Erich Fromm, a psychoanalyst and social philosopher, was born on March 23rd, 1900 in Frankfurt, Germany. His father Naphtati Fromm was a businessman and, rather moody. His mother Rosa nee Krause suffered from depression. His family was very much religious, like Jung’s, the orthodox Jews. But he later became what he called an ‘atheistic mystic’. In short, his childhood wasn’t very happy. He was the only child of his anxious parents. His grandfather was the famous rabbi of his time. He came from a religious, orthodox, middle-class Jew family.
His whole family was of rabbinical ancestors, who sat the whole day and studied Talmud. Erich studied Talmud, read Bible, and heard lot of stories about his ancestors. He had only one non-Jewish teacher whom he admired and was greatly influenced by.
After receiving his Ph. D. from the University of Heidelberg in 1922, he took training in psychoanalysis at Munich and then at the Psycho-Analytic Institute of Berlin. Later he started practicing psychoanalysis as
a disciple of Sigmund Freud. He did not agree with Freud’s preoccupation of unconscious drives and consequent negligence of the role of societal factors in human psychology. In Fromm’s views, an individual’s personality is the product of his culture as well as his biology. He moved to the United States in 1933. He had already attained a distinguished reputation as a psychoanalyst, when he left Nazi- Germany. In United States, he came into conflict with the orthodox Freudian psychoanalytic circles. He stayed in New York, where he met many great thinkers, who also left their motherland because of their principles. One of them was Karen Horney, with whom he had an affair.
For six years, he worked in the faculty of Columbia University, where his views became increasingly controversial. Then he went to Vermont as a member of the faculty at Bennington College, worked there for ten years. In 1951, he was appointed as a professor of psychoanalysis at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. From 1957 to 1961 he held the post at Michigan State University, finally returning to New York as a professor of psychiatry at New York University.
Toward the end of his career, he moved to Mexico City to teach. He did considerable research on the relationship between economic class and personality types. He breathed his last in Switzerland at the age of 80.
INFLUENCE OF SIGMUND FREUD ON HIS LIFE
Freud influenced Erich’s life a great deal. He taught Erich that only a small part of oneself is conscious. He distinguished two kinds of unconsciousness :
1 Preconscious; something, which could be conscious but is not at the moment.
2 The sense of repression, which prevents some force within oneself from becoming conscious.
Besides Freud, there were two important psychoanalysts, Sandor Ferenczi and Georg Groddeck.
INFLUENCE OF KARL MARX ON HIS LIFE
Erich was drawn by Marx primarily for his philosophy, vision of socialism which expressed, in secular forms, the idea of human self-realization, total humanization, the idea of human being whose goal is vital self-expression and not the acquisition and accumulation of dead, materialistic things.
Freud and Marx have been the two great disillusioners, although Marx saw deeper because he looked at the forces underneath which need illusions, while Freud only individually dissolved illusions people had in their own individual relationship to reality"….
Fromm was heavily influenced by the writings of Karl Marx, particularly by an early work ‘The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts’ composed in 1844. This work is an English translation by T. B. Bottomore which is included in Fromm’s ‘Marx’s concept of Man’ (1961). In ‘Beyond The Chains of Illusion’ (1962), Fromm has compared the ideas of Freud and Marx. Fromm has regarded Marx as a more profound thinker than Freud, and used psychoanalysis mainly to fill the gaps in Marx. Fromm wrote a highly critical, even polemical, analysis of Freud’s personality; it was influenced by way of contrast, and unconditional eulogy of Marx. Although, Fromm could be accurately called a Marxian personality theorist, he himself preferred to be called a ‘dialectic humanist’. Fromm’s writings were inspired by his extensive knowledge of history, sociology, literature and philosophy.
MARCH 23, 1900
Erich Pinchas Fromm was born.
1918
Erich gave his final exam at Woler Schule in Frankfurt.
1919
Erich was the co-founder of the Fredie Judische Lehrhaus in Frankfurt.
1920
He switched from studying Jurisprudence to sociology under Alfred Weber at Heidelberg.
1922
He received his Ph.D. Doctorate from Heidelberg in Sociology.
1924
He opened the Therapeutikum in Monchhofstrase.
JUNE 16, 1926
He married Frieda Reichmann.
1927
His first publications as an orthodox Freudian Psychoanalyst.
1928
He had didactical analysis with Hanns Sachs, in Berlin.
1929
He was the co-founder of the south German Institute for Psychoanalysis in Frankfurt.
1930
He was made a member of the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt.
1931
He fell ill with tuberculosis of the lungs.
1932
The publication of the article ‘The Methods and Function of Analytical Social Psychology’.
1933
He got an invitation from Karen Horney, for guest lectures in Chicago.His father died.
MAY 25, 1934
He emigrated to the USA.
1935
His article ‘The Social Determination of Psychoanalytic Therapy’ was published.
1936
His concept of the authoritarian character in Horkheimer’s ‘Studies in Authority and the Family’ was published.
1937
He revised his Psychoanalytical approach.
1938
He had a remission of tuberculosis.
1939
He left the institute for Social Research.
MAY 25, 1940
He got American citizenship.
1941
He began teaching at the New School for Social Research in New York.
1942
He started part-time professorship at Bennington College in Vermont.
1943
He discontinued with Horney.
JULY 24, 1944
He married Henny Gurland.
1947
His ‘Man for Himself’ was published.
JUNE 6, 1950
He moved to Mexico City.
1951
He was appointed as a professor at the Medical Faculty of National Autonomous University of Mexico.
JUNE 4, 1952
Henny Gurland Fromm died.
DEC. 18, 1953
He married Annis Freeman, nee Glover.
1955
His ‘The Sane Society’ was published.
1956
His ‘The Art of Loving’ was published.
1957
His seminar with Diaset T. Suzuki. Death of Frieda Fromm, Reichmann
1959
Death of his mother in New York.
1960
He intensified political engagement, for the Socialist Party of the USA.
1961
His ‘Marx’s Concept of Man’ was published.
1962
His ‘Beyond the chains of Illusion’ was published.
1963
Opening of the Mexican Psychoanalytical Institute.
1964
His concept of biophilia-necrophilia was published.
1965
He achieved emeritus status at the National Autonomous University of Mexico City.
1966
His first heart attack led him to Europe for a long time.
1968
He assisted in the election campaign of Eugene McCarthy and published ‘The Revolution of Hope’.
1969
He rented an apartment in Locarno, Tessin in Switzerland, as a summer retreat.
1970
His field research on ‘Mexican Peasants’ was published.
1973
His ‘The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness’ was published.
1974
He decided to give up the house in Cuernavaca and to stay in Tessin all year around.
1975
Operation upon in New York.
1976
His ‘To have or To be ?’ was published.
1977
He suffered from a second heart attack.
1978
His third heart attack brought on a deterioration of his condition.
MARCH 18, 1980
He died due to a fourth heart attack in Switzerland.
HIS PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC APPROACHES
Erich was more interested in his work; that is the relationship of one human being to another and specifically to human emotions that are rooted, not in instinct but in man’s existence as a human being.
HIS PSYCHOANALYTICAL APPROACH
He tried to show drives, which motivate social behavior, are not as Freud assumed, sub limitations of sexual instincts. They are product of social processes, reactions to certain constellations under which individual has to satisfy their instincts. Drives are fundamentals different from natural factors, namely hunger, thirst and sexuality. But in common to all human beings and animals, are specifically human products and not biological, they are to be understood in the context of the social way of life.
ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM < 1941 >
In his book, ‘Escape from Freedom’, Fromm charted the growth of human freedom and self-awareness from middle ages to modern times and using psychoanalytic techniques analyzed the tendency of modern emancipation, man to take refuge from his new insecurities by turning to totalitarian movement such as Nazism. He developed philosophy about freedom, as a human gained more freedom, he felt more lonely. In this way freedom became a
negative condition from which one tried to escape.
According to Fromm’s writing, we can assume that a person feels lonely and isolated. In other animals, this condition is not seen. But in human beings it happens because a person is separated from nature and other species of animals. So it was a distinctive situation. So he or she feels isolated and helpless. In the same way serf floated itself in a temporarily different world during it’s course of freedom.
The main theme of all of Fromm’s writing was that a person feels lonely and isolated because he or she has been separated from nature and from other people. Escape From Freedom’ was written under the shadow of the Nazi dictatorship and it appealed to the people because it offered them a new security.
In this book Erich Fromm emphasized the following thesis, which is as under :
"It is the thesis of this book that modern man, freed from the bonds of pre – individualistic society, which simultaneously gave him a sense of security and limited him, has not gained freedom in the positive sense of the realization of his individual self. The expression of his intellectual, emotional, and sensuous potentialities. Freedom, though it has brought him independence and rationality, has made him isolated and, thereby, anxious and powerless. This isolation is unbearable and the alternatives he confronted are either to escape from the burden of this freedom into new dependencies and submission, or to advance on to the full realization of positive freedom, which is based upon the uniqueness and individuality of man."
According to him, there are three ways in which we escape from freedom :
AUTHORITARIANISM
We avoid freedom by fusing ourselves with others, by becoming a part of an authoritarian system like the society. There are two ways to it – one is to submit to the power of others, becoming passive and compliant, the other is to become an authority all by yourself. Fromm referred to the extreme version of authoritarianism as masochism and sadism. The sadist, with all his apparent power over the masochist, is not free to choose his actions.
DESTRUCTIVENESS
Authoritarians mean a painful existence, which eliminate themselves. The central idea is : ‘If there is no me, how can anything hurt me ?’ If a person’s desire to destroy is blocked by circumstances, he or she may direct it again inwardly. Most obvious kind of self-destructiveness is suicide. There are also other forms of destructiveness like, drug addiction, illnesses, alcoholism, and also the joys of passive entertainment. In short, frustrated destructiveness means self–destructiveness.
AUTOMATON CONFORMITY
Authoritarians escape, authoritarian hierarchy. On the other hand, our society insists on equality. The fact is, when we need to hide, we hide in our mass culture. Automation conformity if used by an individual he is like a social chameleon, which changes as the colors of his surroundings. The automaton conformist experiences a gap between his genuine feelings and the colors he shows to the world. >
In humanity ‘true nature’ is freedom, any of escape from freedom alienates us from ourselves. Fromm talks about ‘true’ personal freedom, rather then just political freedom. Mostly all of us, whether we are free or not, tend to like the idea of political freedom, as it means that we can do whatever we want. Fromm was not very much against the idea of political freedom, but he was especially eager to make use of that freedom and take the responsibility for it.
• Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.
• Modern man thinks he loves something – time – when he does not do things quickly. Yet, he does not know what to do with the time he gains – except to kill it.
• Love is an act of faith and whoever is of little faith is also of little love.
• The mother – child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the mother’s side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother and to become fully independent.
• If you wish to be loved: Love!
• The animal is equipped by nature to cope with the very conditions it is to meet.
• The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots.
• Immature love says: I love you because I need you. Mature love says : I need you because I love you.
• Authority is not a quality a person has, in the sense that he has property or physical qualities. Authority refers to an interpersonal relation in which one person looks upon another as somebody superior to him.
• Most people die before they are fully born. Creativeness means to be born before one dies.
• Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve.
• The understanding of man’s psyche must be based on the analysis of man’s needs stemming from the conditions of his existence.
• Man’s biological weakness is the condition of human culture.
• In the nineteenth century, the problem was that God is dead. In twentieth century, the problem is that man is dead.
• Man may be defined as the animal that can say ‘I’, that can be aware of himself as a separate entity.
• Nationalism is our form of incest, is our idolatry, is our insanity. ‘Patriotism’, is its cult. It should hardly be necessary to say, by "Patriotism" I mean that attitude which puts the own nation above humanity, above the principles of truth and justice, not the loving interest in one’s own nation, which is the concern with the nation’s spiritual as much as with its material welfare – never with its power over other nations. Just as love for one individual excludes the love for others, is not love, love for one’s country which is not part of one’s love for humanity is not love, but idolatrous worship.
• Society must be organized in such a way that man’s social, loving nature is not separated from his social existence, but becomes one with it.
Erich Fromm has been called "One of the most influential and popular Neo-Freudian psychoanalysts in America." He received Ph.D. degree from the University of Heidelberg in 1922. He joined as a lecturer in the University of Mexico and later he was promoted to the post of the director of ‘Mexican Psychoanalytic Institute’. Fromm’s theory on ‘Escape from Freedom’ was received with great enthusiasm, not only from the psychologists, but also from worldwide thinkers.
