Erich Fromm

Biography

Fromm was born on March 23, 1900, in Frankfurt, Germany, the only child of middle-class
Orthodox Jewish parents. As a boy, Erich studied the Old Testament with several prominent
scholars, men who were regarded as “humanists of extraordinary tolerance” Fromm’s humanistic
psychology can be traced to the reading of these prophets, “with their vision of universal peace
and harmony, and their teachings that there are ethical aspects to history— that nations can do right
and wrong, and that history has its moral laws”

Fromm’s early childhood was less than ideal. He recalled that he had “very neurotic parents” and
that he was “probably a rather unbearably neurotic child”. he grew up in two very distinct worlds,
one the traditional Orthodox Jewish world, the other the modern capitalist world. This split
existence created tensions that were nearly unendurable, but it generated in Fromm a lifelong
tendency to see events from more than one perspective.

During adolescence, Fromm was deeply moved by the writings of Freud and Karl Marx, but he
was also stimulated by differences between the two. he concentrated on his studies in psychology,
philosophy, and sociology at the University of Heidelberg, where he received his PhD in sociology
at either age 22 or 25.

From 1925 until 1930 he studied psychoanalysis, first in Munich, then in Frankfurt, and finally at
the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute. In 1930, Fromm and several others founded the South German
Institute for Psychoanalysis in Frankfurt, but with the Nazi threat becoming more intense, he soon
moved to Switzerland where he joined the newly founded International Institute of Social Research
in Geneva.

Horney, who was 15 years older than Fromm, eventually became a strong mother figure and
mentor to him. Fromm joined Horney’s newly formed Association for the Advancement of
Psychoanalysis (AAP) in 1941. Fromm joined the faculty at the National Autonomous University
in Mexico City, where he established a psychoanalytic department at the medical school in 1950-
51. Professor of psychology at Michigan State University from 1957 to 1961 and adjunct professor
at New York University from 1962 to 1970. he died March 18, 1980, a few days short of his 80th
birthday in Switzerland.

Among his best-known books are Escape from Freedom (1941), Man for Himself (1947),
Psychoanalysis and Religion (1950).

he experienced two defining moments.

The first was the suicide of a 25-year-old woman who he was in love with as a child. She was
a painter who was very close to her only family member: her father. He died suddenly, and a few
days later the young artist took her own life. Her suicide led Fromm to wonder what made people
go to such extremes.

Second, he was 14 when World War I began, and saw the irrationality of the German nationalism.
He was sure that the British and French were equally irrational, and once again he was struck by a
troubling question: How could normally rational and peaceful people become so driven by national
ideologies.

Humanistic Pscyhoanalysis
Trained in Freudian psychoanalysis and influenced by Karl Marx, Karen Horney, and other socially
oriented theorists, Fromm developed a theory of personality that emphasizes the influence of
sociobiological factors, history, economics, and class structure. His humanistic psychoanalysis
assumes that humanity’s separation from the natural world has produced feelings of loneliness and
isolation, a condition called basic anxiety. The central thesis of Fromm’s writings is that humans
have been torn from nature, yet they remain part of the natural world, subject to the same physical
limitations as other animals.

Basic Assumptions
Fromm’s most basic assumption is that individual personality can be understood only in the light
of human history. They have no powerful instincts to adapt to a changing world; instead, they have
acquired the facility to reason—a condition Fromm called the human dilemma. People experience
this basic dilemma because they have become separate from nature and yet have the capacity to
be aware of themselves as isolated beings.

- Dichotomies
The human ability to reason permits people to survive, but on the other, it forces them to attempt
to solve basic insoluble dichotomies. Fromm referred to these as “existential dichotomies” because
they are rooted in people’s very existence.

The first and most fundamental dichotomy is that between life and death. Selfawareness and
reason tell us that we will die, but we try to negate this dichotomy by postulating life after death.

A second existential dichotomy is that humans are capable of conceptualizing the goal of complete
self-realization, but we also are aware that life is too short to reach that goal.
The third existential dichotomy is that people are ultimately alone, yet we cannot tolerate
isolation. They are aware of themselves as separate individuals, and at the same time, they believe
that their happiness depends on uniting with their fellow human beings.

- Needs
Only the distinctive human needs can move people toward a reunion with the natural world. These
existential needs have emerged during the evolution of human culture, growing out of their
attempts to find an answer to their existence and to avoid becoming insane. healthy individuals are
better able to find ways of reuniting to the world by productively solving the human needs of
relatedness, transcendence, rootedness, a sense of identity, and a frame of orientation.

1. Relatedness
the drive for union with another person or other persons. Fromm postulated three basic ways in
which a person may relate to the world: (1) submission, (2) power, and (3) love.

Submission and Power: A person can submit to another, to a group, or to an institution in order
to become one with the world. Whereas submissive people search for a relationship with
domineering people, power seekers welcome submissive partners.
When a submissive person and a domineering person find each other, they frequently establish a
symbiotic relationship, one that is satisfying to both partners. Although such symbiosis may be
gratifying, it blocks growth toward integrity and psychological health.
They find themselves seeking additional submission or power, and as a result, they become more
and more dependent on their partners and less and less of an individual.

Love: He defined love as a “union with somebody, or something outside oneself under the
condition of retaining the separateness and integrity of one’s own self ” Love involves sharing
and communion with another, yet it allows a person the freedom to be unique and separate. It
enables a person to satisfy the need for relatedness without surrendering integrity and
independence. In love, two people become one yet remain two

2. Transcendence
defined as the urge to rise above a passive and accidental existence and into “the realm of
purposefulness and freedom”. People can transcend their passive nature by either creating life or
by destroying it. Humans not only create by reproducing but They can create art, religions, ideas,
laws, material production, and love. But we can also transcend life by destroying it using
malignant aggression.

3. Rootedness
or the need to establish roots or to feel at home again in the world. People either become a
separate entity from their parents protection and live a life of their own, and find their own roots
(productive strategy) or
through non productive ways like fixations which is the reluctance to move beyond the protective
security provided by one’s mother.

4. Sense of Identity
the capacity to be aware of ourselves as a separate entity. Because we have been torn away from
nature, we need to form a concept of our self. Without a sense of identity, people could not retain
their sanity, and this threat. Healthy people do not have to surrender their freedom and individuality
in order to fit into society because they possess an authentic sense of identity.

5. Frame of Orientation
A frame of orientation enables people to organize the various stimuli that impinge on them. Being
split off from nature, humans need a road map, a frame of orientation, to make their way through
the world. Without such a map, humans would be “confused and unable to act purposefully and
consistently”. anything at odds with their view is judged as “crazy” or “unreasonable.” Anything
consistent with it is seen simply as “common sense.”

Burden of Freedom

Historically, as people gained more and more economic and political freedom, they came to feel
increasingly more isolated. as they acquired more freedom to move both socially and
geographically, they found that they were free from the security of a fixed position in the world.
They were no longer tied to one geographic region, one social order, or one occupation. They
became separated from their roots and isolated from one another
As children become more independent of their mothers, they gain more freedom to express their
individuality, to move around unsupervised, to choose their friends, clothes, and so on. At the same
time, they experience the burden of freedom; that is, they are free from the security of being one
with the mother. On both a social and an individual level, this burden of freedom results in basic
anxiety, the feeling of being alone in the world.

Fromm (1941) identified three primary mechanisms of escape which are there in every human—
authoritarianism, destructiveness, and conformity.
1. authoritarianism : the “tendency to give up the independence of one’s own individual
self and to fuse one’s self with somebody or something outside oneself, in order to
acquire the strength which the individual is lacking”.
This need to unite with a powerful partner can take one of two forms— masochism or
sadism. Masochism results from basic feelings of powerlessness, weakness, and
inferiority and is aimed at joining the self to a more powerful person or institution.
sadism is more neurotic and more socially harmful. It can manifest as the need to make
others dependent on oneself and to gain power over those who are weak; the compulsion
to exploit others, to take advantage of them, and to use them for one’s benefit or pleasure;
or the compulsion to exploit others, to take advantage of them, and to use them for one’s
benefit or pleasure.

2. destructiveness is rooted in the feelings of aloneness, isolation, and powerlessness. it

seeks to do away with other people. By destroying people and objects, a person or a
nation attempts to restore lost feelings of power but it also creates a perverted kind of
isolation.

3. Conformity: People who conform try to escape from a sense of aloneness and isolation
by giving up their individuality and becoming whatever other people desire them to be.
Thus, they become like robots, reacting predictably and mechanically to the whims of
others.

Positive Freedom
A person “can be free and not alone, critical and yet not filled with doubts, independent and yet
an integral part of mankind.” This is positive freedom. It is characterized by a spontaneous and
full expression of both their rational and their emotional potentialities.

Positive freedom represents a successful solution to the human dilemma of being part of the
natural world and yet separate from it. Through positive freedom and spontaneous activity,
people overcome the terror of aloneness, achieve union with the world, and maintain
individuality.
Personality – Character Orientations

that is, a person’s relatively permanent way of relating to people and things. In general terms,
people can relate to things and to people either nonproductively or productively. Personality is
always a blend or combination of several orientations, even though one orientation is dominant.

Non productive – strategies that fail to move people closer to positive freedom and self-
realization. Includes - (1) receiving things passively, (2) exploiting, or taking things through
force, (3) hoarding objects, and (4) marketing or exchanging things.

1. Receptive: Receptive characters feel that the source of all good lies outside
themselves and that the only way they can relate to the world is to receive things,
including love, knowledge, and material possessions. They are more concerned with
receiving than with giving, and they want others to shower them with love, ideas, and
gifts.
The negative qualities of receptive people include passivity, submissiveness, and lack
of self-confidence. Their positive traits are loyalty, acceptance, and trust
2. Exploitative: they aggressively take what they desire rather than passively receive it.
In their social relationships, they are likely to use cunning or force to take someone
else’s spouse, ideas, or property. On the negative side, exploitative characters are
egocentric, conceited, arrogant, and seducing. On the positive side, they are
impulsive, proud, charming, and self-confident.
3. Hoarding: They hold everything inside and do not let go of anything. They keep
money, feelings, and thoughts to themselves. In a love relationship, they try to
possess the loved one and to preserve the relationship rather than allowing it to
change and grow. They tend to live in the past. Negative traits of the hoarding
personality include rigidity, sterility, obstinacy, compulsivity, and lack of creativity;
positive characteristics are orderliness, cleanliness, and punctuality
4. Marketing (also called exchanging): see themselves as commodities, with their
personal value dependent on their exchange value, that is, their ability to sell
themselves. see themselves as being in constant demand; they must make others
believe that they are skillful and salable. Marketing people are without a past or a
future and have no permanent principles or values. Negative traits of marketing
characters are aimless, opportunistic, inconsistent, and wasteful. Some of their
positive qualities include changeability, open mindedness, adaptability, and
generosity

Productive - The single productive orientation has three dimensions—working, loving,

and reasoning. Only through productive activity can people solve the basic human
dilemma: that is, to unite with the world and with others while retaining uniqueness and
 individuality. Healthy people value work not as an end in itself, but as a means of creative
self expression. love is characterized by the four qualities —care, responsibility, respect,
and knowledge. They think productively and don’t keep any self-delusions.

healthy people possess biophilia: that is, a passionate love of life and all that is alive.

Disorders
Fromm (1981) held that psychologically disturbed people are incapable of love and have failed
to establish union with others.

Necrophilia
This does not mean the usual usage of a perverted desire to have sexual relations with a corpse.
Froom used the term to mean a hatred for life. Necrophilic personalities hate humanity; they are
racists, warmongers, and bullies; they love bloodshed, destruction, terror, and torture; and they
delight in destroying life. They are strong advocates of law and order; love to talk about sickness,
death, and burials; and they are fascinated by dirt, decay, corpses, and feces. They prefer night to
day and love to operate in darkness and shadow.

Malignant Narcissism
in its malignant form, narcissism impedes the perception of reality so that everything belonging
to a narcissistic person is highly valued and everything belonging to another is devalued.
Narcissistic individuals are preoccupied with themselves, but this concern is not limited to
admiring themselves in a mirror. Preoccupation with one’s body often leads to hypochondriasis,
or an obsessive attention to one’s health. Fromm (1964) also discussed moral hypochondriasis,
or a preoccupation with guilt about previous transgressions.

They achieve security by holding on to the distorted belief that their extraordinary personal
qualities give them superiority over everyone else. They feel that need not do anything to prove
their value. Their sense of worth depends on their narcissistic self-image and not on their
achievements. When their efforts are criticized by others, they react with anger and rage.

Incestuous Symbiosis
an extreme dependence on the mother or mother surrogate. Incestuous symbiosis is an
exaggerated form of the more common and more benign mother fixation. Men with a mother
fixation need a woman to care for them, dote on them, and admire them; they feel somewhat
anxious and depressed when their needs are not fulfilled. The mother surrogate is any host or
entity that one relies upon like a business, church or family. People living in incestuous
symbiotic relationships feel extremely anxious and frightened if that relationship is threatened.

Syndrome of Decay and Syndrome of Growth

Some pathologic individuals possess all three personality disorders; that is necrophilia, malignant
narcissism and incestuous symbiosis. Such people formed what Fromm called the syndrome of
decay. He contrasted these pathological people with those who are marked by the syndrome of
growth, which is made up of the opposite qualities: namely, biophilia, love, and positive
freedom.

Psychotherapy
He then evolved his own system of therapy, which he called humanistic psychoanalysis.
Compared with Freud, Fromm was much more concerned with the interpersonal aspects of a
therapeutic encounter. He believed that the aim of therapy is for patients to come to know
themselves. Without knowledge of ourselves, we cannot know any other person or thing.

Fromm believed that patients come to therapy seeking satisfaction of their basic human needs—
relatedness, transcendence, rootedness, a sense of identity, and a frame of orientation. Therefore,
therapy should be built on a personal relationship between therapist and patient. therapists should
not try to be too scientific in understanding a patient. 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.

As part of his attempt to achieve shared communication, Fromm asked patients to reveal their
dreams. He believed that dreams, as well as fairy tales and myths, are expressed in symbolic
language—the only universal language humans have developed (Fromm, 1951).
Research

Bernard, Gebauer, & Maio (2006) tested the central components of Fromm’s theory through the
use of self-report measures in a sample of undergraduate students in Great Britain. They found
that the more a person reported that his or her values were discrepant from society in general, the
more likely he or she was to have a strong feeling of estrangement. This is not surprising.
Basically, if your values are different from those of your society or culture, you feel as though
you are different and not normal. This is also precisely what Fromm’s theory predicts.

Jack and Jeanne Block (2006) conducted a longitudinal study in which they assessed the
personality of a group of preschoolers. Almost 20 years later, they followed up with these
participants (many of whom were now in or had recently graduated from college) and asked
about their political beliefs. Children who were described by their teachers 20 years previously
as being easily offended, indecisive, fearful, and rigid were more likely to be politically
conservative in their twenties. Children who had been described as being self-reliant, energetic,
somewhat dominating, and relatively under control in preschool grew up to be more liberal. This
shows how people grow up to deal with their “burden of freedom” differently.

Criticism
Fromm’s imprecise and vague terms have rendered his ideas unusable as a generator of
empirical research. Fromm’s theory is too philosophical to be either falsifiable or verifiable.

the chief value of Fromm’s writings is to stimulate readers to think productively. Unfortunately,
however, neither the researcher nor the therapist receives much practical information from
Fromm’s essays.

Fromm’s social, political, and historical perspective provides both breadth and depth for
understanding the human condition; but his theory’s lack of precision makes prediction difficult
and falsification impossible.

Evaluation

Fromm tended to slightly favor teleology. He believed that people constantly strive for a frame of
orientation, a road map, by which to plan their lives into the future. Fromm took a middle stance
regarding conscious versus unconscious motivation, placing slightly more emphasis on
conscious motivation and contending that one of the uniquely human traits is self-awareness.
Fromm placed somewhat more importance on the impact of history, culture, and society than on
biology.