Burda Karina
Institute
of Sociology, Psychology and Social Communications, (Ukraine,
Kyiv)
Pet’ko Lyudmila
Ph.D., Associate Professor,
Dragomanov
National Pedagogical University (Ukraine,
Kyiv)
Erich Fromm: a Socialist
Humanist
Erich Seligmann Fromm (March 23, 1900,
Frankfurt, Germany – March 18, 1980, Muralto, Switzerland) was a
German-born American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist and
humanistic philosopher who explored the interaction between psychology and
society. By applying psychoanalytic principles to the remedy of cultural ills,
Fromm believed, mankind could develop a psychologically balanced “sane
society.” He was associated with what became known as the Frankfurt School of
critical theory [2;
5].
His father was a business man and, according to Erich, rather moody. His
mother was frequently depressed. In other words, like quite a few of the people
we've looked at, his childhood wasn't very happy. Like Jung, Erich came from a very religious family, in his case
orthodox Jews. Fromm himself later became what he called an atheistic mystic
[1]. E.Fromm went on to study sociology at the University of Heidelberg,
earning his doctorate in 1922 under the supervision of Alfred Weber. In 1924,
he began studying psychoanalysis at the University of Frankfurt before moving
to the Berlin Institute of Psychoanalysis [3; 7].
As his biography suggests, Fromm's theory is a rather unique blend of
Freud and Marx. Freud emphasized the unconscious, biological drives,
repression, and so on. In other words, Freud postulated that our characters
were determined by biology. Marx, on the other hand, saw people as determined
by their society, and most especially by their economic systems. E.Fromm added
to this mix of two deterministic systems something quite foreign to them: The
idea of freedom. He allows people to transcend the
determinisms that Freud and Marx attribute to them. In fact, Fromm makes
freedom the central characteristic of human nature [8].
E.Fromm describes three ways in which we escape from freedom:
1) Authoritarianism. We seek to avoid freedom by fusing ourselves
with others, by becoming a part of an authoritarian system like the society of
the Middle Ages. There are two ways to approach this. One is to submit to the
power of others, becoming passive and compliant. The other is to become an
authority yourself, a person who applies structure to others. Either way, you
escape your separate identity. E.Fromm referred to the extreme version of
authoritarianism as masochism and sadism,
and points out that both feel compelled to play their separate roles, so that
even the sadist, with all his apparent power over the masochist, is not free to
choose his actions. But milder versions of authoritarianism are everywhere. In
many classes, for example, there is an implicit contract between students and
professors: Students demand structure, and the professor sticks to his notes.
It seems innocuous and even natural, but this way the students avoid taking any
responsibility for their learning, and the professor can avoid taking on the real
issues of his field.
2) Destructiveness. Authoritarians respond to a painful existence
by, in a sense, eliminating themselves: If there is no me, how can anything
hurt me? But others respond to pain by
striking out against the world: If I destroy the world, how can it hurt me? It
is this escape from freedom that accounts for much of the indiscriminate
nastiness of life – brutality, vandalism, humiliation, vandalism, crime,
terrorism. T.Fromm adds that, if a person's desire to destroy is blocked by circumstances,
he or she may redirect it inward. The most obvious kind of self-destructiveness
is, of course, suicide. But we can also include many illnesses, drug addiction,
alcoholism, even the joys of passive entertainment. He turns Freud's death
instinct upside down: Self-destructiveness is frustrated destructiveness, not
the other way around.
3) Automaton conformity. Authoritarians escape by hiding within
an authoritarian hierarchy. But our society emphasizes equality. There is less
hierarchy to hide in (though plenty remains for anyone who wants it, and some
who don't). When we need to hide, we hide in our mass culture instead. When I
get dressed in the morning, there are so many decisions! But I only need to
look at what you are wearing, and my frustrations disappear. He person who uses
automaton conformity is like a social
chameleon: He takes on the coloring of his surroundings. Since he looks like a
million other people, he no longer feels alone. He isn't alone, perhaps, but
he's not himself either. The automaton conformist experiences a split between
his genuine feelings and the colors he shows the world, very much along the
lines of Horney's theory [1].
Erich Fromm, like
many others, believed that we have needs that go far beyond the basic,
physiological ones that some people, like Freud and many behaviorists, think
explain all of our behavior. He calls these human needs, in
contrast to the more basic animal needs. And he
suggests that the human needs can be expressed in one simple statement:
The human being needs to find an answer to his existence. He lists five
human needs: 1) Relatedness: As human beings, we are aware of our
separateness from each other, and seek to overcome it. Fromm calls this
our need for relatedness, and views it as love in the broadest sense.
Love, he says, "is union with somebody, or something, outside oneself,
under the condition of retaining the separateness and integrity of one's own
self."
2.
Creativity Fromm believes that we all desire to
overcome, to transcend, another fact of our being: Our sense of
being passive creatures. We want to be creators. There are many
ways to be creative: We give birth, we plant seeds, we make pots, we paint
pictures, we write books, we love each other. Creativity is, in fact, an
expression of love. Unfortunately, some don't find an avenue for
creativity. Frustrated, they attempt to transcend their passivity by
becoming destroyers instead. Destroying puts me "above"
the things – or people – I destroy. It makes me feel powerful. We
can hate as well as love. But in the end, it fails to bring us that sense
of transcendence we need.
3.
Rootedness We also need roots. We need to feel at home in
the universe, even though, as human beings, we are somewhat alienated from the
natural world. The simplest version is to maintain our ties to our
mothers. But to grow up means we have to leave the warmth of our mothers'
love. To stay would be what Fromm calls a kind of psychological incest.
In order to manage in the difficult world of adulthood, we need to find new,
boader roots. We need to discover our brotherhood (and sisterhood)
with humanity.
4.
A sense of identity "Man may be
defined as the animal that can say 'I.'" (p
62 of The Sane Society) Fromm
believes that we need to have a sense of identity, of individuality, in
order to stay sane. This need is so powerful that we are sometimes driven to
find it, for example by doing anything for signs of status, or by trying
desperately to conform. We sometimes will even give up our lives
in order to remain a part of our group. But this is only pretend
identity, an identity we take from others, instead of one we develop ourselves,
and it fails to satisfy our need.
5.
A frame of orientation Finally, we need to
understand the world and our place in it. Again, our society – and
especially the religious aspects of our culture – often attempts to provide us
with this understanding. Things like our myths, our philosophies, and our
sciences provide us with structure. Fromm says this is really two needs: First,
we need a frame of orientation – almost anything will do. Even a bad one
is better than none! And so people are generally quite gullible. We
want to believe, sometimes even desperately. If we don't have an
explanation handy, we will make one up, via rationalization [1].
E.Fromm is an
excellent and exciting writer. We can find the basics of his theory in Escape
from Freedom (1941) and Man for Himself (1947). His
interesting treatise on love in the modern world is called The Art of Loving
(1956) [6], The Sane Society (1955) is devoted
to demonstrating how crazy our world is right now, and how that leads to our
psychological difficulties [4]. He has also written "the" book
on aggression, The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973), which includes
his ideas on necrophilia. He has written many other great books, including ones
on Christianity (The Dogma of Christ, and Other Essays on Religion,
Psychology and Culture (1963), Marxism, and Zen Buddhism.
Bibliography
1. Boeree C. George.
Personality theories: Erich Fromm [Web site]. – Access mode: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/fromm.html
2. Erich Fromm [Web site]. – Access mode: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Fromm
3. Erich Fromm [Web site]. – Access mode: http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesal/p/erich-fromm.htm
4. Erich Fromm (Video)
[Web site]. – Access mode:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt2kYOq-5_U
5. Erich
Fromm on line [Web site]. – Access mode: http://www.erich-fromm.de/
6.
Lawson Duncan. A lecture on Erich Fromm's The
Art of Loving: "Preface","Chapter One", and half of "Chapter Two" (Video-Lecture) [Web site]. – Access
mode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k23A_-0usvQ
7. The
Essential Erich Fromm /A Film by
Thiago Da Costa (Trailer) [Web site]. – Access mode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePmmD-suGq0&feature=plcp
8. To Have or To Be? – Erich Fromm interview
about his book "To Have or to Be?" (Video-Lecture) [Web site]. – Access mode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzpT1mZf718