Advanced Theories of Personality:

Erich Krause Fromm

Humanistic Psychoanalysis

Presented by:
Angeljoy P. Balawag
MAEd Guidance and Counselling 1
 Erich Krause Fromm
Ψ Fromm was born on March 23, 1900, in Frankfurt,
Germany, the only child of middle-class Orthodox
Jewish parents.
Ψ His father, Naphtali Fromm,
was the son of a rabbi and the
grandson of two rabbis. His
mother, Rosa Krause Fromm,
was the niece of Ludwig Krause,
a well-known Talmudic scholar.
Ψ He grew up in two very
distinct worlds, one the traditional
Orthodox Jewish world, the other
the modern capitalist world.
Ψ Fromm was 14 when World War I began.
Ψ He concentrated on his studies in psychology,
philosophy, sociology at the University of Heidelberg,
where he received his PhD in
sociology at either age 22 or 25.
Ψ From 1925 until 1930 he
studied psychoanalysis, first in
Munich, then in Frankfurt, and
finally at the Berlin Psycho-
analytic Institute, where he was analyzed by Hanns Sachs,
a student of Freud.
Ψ In 1926, the same year that he repudiated Orthodox
Judaism, Fromm married Frieda Reichmann, his analyst,
who was more than 10 years his senior.
Ψ The marriage of Fromm and Fromm-Reichmann was
not a happy one. They separated in 1930 but were not
divorced until much later, after both had immigrated to
the United States.
Ψ Fromm had relationships
with a number of older women.
Ψ In both Chicago and New
York, Fromm renewed his
acquaintance with Karen
Horney (15 years older than
Fromm),he had known casually
at the Berlin Psychoanalytic
Institute. They have been
lovers.
Ψ In 1944, Fromm married Henny Gurland (2 yrs younger
than Fromm) whose interest in religion and mystical
thought furthered Fromm’s own inclinations toward Zen
Buddhism.
Ψ In 1951, the couple moved to Mexico for a more
favorable climate for Gurland, who suffered from
rheumatoid arthritis. His wife died in 1952.
Ψ He continued to live in Mexico where he met Annis
Freeman, whom he married in 1953.
Ψ In 1968, Fromm suffered a serious heart attack and
was forced to slow down his busy schedule.
Ψ In 1974 and still ill, he and his wife moved to Muralto,
Switzerland, where he died March 18, 1980, a few days
short of his 80th birthday.
.
 Overview of
Humanistic Psychoanalysis
Ψ We feel lonely and
isolated because we have
become separated from
nature and from other
human beings.
 HUMAN NEEDS (Existential Needs)
Ψ Relatedness
Ψ Transcendence
Ψ Rootedness
Ψ A sense of identity
Ψ A frame of orientation
 Relatedness
- the drive for union with another person or other
persons.
• Three basic ways:
Ψ Submission - becoming part of
somebody or something bigger than our self
and experiences the identity in connection
with the power to which we have submitted.
Ψ Power- welcome submissive partners to
dominate other persons.
Ψ Love- union with somebody, or
something outside oneself under the
condition of retaining the separateness and
integrity of one’s own self
 Basic Elements of Genuine Love

a. Care - care for that person and be willing to take

care of him or her.
b. Responsibility - a willingness
and ability to respond to their
physical and psychological needs.
c. Respect - respects individual
for who they are, and avoids the
temptation of trying to change
them.
d. Knowledge - To know others means to see them
from their own point of view.
 Transcendence
• is the need for people to rise above their
passive existence and create or destroy life.
Ψ Negative: Malignant aggression - to kill for
reasons other than survival
Ψ Positive: Creativeness - They can create art,
religions, ideas, laws, material production, and
love
 Rootedness
• Feeling that we belong
is the need for a consistent
structure in people’s lives.
Ψ Negative: Fixation - a tenacious
reluctance to move beyond the
protective security provided
by one’s mother.
Ψ Positive: Wholeness and by
moving forward into full birth
 A sense of identity
• the capacity to be aware of
ourselves as a separate entity.
It gives a person a feeling of
“I” or “me.
Becoming aware of ourselves as
separate and unique individuals.
Ψ Negative: Adjustment
to the group
Ψ Positive: Creative movement
toward individuality.
 A frame of orientation
• Having a stable and consistent frame of
reference to organize perceptions and make
sense of our environment.
• Understanding the world and our place in it.
Ψ Negative: Irrational goals
Ψ Positive: Rational goals - can serve as a
basis for the growth of total personality
 Fromm’s Human Needs
Negative Components Positive Components

RELATEDNESS Submission or Domination Love

TRANCENDENCE Destructiveness Creativeness

ROOTEDNESS Fixation Wholeness

SENSE OF IDENTITY Adjustment to a group Individuality

FRAME OF Irrational Goals Rational Goals

ORIENTATION
 Mechanisms of Escape

•Authoritarianism

• Destructiveness

•Conformity
 Authoritarianism
• the tendency to give up one’s independence
and to unite with a powerful partner
• In masochistic form, we allow others to
dominate us. In sadistic form, we try to
dominate and control the behavior of others.
 Destructiveness
• it seeks to do away with other people by
destroying people and objects to restore
lost feelings of power.
 Conformity
• surrendering of one’s individuality in order
to meet the wishes of others.
 Character Orientations
- a person’s relatively permanent way of relating
to people and things.

1. Nonproductive Orientations- suggest

strategies that fail to move people closer to
positive freedom and self-realization.
2. Productive Orientation- work toward
positive freedom and a continuing realization of
their potential, they are the most healthy of all
character types
 Nonproductive Orientations
1. Receptive – Receiving things passively
Ψ Negative qualities: passivity, submissiveness,
and lack of self-confidence
Ψ Positive qualities: loyalty, acceptance, and trust.
 Nonproductive Orientations
2. Exploitative- or taking things through force
Ψ Negative side: exploitative characters are
egocentric, conceited, arrogant, and seducing
Ψ Positive side: they are impulsive, proud,
charming, and self-confident.
 Nonproductive Orientations
3. Hoarding- seek to save that which they have
already obtained.
Ψ Negative traits: rigidity, sterility, obstinacy,
compulsivity, and lack of creativity
Ψ Positive traits: orderliness, cleanliness, and
punctuality.
 Nonproductive Orientations
4. Marketing- marketing characters see themselves as
commodities, with their personal value dependent on
their exchange value, that is, their ability to sell
themselves.
Ψ Negative traits: aimless, opportunistic, inconsistent, and wasteful
Ψ Positive qualities: changeability, open-mindedness,
adaptability, and generosity
 Productive Orientation
Ψ Work - as a means of creative self-
expression.
Ψ Love – concerned with the growth and
development of themselves and others.
Ψ Think - is motivated by a concerned interest
in another person or object.
 Syndrome of Growth
Ψ Positive freedom -
free and not alone, critical and
yet not filled with doubts,
independent and yet an integral
part of mankind.
Ψ Biophilia - a
passionate love of life and all
that is alive.

Ψ Love of others –
love for fellow humans
 Syndrome of Decay
Ψ Necrophilia - means love of death and
usually refers to a sexual perversion in which a
person desires sexual contact with a corpse;
any attraction to death, destruction, disease,
and decay
Ψ Malignant narcissism - impedes the
perception of reality so that everything
belonging to a narcissistic person is highly
valued and everything belonging to another is
devalued.
Ψ Incestuous symbiosis - an extreme
dependence on the mother or mother
surrogate; distorts reasoning powers, destroys
the capacity for authentic love, and prevents
people from achieving independence and
integrity.
 Psychotherapy
Ψ Humanistic psychoanalysis
Ψ The goal of Fromm’s psychotherapy is to establish a union
with patients so that they can become reunited with the world.
Ψ Fromm was much more concerned
with the interpersonal aspects of a
therapeutic encounter.
Ψ Fromm believed that patients come
to therapy seeking satisfaction of their
basic human needs. Therefore, therapy
should be built on a personal relationship
between therapist and patient.
Ψ The therapist should not view the patient as an illness or a
thing but as a person with the same human needs that all people
possess.
Thank You!