Erich Fromm

Background German

Ph.D. in sociology from University of Heidelberg in 1922.

1920s, he was trained to become a psychoanalyst, own clinical practice in 1927.

Moved to Geneva and then to Columbia University in New York in 1934.

Taught as a professor in various universities into his 60s.

Close associate of Horney

Social and cultural over and against biological

More influenced by sociology than Horney

Contributions Freedom

Human needs

Orientations of Character

FREEEEEEDDOOOMMM

FREEDOM According to Fromm, rise of modern democracy = freedom

= problems of personal responsibilities.

Freedom is frightening!

We feel an “unbearable state of powerless and aloneness”

Become aware of things out of our control and confront our insignificance.

Fromm identifies to types of responses to this situation:

“FREEDOM FROM” (negative freedom) or “FREEDOM TO” (positive freedom)

Freedom From -ve!

Escape from anxieties caused by freedom!

Three main strategies:

i) Authoritarianism

ii) Destructiveness

iii) Automaton conformity

Authoritarianis

m

Tendency to “fuse one’s self with somebody or something outside of oneself in order to acquire the strength which the individual self is lacking”

Authoritarian characters both strives for submission AND domination (masochism and sadism).

One hand, strong feelings of inferiority = fuse with more powerful group; other hand, motivated to dominate.

Fromm believes these defenses of powerlessness are inadequate and neurotic.

Link to Adler and Freud

Whereas Adler believed striving for superiority = +ve, Fromm saw such striving as neurotically motivated and harmful.

Whereas Freud used sexual themes to describe the child’s identification with the parent, Fromm suggested it to be a masochistic response to identify with the stronger parent.

Destructivenes

s

Attempts to overcome life’s threatening situations by destroying them.

Believed destructiveness = unconsciously motivated so those engaged in it rationalise away the antisocial actions.

Cited love, duty, and patriotism as common rationalisation for destructive acts.

Automaton

Conformity

Used by majority.

By acting as everybody else, we can temporarily escape our own individuality and thereby escape from the threatening aspects of personal freedom.

“the person who gives up his individual self and becomes an automaton, identical with millions of other automatons around him, need not feel alone and anxious any more. But the price he pays, however, is high; it is the loss of his self”

Fromm argued that the thoughts, feelings and actions most of us believe to originate from within are oftentimes reflections of the external world and the restrictive role we have come to adopt.

FREEDOM TO +ve freedom!

Those who do not escape from freedom may succeed in the process of individuation.

Begins when children become aware of themselves as separate and unique beings.

Key to individuation is spontaneity – allowing ourselves to express the emotional and intellectual aspects of ourselves that otherwise might be hidden in an escape strategy.

HUMAN NEEDS

Basic Needs According to Fromm, freedom gave rise to specific basic

needs.

These needs must be met in order to be fully developed.

Unless we can structure our lives in such a way that our basic needs are fulfilled constructively, we either die or become insane.

A person’s culture/society structures and limits the way in which the basic needs may be fulfilled.

SIX BASIC HUMAN NEEDS

motivating behaviour

NEED DESCRIPTION

Relatedness Relationships with others, care, respect, knowledge

Transcendence Creativity, develop a loving and interesting life

Rootedness Feeling of belonging, security, stability

Sense of Identity See ourselves as a unique person and part of a social group

Frame of Orientation Understand the world and our place in it; search for own life’s meaning; adopting goals

Excitation and Stimulation Engaging with the world through stimulating activities

ORIENTATIONS OF CHARACTER

Orientations Fromm believed a person’s character is determined by

culture and its objectives; therefore possible to consider social character types/qualities that are frequently shared by the people of a particular culture.

Fromm identified five common character orientations in Western societies.

ORIENTATIONS OF CHARACTER

TYPE DESCRIPTION

Receptive Passive and dependent orientation. All good things comes from the outside. To be loved – not necessarily to love. similar to Freud's oral passive, Adler's leaning-getting, and Horney's moving towards personality.

Exploitative Aggressive and self-centred. Need to take from others: world filled with things to take. They are Freud's oral aggressive, Adler's ruling-dominant, and Horney's moving against types

Hoarding Strives to accumulate possessions, love, and holds on. Sees the outside world a threat. Freud would call it the anal retentive type, Adler (to some extent) the avoiding type, and Horney’s moving away type

Marketing Markets oneself like a commodity. Sees personality traits and skills as tradable goods

Productive Fulfills inner potential to become a creative person. Transcends superficial social roles to realise potential. Similar to Maslow’s self-actualisation.

FROMM'S ORIENTATIONS TEST

How well does each word apply to you?  5 (very well), 4, 3, 2, 1 (not at all).

SCORINGReceptive score is the sum of column 1

Exploitative score is the sum of column 2

Hoarding score is the sum of column 3

Marketing score is the sum of column 4

Productive score is the sum of rows 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, and 12, divided by 2.

Scores from 12 to 24 are low 25 to 36 low medium 37 to 48 high medium and 49 to 60 high.

Please do not take your scores too seriously: the reliability and validity of this test are unknown! This is presented only to give you a better sense of Fromm's orientations.