientation (Preserving)

POSITIVE ASPECT

practical economical careful reserved patient cautious steadfast, tenacious methodical loyal NEGATIVE ASPEDCT

unimaginative stingy suspicious cold lethargic anxious stubborn obsessional possessive

Marketing Orientation (Exchanging)

POSITIVE ASPECT

purposeful able to change youthful openminded experimenting efficient curious adaptable tolerant generous NEGATIVE ASPECT

opportunistic inconsistent childish unprincipled aimless overactive tactless undiscriminating indifferent wasteful

A positive expression of the marketing orientation: Organization Development consultants packaging their transformational work in different language so CEOs won't be turned off. The problem comes when you can't separate out who you are. Willy Loman IN Death of a Salesman--a classical example. Went out each day with a smile and a shoeshine. His world was what the world wanted him to be. He never

said, "I have the right to be me." When he was fired, he had no self. He had been totally identified with his role. He committed suicide.

The productive orientation. For Fromm, the highest good was the person's productive contribution to the community.Like Adler's social interest.This orientation involves working, loving, and reasoning from your center, in a way that respects both your needs and those of the other person.

Jung and Fromm: Compare Fromm's approach to personality with Jung's statement that we carry both the feminine and masculine within us, but too often pick someone to act out the other side and suppress it within ourselves. Fromm: in oneself we need to develop both the accepting and the asserting side, which is similar to Jung's ideas about developing both Anima and Animus. Fromm moved toward the humanistic model when he said that we can all move toward being who we truly are and can redefine who we think ourselves to be. We are all susceptible to the marketing ploy. But if we can get in touch with what we stand on, and for, and who we indeed are, then we might be a little less susceptible to the seduction of the marketing economy. FROMM SAID WORK INSIDE. IF YOU WANT SOMETHING, SEE WHAT IT'S A SYMBOL FOR, WHAT THE SYMBOL MEANS. THEN MAYBE YOU DON'T GET A NEW BOAT--YOU CAN WORK ON THE SYMBOL INSTEAD. Moving toward a goal outside also needs to be worked with inside. Otherwise we may end up trading in our partner or apartment for another, but then repeat the same dynmamic with the new one.

DESTRUCTIVENESS (primary ref: The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness)

Fromm identified three types of aggression

Benign Aggression (of a beneficial nature, promoting well-being) Defensive Aggression Animals--in here-and-now immediate threat. Man can forsee threat and plan for future threats based on past experience. This has both advantages and disadvantages, as in military threat buildup. Man has greater neurological capacity for creating an aggressive impulse.

Malignant Aggression. The thought behind the act is important. An intent to do harm to another. Like benign and malignant cancer, malignant aggression has a tendency to grow and get out of hand. He also identified 3 kinds of pseudo-aggression

Accidental aggression. One might hurt another without the intention to do this. Controversy around this idea in murder cases. May be unconscious motives. But we cannot necessarily assume this. Accidental aggression may or may not be due to our motives. Playful aggression. . Aim: to exercise skill. Archery, swordfighting, etc. Aggression may come out in competitiveness. Self-assertive aggression. Typifies meaning of aggression in moving toward a goal without undue hesitation, doubt, or fear. (Perls, in Gestalt therapy, emphasized this.) Freud apparently believed such aggression to be based in sexual roots. There were studies of animals injected with hormones, etc., but this didn't convince Fromm. He was more interested in society's influence.This type of aggression is necessary for a hunter to obtain prey.A person with an unimpeded sense of selfassertion is capable in avoiding threat and confronting it. A person lacking in this is likely to be shy, etc. In dealing with a lack of self-assertive aggression, it is necessary to:

Help the person become more aware of their impediment Understand how it developed. Understand what other parts of the person's character impede this energy, try to dissolve them, etc.

AGGRESSION & NARCISSISM: Narcissim involves people's great concern about how they look, etc. Wounding narcissism--a big source of aggression.

LOVE. Key line: " In the experiencee of love lies sanity."

In infancy--primary narcissism. The positive situation of warmth and food, etc.

In adulthood--secondary narcissism. Movie stars and politicians depend on public and the media to give them their sense of power and self-esteem.

INFANTILE LOVE: I am loved becaus I am loved. MATURE LOVE: I am loved because I love. IMMATURE LOVE: I love you because I need you. MATURE LOVE: I need you because I love you. FATHERLY LOVE: Conditional. It must be deserved. You must work for it. Fatherly conscience is built on his capacity to reason. MOTHERLY LOVE. Unconditional. Mother conscience is built on her own capacity to love. Love is union with someone or something while retaining the separateness and integrity of one's own self. It is "an experience of sharing and communion which permits the full unfolding of one's own inner activity. It is the experience of solidarity with our fellow creatures. What matters is the quality of loving, not the object.

The polarity of separateness and union: Out of this polarity, love is born and reborn. In loving I am one with All, and also my uniques, separate, limited self.

If I can love only one person and no one else, if my love for this person alienates and distances me from others, this is not love in its full flowering.

Productive love always includes care, responsibility, respect, and knowledge.

Care: I am actively concerned with the other's growth and happiness. I am not a spectator. Responsibility: I respond to the other's needs, both those he can express and those he cannot or does not. Respect: I relate to the other as s/he is, not distorted by my wishes and fears.

Knowledge: I know this person. I have penetrated through the surface of his being and related from my center. For a deeper look at Fromm's ideas on love, click on the following blue link to look at the excerpts from The Art of Loving

CRAFTSMANSHIP. In Medieval and Renaissance times, especially the 13th and 14th centuries, craftsmanship reached one of the peaks in the evolution of creative work. In such craftsmanship the process of creating the product being made is the center of interest. The worker controls his own working action and can use and develop his sills and capacities. "The craftsman's way of livelihood determines and infuses his entire mode of living."

After the industrial revolution began, "work, instead of being an activity satisfying in itself and pleasurable, became a duty and obsession. The more it was possible to gain riches by worka, the more iut became a pure means to the aim of wealth and success." For most ordinary people, work became "nothing but forced labor."

Fromm quotes from Thoreau's Life without Principle (1861). "Let us consider the way in which we spend our lives. This world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle! . . . I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself, than this incessant business.. . . If a man walk in the woods for love of them for half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day as a sopeculator, shearing off thos3e woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.. . . If the laborer gets more than the wages which his employer pays him, he is cheated. ...The aim of the laborer should be not to get his living...but to perform well a certain work.... Even if we grant that the American has frfeed himself from a political tyrant, he is still the slave of an economical and moral tyrant."

Nineteenth-century critics of society, like Burckhardt, Proudhon, Tolstoy, Baudelaire, Marx and Kropotkin had an essentially religious-humanistic-moral concept of man. "Man is the end, and must never be used as a means; material production is for man, not man for meterial production; the aim of life is the unfolding of man's creative powers; the aim of history is a transformation of society into one governed by justice and truth---these are the principles on which, explicitly and implicitly, all criticism of modern Capitalism was based.

Charles Fourier believes that a healthy society must help us realize our basic passion, brotherly love. He emphasizes the "need for change," which "corresponds to the many and diverse potentialities present in every human being. Work should be a pleasure."

THE BEING MODE AND HAVING MODE. (Largely from Fromm's last book, To Have and To Be, Harper, 1976).

Neurosis and society. Another important idea: Neurotic conflicts arise from needs and desires created by society

We are facing destruction of our world and humanity. For the first time in history, humanity's survival depends on a radical change of th3e human heart. This is possible only insofar as "drastic economic and social changes occur that give the human heart the chance for change and tghe vision to achieve it."Why this passivity?

The selfishness our present system generates "makes leaders value personal success more highly than social responsibility." We are no longer shocked when political leaders and business executives make decisions that benefit them "but at the same time are harmful and dangerous to the community. Indeed, if selfishness is one of the pillars of contemporary practical ethics, why should they act otherwise?" "At the same time, the general public is also so selfishly concerned with their private affairs that they pay little attention to all that transcends the personal realm." The changes that will be require for our survival are drastic, and it is uncomfortable to contemplate such a major change. "Little effort has been made to study the feasibility of entirely new social models and experiment with them."

The being and having modes. Two modes are competing for the spirit of humanity. The having mode relies on the possessions that a person has. It is the source of the lust for power and leads to isolation and fear. The being mode, which dpends solely on the fact of existence, is the source of productive love and activity and leads to solidarity and joy. Responding spontaneously and productively and having the courage to let go in order to give birth to new ideas. We are all capable of both these modes, but society determines which will dominate.

Fromm points out that both Jesus and Buddha taught that we should not crave possessions. He quotes Jesus, "For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?" Our real goal should be to be much rather than to have much. "Anthropological and psychoanalytic data tend to demonstrate that having and being are two fundamental modes of experience, the respective strengths of which determine the differences between the characters and various types of social character." War, peace, and the having mode. The idea that we can build peace while encouraging the striving for possession and profit is mistaken. Commitment to the having mode inevitably leads to perpetual war. "This is indeed an old alternative," he writes. "The leaders have chosen war and the people followed them."

Class war. "What holds true for international wars is equally true for class war. The war between classes, essentially the exploiting and the exploited, has always existed in societies that were based on the principle of greed."

"Industrial religion." Matriarchal societies are centered on the figure of the loving mother, whose principle is that of unconditional love. Motherly love is mercy and compassion. By contrast, fatherly love (expressed in patriarchal societies) is conditional; it depends on the achievements and good behavior of the child. Father's love can be lost, but regained by repentance and renewed submission. These two sides, the need for mercy and justice, coexist in every person. "The deepest yearning of human beings seeems to be a constellation in which these two poles...are united in a synthesis."

Fromm sees the Roman church as including both these elements--the Virgin and the church as all loving mother, pope and priest as fatherly. element. The relation with nature corresponded to thesee elements: the work of peasant and artisan

cooperated with nature, not raping but transforming nature. In the Protestant revolution, Martin Luther established a purely patriarchal form of Christianity, with total submission to patriarchal authority and work as the only way to get love and approval.

"Behind the Christian facade arose a new secret religion, 'industrial religion,' that is rooted in the character structure of modern society but not recognized as religion. I t" is completely incompatible with genuine Christianity. It reduceds people to servants of the economy and of the machinery that their own hands build." Elements of industrial religion:

Fear and submission to powerful male authorities A sense of guilt for disobedience Dissolution of bonds of human solidarity Supremacy of self-interest and mutual antagonism "Sacred elements" of industrial religion are work, property, profit and power. Positive elements of it: furrthering individualism and freedom, within limits. My critique of Fromm's analysis of religion and patriarchy:

By transforming Christianity into a strictly patriarchal religion it was still possible to express the industrial religion in Christian terminology," writes Fromm. I think he was fundamentally correct about the religion-economics connections of the industrial revolution. Protestantism was positive in breaking the Catholic control over almost everything, and allowing people to read the Bible themselves rather than be dependent on priests' interpretations. I think he is far too generous to the medieval and renaissance Catholic church, however, in overlooking one of history's most extreme expressions of patriarchal power as the Church carried out the inquisition and burned half a million women at stake, ALIVE, allegedly for being "witches." A "witch" was actually anyone who challenged the Roman church's power, most specifically women who worshipped the mother-goddess that was the tradition of old Europe. But like Hitler and the Jews, Stalin and anyone who opposed him, and in a milder fashion, the red-baiting in the U.S. during the 1950s, anyone the priests took a dislike to was labeled a "witch." So were many women who were loyal Catholics but whose husbands had died and left them land or other property that the Church coveted. So while Fromm's critique of the Protestant revolution is fundamentally correct, in a very real sense the Catholic Church was just as

patriarchal, and carried out a progom of terror and cruelty never approached by the Protestant churches.

Commentary on Albert Schweitzer and his examination of the contemporary decline of freedom of thought. Fromm quotes Albert Schweitzer, the Protestant theologian who was best known for his concept of "reverence for life" as the basis for ethics, on this subject. Schweitzer wrote:

"We are in a process of cultural self-destruction," Schweitzer writes. "...By a general act of will freedom of thought has been put out of function, because many give up thinking as free individuals, and are guided by the collective to which they belong. ...With the sacrifice of independence of thought we have--and how could it be otherwise--lost faith in truth." Schweitzer was a radical critic of industrial society. He debunked its myth of progress and general happiness and noted the degree of misery in which many people live. The only meaningful activity, he maintained, is activity of giving and caring for fellow creatures. Schweitzer insists that our task is "not to retire into an atmosphere of spiritual egotism, remote from the affairs of the world, but to lead an active life in which one tries to contribute to the spiritual perfection of society. He concludes that our present cultural and social structure is driving us toward a catastrophe from which only a new Renaissance "much greater than the old one will arise." He emphasizes that we must, each of us, become thinking human beings. Commentary on E.F. Schumacher. In Small is Beautiful Schumacher shows "that our failures are the result of our successes."

Infinite growth does not fit into a finite world. All great spiritual teachers have said that economy should not be the content of life. If a people neglects their inner spirit," then selfishness is the dominating power in man and a system of selfishness, like capitalism, fits this orientation better than a system of live for one's fellow human beings THE PERSON AND SOCIETY. Fromm is convince of these propositions:

Human have an essential, inborn nature.

We create society in order to fulfill this essential nature No society yet devised meets the basic needs of human existence. Therefore our lives are usually a compromise between inner needs and outer demands. It is possible to devise such a society. We can assess an entire society as insane in certain ways. Normative humanism is based on the idea that there are satisfactoryh and unsatisfactoryd solutions to the problem of human existence.

The basic human needs are the needs for: Relatedness Transcendence Rootedness Identity A frame of orientation Fromm does not hesitate to characterize a whole society as sick when it fails to satisfy the basic human needs.

Mental health occurs when people develop into full maturity. Mental illness consists of athe failure of such development. The criterion of mental health is a universeal one, valid for all, of giving a satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.

"Consensual validation" naively assumes that the fact that most people share certain ideas of feelings proves their validity. Not true. Consensual validation has no bearing on mental health. That millions share a vice does not make it a virtue, that they share many errors does not make these trueh, and that they share the same forms of mental pathology does not make them sane.

If freedom and spontaneity are not attained by the majority of people in a given society, we are dealing with a socially patterned defect.

INNER AND OUTER CHANGE IN RELIGION AND ECONOMICS." Christianity has preached spiritual renewal, neglecting the changes in the social order without which spritual renewan must remain ineffective" for most people.

Socialism, especially Marxism, has stressed the need for social and economic change and neglected the inner change in people "without which economic change can never lead to the 'good society.'

A HOPEFUL OUTLOOK--FROMM'S IDEAL: Fromm saw destructive forces, but also offered hope Believed that people could cooperate and work together. Envisioned a society... "in which man relates to man lovingly, in which he is rooted in bonds of brotherliness and solidarity...; a society which gives him the possibility of transcending nature by creating rather than by destroying, in which everyone gains a sense of self by experiencing himself as the subject of his powers rather than by conformity, in which a system of orientation and devotion exists without man's needing to distort reality and to worship idols." There would be no loneliness, no feelings of isolation, no despair. Everyone would have an equal chance to become fully human

ROADS TO A SANE SOCIETY

Conditions for curing individual pathology are largely these:

There has been a development contrary to psychological health. The fact of suffering which results causes us to with to overcome it, to change in the direction of health. The first step along the path to health of the psyche is the "awareness of the suffering and of that which is shut out and dissociated from our conscious personality."

Greater self-awareness can have its full potential effect only if we then proceed to change a practice of life which causes us suffering and which constantly re-enacts our neurotic behavior. Fromm offers the example of a person whose neurotic character makes him want to submit to authority. He usually constructs a life in which he chooses dominating or sadistic father images as bosses, teachers, and so on. (Here we hear a close echo of Karen Horney's extension of Wilhelm Reich's "charactor armor" into the realm of social relations and life-patterns.) The person can move toward health only by changing the life-situation so that it no longer calls out the submissive tendencies he wants to leave behind. He may also need to change values, norms, and ideals so that they no longer block his striving toward health and maturity. These three conditions must also be met to cure social pathology.

The mentally healthy person:

Is productive and unalienated Relates to the world lovingly Uses reason to grasp reality objectivity Feels himself or herself to be a unique individual Feels one with his or her fellow human beings Does not respond to irrational authority Willingly accepts the rational authority of conscience and reason Is in the process of being born as long as he or she is alive. In a sane society,

No one is a means to another's ends, but always an end in himself No one uses himself or another for ends that contradict the unfolding of his or her own human powers Acting according to one's conscience is viewed as basic and necessary Opportunism and lack of principles is frowned on rather than rewarded

The person's relationships to others in the social sphere are similar in their qualities to relationships in the private sphere. All economic and political activities encourage the growth of the people Each person is an active and responsible participant in the life of society, as well as master of his or her own life People are stimulated to relate to eachother lovingly Everyone's productive activity in his or her work is furthered The unfolding of people's reason is encouraged People have a chance to express their inner needs in collective art and rituals Qualities like greed, exploitiveness, possessiveness, and narcissism cannot easily be used to enhance one's prestige or bring material gaiN. SEARCHING FOR A SANE SOCIETY: "COMMUNITIES OF WORK" AS AN EXAMPLE

When Fromm wrote The Sane Society, there were about a hundred Communities of Work in Europe, mostly in France but also in Belgium, Switzerland, and Holland. Some were industrial, some agricultural, but "the basic principles are sufficiently similar so that the description of one gives an adequate picture of the essential features of all."

Boimondau's beginnings. Boimondau was a watch case factory. Marcel Barbu worked hard and saved enough to have a factory, where he introduced a factory council and profit sharing. But this was only a start. He recruited men who had varied trades "and found a barber, a sausagemaker, a waiter--practically anyone except specialized industrial workers all under thirty. He offered to teach them watch case making if they would search with him for a setup in which the 'distinction between employer and employee would be abolished. The point was the search."

A common ethics. They wanted not just a better economic setup but a new way of living together. This was not easy, because their number included Catholics, Protestants, materialists, Humanists, athiests, Communists. They resolved to find a common ethical basis as a point to start from together. They "all examined their own individual ethics...not what they had been taught by rote or what was conventionally accepted, but what they, out of their own experiences and thoughts,

found necessary." They found that their individual ethics had points in common. They took those and made them the common minimum on what they agreed unanimously. They declared: "All our moral principles have been tried in real life, everyday life." They pledged to do their best to practice their common ethical minimum. They agreed not to infringe on others; liberties or to laugh or make jokes about anyone's convictions or lack of them.

Education. The group discovered that they wanted to educate themselves. They figured out that they could use time that they saved on production for education. Within three months their productivity grew so much that they saved 9 hours in a 48 hour week. They used these 9 hours for education and were paid as if for ordinary work. They hired teachers of music, French grammar, accounting, engineering, physics, literature, Marxism, Christianity, dancing, singing, and basketball.

The basic idea. They aimed not at acquiring together, but on working together for collective and personalfulfillment. The aim was not increased productivity or higher wages, but a new style of life.

Central principles:

"One has to enjoy the whole fruit of one's labor. "One has to be able to educate oneself. "One has to pursue a common endeavor within a professional group"...of reasonable size (100 families max). "One has to be actively related to the whole world" Thes principles led to a shift in the center of the problem of living from making and acquiring 'things' to discovering, fostering, and developing human relationships. From a civilization of objects to one of persons.

Farm. Boimondau "acqauired a farm of 235 acres on which everyone, including wives, worked three periods of ten days per year. Since everyone also had a month's vacation, people worked only ten months a year at the factory." They believed that no one should be entirely divorced from the soil.

Decisionmaking.

The General Assembly, which meets twice a year, has ultimate power. Decisions are by consense. Only unanimous decisions bind the Companions (members). This Assembly elects a Chief of Community by unanimous vote. The Chief is most qualified technically and also one who "is an example, who educates, who loves, who is selfless, who serves." After a three year term the Chief may find himself back at the machine. The Chief can veto the General Assembly. If the General Assembly will not yield, there is a vote of confidence. If confidence is not unanimous, the Chief may either accept the General Assembly's opinion or resign. The Assembly also elects a General Council of seven members plus the Heads of Departments for one year terms to advise the Chief of Community. Its decisions must be unanimous. Neighbor Groups are five or six families that live fairly close to each other. They get together in the evening after supper at one worker's house under the guidence of a Chief of Neighbor groups. Minutes of their meetings are sent to the Chief of Community. Answers to their questions or suggestions are given by those who are in charge of different departments. In the neighbor groups "people come to know each other best and help each other." All responsible positions, including section managers and formen, are chosen through "double trust" appointment. The person is proposed by one level and unanimously accepted by the other. Usually but not always, candidates are proposed by the higher level and accepted or rejected by the lower. Members say this prevents both demagogy and authoritarianism. Question: Can conditions similar to Boimondau be created for a whole society, so that people's lives have meaning for them, they influence what is being done, and feel united with rather than separated fronm their fellows? This requires methods of blending centralization and decentralization which permit active perticipation and responsibility for everyone, and at the same time a unified leadership exists so far as necessary. How can this be done?

A worker should have a wide knowledge of all the technical problems involved in producing the whole product, not just of his own specific work. "The worker can be an active, interested, and responsible participant only if he [can influence] decisions which bear upon his individual work situation and the whole enterprise."

Alienation can be overcome "only if he is not employed by capital...but...becomes a respsonsible subject who employs capital." Main point here: not ownership of the means of production, but "participation in managemeent and decision making." A principle: the primary purpose of any work is to serve people rather than to make a profit. Owner or owners are entitled to a reasonable return on their capital investment but would have to share their command over those whom their capital can hire with those who work in the enterprise. CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION.

"We do not need new ideals or new spiritual goals. The great teachers of the human race have postulated the norms for sane living. . . . The fact that the great religions and ethical systems have so often fought against each other, and emphasized their mutual differences rather than their basic similarities, was due to the influence of those who built churches, hierarchies, political organizaations upon the simple foundations of truth laid down by the men of spirit."

Today "we are in bitter need of taking seriously what we believe, what we preach and teach. The revolution ofour hearts does not require new wisdom--but new seriousness and dedication.

BOOKS BY ERICH FROMM:

Escape from Freedom (1941) Man for Himself (1947) The Forgotten Language (1951) The Sane Society (1955) Man May Prevail (1961) The Art of Loving (1966)

The Heart of Man (1964) Revolution of Hope (1968) Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1975) To Have or To Be (1976) back to the ERICH FROMM MAIN PAGE updated12-02-07

erich fromm: freedom and alienation, and loving and being, in education

Erich Fromm was both a practicing psychoanalyst and a committed and insightful social theorist. We explore his continuing relevance to educational practice and focus on his deeply instructive appreciation of freedom, love and human flourishing.

contents: introduction erich fromm his life the fear of freedom alientation erich fromm and the art of loving having and being erich fromm on education conclusion further reading and references links

To have faith means to dare, to think the unthinkable, yet to act within the limits of the realistically possible; it is the paradoxical hope to expect the Messiah every day, yet not to lose heart when he has not come at the appointed hour. This hope is not passive and it is not patient; on the contrary, it is impatient an active, looking for every possibility of action within the realm of real possibilities. Least of all it is passive as far as the growth and liberation of one's own person are concerned....

The situation of mankind is too serious to permit us to listen to the demagogues least of all demagogues who are attracted to destruction - or even to the leaders who use only their brains and whose hearts have hardened. Critical and radical thought will only bear fruit when it is blended with the most precious quality man is endowed with - the love of life. Erich Fromm (1973) The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, page 438

Erich Fromm (1900-1980) was both a practicing psychoanalyst and a committed social theorist. He had the ability to look, as Mills (1959) would have put it, to both individual troubles and public issues. Erich Fromm He also brought to his work a strong religious understanding, a humanistic ethic and a vision of possibility. He had the ability to write for a popular audience, to develop a strong social critique, and to combine psychological insight with social theory (drawing on diverse sources such as Freud and Marx). These qualities did not endear him to a number of his colleagues who viewed his efforts with some suspicion and even alarm. Today, Erich Fromm's work is not a major focus of academic attention - but it still repays study. His insights into the nature of society and human activity have a lot to say to educators - especially those committed to working for fairer and more convivial forms of living. In this article we will briefly review his life and contribution, and look to four areas of his work that directly impact upon the work of educators: freedom, alienation, love and being. We do not explore in any detail his contribution to psychoanalytical thinking and practice.

Erich Fromm his life Born in Frankfurt on March 23, 1900, Erich Fromm was the only child of Orthodox Jewish parents. Funk (1999) reports that he characterized his parents as "highly neurotic" and himself as "a probably rather unbearable, neurotic child. Erich

Fromm experienced a religious but cosmopolitan education. As Burston (1991) has noted, his adolescent role models were all scholarly Jews. Hermann Cohen was liberal and well known as an neo-Kantain thinker; Rabbi Nehemia Nobel was a celebrated Talmudist who was also versed in psychoanalytic literature; and Rabbi Salman Baruch Rabinkow was a student of Jewish mysticism with a strong sympathy for socialism. Given these early influences it is perhaps not surprising that Erich Fromms orientation was committed, open and critical. It is also not surprising that his initial vocation was rabbinic. However, the events of the First World War shook Fromms thinking.

When the war ended in 1918, I was a deeply troubled young man who was obsessed by the question of how war was possible, by the wish to understand the irrationality of human mass behavior, by a passionate desire for peace and international understanding. More, I had become deeply suspicious of all official ideologies and declarations, and filled with the conviction of all one must doubt. (quoted by Funk 1999) His studies took him to the University of Frankfurt where, in 1920, he helped to found of the Freies Judisches Lehrhaus (directed by Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig), Erich Fromm then went on to undertake a doctorate (in sociology) at Heidelberg (completed in 1922). In 1924 he began his studies in psychoanalysis (studying first in Frankfurt, then at the Berlin Institute of Psychoanalysis). He also began to turn away from religious observance. Fromm also got married (in 1926) to Frieda Reichman but this was to be a short union. Reichman was ten years his senior - and had previously been his psychoanalyst. The marriage lasted four years, but Fromm and Freida Fromm Reichman continued to be friends and professional collaborators (Reichman made a notable contribution to the development of pyschoanalysis in relation to schizophrenia ).

On finishing his studies he helped to found the Frankfurt Psychoanalytic Institute, and was invited to join Frankfurt Institute for Social Research by Max Horheimerthen (and by so doing became a member of the so called Frankfurt School). From 1929 to 1932 he lectured at both the Psychoanalytic Institute, Frankfurt, and at the University of Frankfurt and worked on a study of the authoritarian character structure of German workers prior to Hitlers coming to power (published many years later in 1984 as The Working Class in Weimar Germany).

Erich Fromm looked to bring together insights from psychoanalysis and an appreciation of the impact of social structure (influenced, in particular, by his reading of Marx):

I wanted to understand the laws that govern the life of the individual man, and the laws of society-that is, of men in their social existence. I tried to see the lasting truth in Freud's concepts as against those assumptions which were in need of revision. I tried to do the same with Marx's theory, and finally I tried to arrive at a synthesis which followed from the understanding and the criticism of both thinkers. (quoted by Funk 1999) The Frankfurt Institute was forced out of Germany by the tightening grip of Nazism first to Geneva and then in 1934 to Columbia University. At the time Erich Fromm was suffering from tuberculosis. He stayed in Davos for a number of months before settling in the United States and lecturing at the New School of Social Research (193439), Columbia (1940-41), Yale (1949-50), and Bennington (1941-50). He began to publish papers that were critical of Freudian thinking (which both alienated him from some of his Frankfurt school colleagues, and many within US analytical circles). His focus, it can be argued, shifted from a Freudian concern with unconscious motivations, to a recognition that humans are social beings whose beliefs and motivations are deeply inscribed by the societies and cultures of which they are part.

In 1941, the first of Erich Fromms deeply influential books appeared: Escape From Freedom (published 1942 as The Fear of Freedom in the UK). It argued that freedom from the traditional bonds of medieval society, though giving the individual a new feeling of independence, at the same time made him feel alone and isolated, filled him with doubt and anxiety, and drove him into new submission and into a compulsive and irrational activity (Fromm 1942: 89). This alienation from place and community, and the insecurities and fears entailed, helps to explain how people seek the security and rewards of authoritarian social orders such as fascism. His critique of Freud led to him being suspended from supervising students by the New York Psychoanalytic Institute in 1944. As Burston (1991) has noted Erich Fromm then joined with Clara Thompson, Harry Stack Sullivan, and ex-wife Frieda Fromm-Reichman (among others) to found the William Alanson White Institute (of which he was Clinical Director from 1946 to 1950).

Fromm married for a second time in 1944 (to Henny Gurland) and become and American citizen. In 1950 he relocated to Mexico and a post at the National Autonomous University, Mexico City (at which he taught until 1965). The move was spurred by his second wifes illness and physicians advice that a favourable climate would benefit her. Sadly she soon died (in 1952). Erich Fromm still practiced as a psychoanalyst and after his wifes death he was invited to found the Mexican Institute of Psychoanalysis in Mexico City, which he directed till 1976.

Erich Fromms writing continued with Man For Himself (1947) and The Sane Society (1956). Life in twentieth century Democracy, Fromm wrote, constitutes in many ways another escape from freedom (1956: vii). The analysis of this escape via the notion of alienation was particularly powerful. These books, as Kellner (undated) has noted, popularized the neo-Marxian critiques of the media and consumer society, and promoted democratic socialist perspectives during an era when social repression made it difficult and dangerous to advocate radical positions.

Fromm remarried in 1953 (to Annis Freeman) , and continued to pursue a punishing schedule. He taught for around three months a year in the USA until 1967 (becoming a Professor at New York in 1961/2) and still worked in Mexico. He was also active politically. He was involved in the civil rights movement, campaigns for nuclear disarmament, in anti-Vietnam war activities, and the ecology movement. Erich Fromm's writing continued to be extremely popular through the 1950s and 1960s (although not with the psychoanalytical establishment). A number of classic books appeared including The Art of Loving (1957) and Sigmund Freuds Mission (1959). His continuing engagement with religious thinking (although he was himself a humanist) and notions such as love was a source of irritation not just to orthodox Freudians it was also to be the basis of a series of sharp disagreements with some on the left like Herbert Marcuse (with whom he conducted a series of exchanges on the subject).

In the 1960s Erich Fromm began to explore a further fundamental orientation present in western societies - a fascination with death and things (objects). This theme first appeared in The Heart of Man (1964) and grew into full realization in The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973). As before, Fromm believed that the central driving force was the desire to make up for a lack of authentic being and selfhood. Funk (1999) describes this thus, 'One escape route from this malaise encountered ever more often is to identify with the lifeless, to find attraction in each and every thing as long as it is reified and devoid of life (or else can be reduced to this condition)'. To describe this orientation toward, or love of, death Erich Fromm used the notion of necrophilia. He was concerned to go beyond the popular usage of the term (to refer to sexual contact with the dead; and/or the desire to be near to corpses), and to look to necrophilia as a character-rooted passion - the passion to transform that which alive into something unalive (Fromm 1973: 332). Classically he set this passion to 'tear apart living structures' within a proper social and political context. 'With the increasing production an division of labour, the formation of a large surplus, and the building of states with hierarchies and elites', he wrote,

'large-scale human destructiveness and cruelty came into existence and grew as civilization and the role of power grew' (Fromm 1973: 435).

To Have or To Be (1976) was Erich Fromm's last major work. In it he argues that two ways of existence were competing for 'the spirit of mankind' - having and being. The having mode looks to things and material possessions and is based on aggression and greed. The being mode is rooted in love and is concerned with shared experience and productive activity. The dominance of the having mode (as he argued in The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness) was bringing the world to the edge of disaster (ecological, social and psychological). Erich Fromm argued that only a fundamental change in human character 'from a preponderance of the having mode to a preponderance of the being mode of existence can save us from a psychological and economic catastrophe' (1976: 165) and set out some ways forward.

Erich Fromm retired to Locarno, Switerzerland, in 1976. He died of a heart attack at Muralto, Switzerland on March 18, 1980. Fromm was survived by his third wife, Annis Freeman Fromm. She died in September 1985.

To be completed

Further reading and references Fromm, E. (1942) The Fear of Freedom, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 257 + xi pages. A classic study of the submission to authority and totalitarism. Chapters explore freedom as a psychological problem; freedom in the age of the reformation; two aspects of freedom for modern man; mechanisms of escape; the psychology of nazism; and freedom and democracy. An appendix explores character and the social problem.

Fromm, E. (1947) Man For Himself. An inquiry into the psychology of ethics, 1969 edn. Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett Premier. 256 + x pages. Discusses the problem of ethics, of norms and values leading to the realization of mans self and of his potentialities (v). Part one examines the problem; part two, humanistic ethics (the applied science of the art of living); part three, human nature and character; and part four, problems of humanistic ethics.

Fromm, E. (1956) The Sane Society, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 370 + ix pages. Described by Fromm as a continuation of Fear of Freedom and, to some extent, Man for Himself, Fromm tries to show that life in twentieth century Democracy constitutes in many ways another escape from freedom, and the analysis of this particular escape, centered around the concept of alienation constitutes a good part of this book (vii). The central part of the book deals with human beings social character and the structure of capitalism. Erich Fromm goes on to argue for a third way between totalitarianism and capitalist managerialism humanistic communitarianism: Mans use by man must end, and economy must become the servant for the development of man (361).

Fromm, E. (1957) The Art of Loving 1995 edn. London: Thorsons. 104 + viii pages. Now marketed as a classic of personal development, this book is very different from most of the other books that inhabit the personal growth shelves in bookshops. Erich Fromms exploration of love is an exercise in social theory. He asks is love an art?, goes on to examine the theory of love, and then explores love and its disintegration in contemporary western society. A final chapter examines the practice of love. While written from his distinctive humanistic perspective, the book looks to various religious sources to help make sense of love.

Fromm, E. (1961) May Man Prevail? An Inquiry into the Facts and Fictions of Foreign Policy Fromms exploration of fears of Russian aggression via an analysis, amongst other things of Communist social structure.

Fromm, E. (1964) The Heart of Man. Its Genius for Good and Evil A study of the polarity of possible orientations on the basis of character and the first major statement Erich Fromm's attempts to dissect what he saw as a further fundamental orientation present in western societies - a fascination with death and things (objects).

Fromm, E. (1973) The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 520 + xvi pages. This book brings develops Erich Fromm's thinking around aggression and necrophilia - passion to 'tear apart living structures'. Part one deals with instincivism, behaviorism, and psychoanalysis; part two with the evidence against the instinctivist theses; an part three with the varieties of aggression and destructiveness and their respective conditions. An appendix deals with Freud's theory of agressiveness and destructiveness.

Fromm, E. (1976) To Have or to Be, 1979 edn. London: Abacus. 224 pages. In this book Erich Fromm argues that two ways of existence are competing for 'the spirit of mankind' - having and being. The having mode looks to things and material possessions and is based on aggression and greed. The being mode is rooted in love and is concerned with shared experience and productive activity. Part one deals with understanding the difference between having and being; part two with analyzing the fundamental differences between the two modes; and part three with the new man and the new society.

References Burston, D. (1991) The Legacy of Erich Fromm, Harvard University Press. See also his web page Erich Fromm: The forgotten prophet, http://www.duq.edu/facultyhome/burston/legacy.html.

Fromm, E. (1950) Psychoanalysis and Religion, New Haven: Yale University Press.

Fromm, E. (1958) Sigmund Freuds Mission. An Analysis of His Personality and Influence

Fromm, E. (1961) Marx's Concept of Man, New York: Frederick Ungar.

Fromm, E. (1966) You Shall Be Gods, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Fromm, E. (1970) The Crisis of Psychoanalysis. Essays on Freud, Marx, and Social Psychology, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Fromm, E. and Maccoby, M. (1970) Social Character in a Mexican Village, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: Prentice Hall.

Fromm, E., Suzuki, D. T., and de Martino, R. (1960) Zen Buddism and Psychoanalysis, New York: Harper and Row.

Fromm, E. (1984) The Working Class in Weimar Germany. A Psychological and Sociological Study, London: Berg Publishers.

Funk, R. (1999) Erich Fromms Life and Work, erichfromm.org, http://www.erichfromm.de/english/life/life_bio2.html.

Funk, R. (2000) The Continuing Relevance of Erich Fromm, erichfromm.org, http://www.erichfromm.de/english/life/life_relevance_funk.html.

Kellner, D. (undated) Erich Fromm, Illuminations, http://www.uta.edu/huma/illuminations/kell9.htm

Macoby, M. (1994) The Two Voices of Erich Fromm: The Prophetic and the Analytic, Society, http://www.maccoby.com/Articles/TwoVoices.html

Mills, C. W. (1959) The Sociological Imagination, New York: Oxford University Press.

Links The International Erich Fromm Society. This is the English version of an excellent collection of material, reviews, etc. It includes a useful introduction to Erich Fromm by Rainer Funk. The first place to go for Fromm. See, also, Erich Fromms humanist credo.

Erich Fromm Papers: Details of the materials held in the New York Public Library plus a useful outline of his career.

ERICH FROMM

Posted by amoled pada Mei 30, 2011

ERICH FROMM

Terlahir tanggal 23 Maret 1900 di Frankfurt Jerman dalam lingkungan keluarga Yahudi ortodoks. Fromm adalah anak tunggal dari seorang ayah pemurung, cemas dan tegang yang berprofesi sebagai pengusaha, dan seorang ibu yang mengalami depresi sebagai pengurus rumah tangganya. Keluarga Fromm mengalami ketidakharmonisan yang disebabkan adanya perbenturan antara perhatian besar nilai-nilai spiritual Ibunya dengan keberhasilan material sang ayah. Dari keadaan keluarga yang demikian ini, masa kecil Fromm terlihat tidak begitu bahagia. Ia menjuluki orang tuanya dengan highly neurotic dan menjuluki masa kecilnya dengan a probably rather unbearable, neurotic child (Funk, 1982:1).

Sejak kecil Fromm telah diperkenalkan dengan kitab perjanjian lama. Ia sangat tertarik dengan visi perdamaian universal yang diajarkan para Nabi. Pada masa remaja, Fromm mulai berkenalan dengan model pemikiran Yahudi, ia mendapat didikan dari Herman Cohen (seorang pemikir Kantian), Rabbi Salman Baruch Rabinkow dan Rabbi Nehemia Nobel. Ketiga guru Fromm ini memiliki kecenderungan pemikiran yang berbeda, Cohen adalah seorang liberal yang kurang menyukai ritual-ritual keagamaan, ia juga sangat tidak tertarik dengan dunia mistik dan lebih tertarik pada keutamaan etika keagamaan. Nobel merupakan penganut Talmudian yang sangat mengagumi Goethe dan pencerahan Jerman, ia juga banyak tertarik pada psikoanalisa. Sedangkan Rabinkow banyak memberi pelajaran Fromm tentang mistisisme Yahudi dan ide-ide humanisme sosialis. Namun sebagai anak yang termasuk kritis, Fromm tidak menerima begitu saja apa yang didapat dari gurunya ini.

Tahun 1924, Fromm mulai keluar dari lingkungan Rabbi dan mendalami psikoanalisa. Ia belajar satu tahun dengan Wilhelm Witenberg di Munich, dan kepada Karl Landauer di Frankfurt dan terakhir dengan Hans Sach serta Theodor Reik di Berlin. Setelah menikah pada tahun 1926 dengan Freida Reichman, pada tahun 1927, Fromm bersama dengan Karl Laundauer, George Broddeck, Heinrich Meng dan Ernst Schneider mendirikan Frankfurt Psichoanalitic Institute, dan ia membuka praktek psikoanalisa di sana. Pada tahun ini pula, Fromm berkenalan dengan pemikiran Buddhisme. Ketertarikan Fromm kepada Buddhisme membuatnya kemudian belajar Buddhisme pada D.T. Suzuki, peristiwa penting yang banyak mempengaruhi pemikirannya kemudian, terutama analisisnya terhadap irrasionalitas dan paksaan dalam agama serta gagasan rasional dan mistis yang banyak diungkapkannya (Funk, 1982:3).

Pada tahun 1932, dengan bantuan Horkheimer, Fromm masuk dalam lingkungan Institute Fur Social Forschung dan menjadi direktur sosial psikologi. Di Institute inilah Fromm banyak menimba pengalaman tentang berbagai bidang pemikiran, terutama materialisme, psikoanalisa, pengaruh ekonomi terhadap kejiwaan, serta karakter sosial masyarakat.

Kondisi Eksistensi Manusia

Dilema Eksistensi

Menurut Fromm, hakekat manusia juga bersifat dualistik. Paling tidak ada empat dualistik di dalam diri manusia:

Manusia sebagai binatang dan sebagai manusia Manusia sebagai binatang memiliki banyak kebutuhan fisiologik yang harus dipuaskan, seperti kebutuhan makan, minum, dan kebutuhan seksual. Manusia sebagai manusia memiliki kebutuhan kesadaran diri, berfikir, dan berimajinasi. Kebutuhan manusia itu terwujud dalam pengalaman khas manusia meliputi perasaan lemah lembut, cinta, kasihan, perhatian, tanggung jawab, identitas, integritas, sedih, transendensi, kebebasan, nilai dan norma.

Hidup dan mati Kesadaran diri dan fikiran manusia telah mengetahui bahwa dia akan mati, tetapi manusia berusaha mengingkarinya dengan meyakini adanya kehidupan sesudah mati, dan usaha-usaha yang tidak sesuai dengan fakta bahwa kehidupan akan berakhir dengan kematian.

Ketidak sempurnaan dan kesempurnaan

Manusia mampu mengkonsepkan realisasi-diri yang sempurna, tetapi karena hidup itu pendek kesempurnaan tidak dapat dicapai. Ada orang berusaha memecahkan dikotomi ini melalui mengisi rentang sejarah hidupnya dengan prestasi di bidang kemanusiaan, dan ada pula yang meyakini dalil kelanjutan perkembangannya sesudah mati.

Kesendirian dan kebersamaan Manusia adalah pribadi yang mandiri, sendiri, tetapi manusia juga tidak bisa menerima kesendirian.

Dualisme-dualisme di atas merupakan kondisi eksistensi manusia. Pemahaman tentang jiwa manusia harus berdasarkan analisis tentang kebutuhan-kebutuhan manusia yang berasal dari kondisi-kondisi eksistensi manusia. Konflik yang dibawa dari lahir antara tesa-antitesa eksistensi manusia, disebut dilema eksistensi. Ada dua cara menghindari dilema eksistensi, pertama dengan menerima otoritas dari luar, yaitu tunduk kepada penguasa dan menyesuaikan diri dengan masyarakat. Cara kedua, orang bersatu dengan orang lain dalam semangat cinta dan kerja sama, menciptakan ikatan dan tanggung jawab bersama dari masyarakat yang lebih baik.

Kebutuhan Manusia

Pada umumnya, kata kebutuhan diartikan sebagai kebutuhan fisik, yang oleh Fromm dipandang sebagai kebutuhan aspek kebinatangan dari manusia, yakni kebutuhan makan, minum, seks, dan bebas dari rasa sakit. Kebutuhan manusia dalam arti kebutuhan sesuai dengan eksistensinya sebagai manusia, menurut Fromm meliputi dua kelompok kebutuhan:

Kebutuhan Kebebasan dan Keterkaitan Keterhubungan (relatedness): kebutuhan mengatasi perasaan kesendirian dan terisolasi dari alam dan dari dirinya sendiri. Kebutuhan untuk bergabung dengan makhluk lain yang dicintai, menjadi bagian dari sesuatu. Keberakaran (rootedness): kebutuhan keberakaran adalah kebutuhan untuk memiliki ikatan-ikatan yang membuatnya merasa kerasan di dunia (merasa seperti di rumahnya). Manusia menjadi asing dengan dunianya karena dua alasan;

pertama,di direngkut dari akar-akar hubungannya oleh situasi ( ketika manusia dilahirkan dia menjadi sendirian dan kehilangan ikatan alaminya),kedua,pikiran dan kebebasan yang dikembangkannya sendiri justru memutus ikatan alami dan menimbulkan perasaan isolasi/tak berdaya. Keberakaran adalah kebutuhan untuk mengikatkan diri dengan kehidupan. Menjadi pencipta (trancendenci): karena individu menyadari dirinya sendiri dan lingkungannya, mereka kemudian mengenali betapa kuat dan menakutkan alam semesta itu, yang membuatnya menjadi merasa tak berdaya. Orang ingin mengatasi perasaan takut dan ketidakpastian menghadapi kemarahan dan ketakmenentuan semesta. Orang membutuhkan peningkatan diri,berjuang untuk mengatasi sifat pasif dikuasai alam menjadi aktif,bertujuan dan bebas,berubah dari mahluk ciptaan menjadi pencipta. Seperti pada keterhubungan transendensi bisa positif (menciptakan sesuatu) atau negatif (menghancurkan sesuatu). Kesatuan (unity): kebutuhan untuk mngatasi eksistensi keterpisahan antara hakekat binatang dan dan non binantang dalam diri seseorang. Orang dapat unitas,memperoleh kepuasan (tanpa menyakiti orang lain dan diri sendiri) kalau hakekat kebinatangan dan kemanusiaan itu bisa didamaikan, dan hanya dengan berusaha untuk menjadi manusia seutuhnya, melalui berbagi cinta dan kerjasama dengan orang lain. Identitas (identity): kebutuhan untuk menjadi aku, kebutuhan untuk sadar dengan dirinya sendiri sebagai sesuatu yang terpisah. Manusia harus merasakan dapat menontrol nasibnya sendiri, harus bisa membuat keputusan,dan merasa bahwa hidupnya nyata-nyata miliknya sendiri. Kebutuhan untuk memahami dan beraktifitas Kerangka orientasi (frame of orientation): adalah seperangkat keyakinan mengenai eksistensi hidup, perjalanan hidup yaitu tingkah laku yang harus dikerjakannya, yang mutlak dibutuhkan untuk memperoleh kesehatan jiwa. Kerangka kesetiaan (frame of devotion): adalah peta yang mengarahkan pencarian makna hidup,menjadi dasar dari nilai-nilai dan titik puncak dari semua perjuangan. Keterangsangan-stimulasi (excitation-stimulation): kebutuhan untuk melatih sistem syaraf, untuk memanfaatkan kemampuan otak. Keefektifan (effectivity): kebutuhan untuk menyadari eksistansi diri yaitu melawan perasaan tidak mampu dan melatih kompetensi/kemampuan. Mekanisme Melarikan Diri dari Kebebasan

Menurut Fromm, ciri orang yang normal atau yang mentalnya sehat adalah orang yang mampu bekerja produktif sesuai dengan tuntutan lingkungan sosialnya,sekaligus Fromm,normalitas adalah keadaan optimal dari pertumbuhan (kemandirian) dan kebahagiaan (kebersamaan) dari individu. Ada tiga mekanisme pelariaan yang terpenting:

Otoritarianisme (authoritarianism) Kecenderungan untuk menyerahkan kemandirian diri dan menggabungkannya dengan seseorang atau sesuatu di luar dirinya, untuk memperoleh kekuatan yang dirasakan tidak dimilikinya.

Perusakan (destruktiveness) Seperti otoritarianisme destruktif berakar pada perasaan kesepian, isolasi, dan tak berdaya. Destruktif mencari kekuatan tidak melalui membangun hubungan dengan pihak luar, tetapi melalui usaha membalas atau merusak kekuatan orang lain.

Penyesuaian (conformity) Bentuk pelarian dari perasaan kesepian dan isolasi berupa penyerahan individualitas dan menjadi apa saja seperti yang diinginkan kekuatan dari luar titik. Orang menjadi robot, mereaksi sesuatu persis seperti yang direncanakan dan mekanis menuruti kemauan orang lain. Konformis tidak pernah mengekspresikan opini dirinya, menyerahkan diri kepada standar tingkah laku yang diharapkan, dan sering tampil diam dan mekanis.

Tipologi Sosial

Karakter Sosial

Menurut Fromm karakter manusia berkembang berdasarkan kebutuhan mengganti insting kebinatangan yang hilang ketika mereka berkembang tahap demi tahap.

Menurut Fromm, karakter berkembang dan dibentuk oleh social arrangements (pengaturan sosial) dimana orang itu hidup. Hal ini mirip dengan Freud, tetapi karakter itu bukan dihasilkan oleh penyaluran enerji seksual masa anak-anak, tetapi dihasilkan dari tekanan sosial untuk bertingkah laku dengan cara tertentu.

Karakter dan Masyarakat

Masyarakat membentuk karakter pribadi melalui orang tua dan pendidik yang membuat anak bersedia bertingkah laku seperti yang dikehendaki masyarakat. Pada masyarakat kapitalis, anak diajar menabung sehingga cukup modal untuk mengembangkan ekonomi. Fromm yakin bahwa baik masyarakat kapitalis maupun komunis keduanya membuat orang menjadi robot dengan menjadikan mereka budak pemakan gaji dan mengisolasi mereka dari makna dan hasil pekerjaannya. Dia sangat mengkritik masyarakat modern yang consumer-oriented yang terus menerus menciptakan kebutuhan baru bagi setiap orang. Menurutnya, tidak semua kebutuhan manusia harus dipuaskan; jika saja jumlah materi yang dapat dimiliki hanya sedikit dan insentif untuk mendapatkannya juga sedikit, orang mungkin akan bebas untuk memuaskan dirinya secara lebih kreatif.

Aplikasi

Sosialisme Komunitarian Humanistik (Humanistic Communitarian Socialism)

Masyarakat yang disarankan Fromm adalah huanistic communitarian socialism (sosialisme komunitarian humanistik), masyarakat di mana orang-orang bergaul dengan cinta, yang berakar dalam hubungan persaudaraan dan solidaritas. Dalam masyarakat semacam itu orang mencapai perasaan diri dan mampu berbuat kreatif alih-alih destruktif. Ide Fromm mungkin bagus tetapi banyak yang tidak dapat dilaksanakan.

Karakter Masyarakat

Pada tahun 1957, Fromm melakukan peneltian di sebuah desa di Meksiko mengenai karakter masyarakat. Ada dua kesimpulan penting, pertama, ternyata masyarakat memiliki tiga jenis karakter, yakni Productive-hoarding, Nonproductive-receptive, Productive-exploitative. Kedua, dari perkembangan karakter-karakter masarakat itu dapat disimpulkan bahwa karakter pribadi dan karakter sosial berhubungan timbal balik. Karakter pribadi mempengaruhi dan dipengaruhi oleh struktur sosial dan perubahan-perubahan sosial.

Psikoterapi: Psikoanalisis Humanistik

Dibandingkan dengan psikoanalisis Freud, Fromm lebih peduli dengan aspek interpersonal dan hubungan teraputik. Menurutnya, tujuan klien dalam terapi adalah untuk memahami diri sendiri. Tanpa pengetahuan tentang diri sendiri, orang tidak akan tahu orang lain. Fromm juga yakin bahwa klien mengikuti terapi untuk mencari kepuasan dari kebutuhan dasar kemanusiaannya, yakni keterhubungan, keberakaran, transendensi, perasaan identitas dan kerangka orientasi. Karena itu terapi harus dibangun melalui hubungan pribadi antara terapis dengan kliennya. Menurut From, terapis tidak seharusnya terlalu ilmiah dalam memahami kliennya. Klien hendaknya tidak dilihat sebagai orang sakit, tetapi diterima sebagai manusia dengan kebutuhan-kebutuhannya yang tidak berbeda dengan kebutuhan terapis.