Erich Fromm

Sunwoo Park

Who is Erich Fromm? March 23, 1900 –

March 18, 1980 Born in Frankfut,

Germany Social psychologist,

psychoanalyst, and humanistic philosopher

From religious family Had his career during

depression

Humanistic Philosophy

Adam and Eve’s exile Distinguish between

good and evil Separate from nature

= evolved into human beings

Conscious of morality and no longer united with the universe

Escape from Freedom

Escaping your separate identity

Central characteristic of human nature

Psychological conflicts

Escape from Freedom

Three Escape Mechanism Authoritarianism – To be

controlled by another Automaton conformity – Hiding

within an authoritarian hierarchy Destructiveness – Try to

eliminate others or the world as a whole

Families

Affects the type of the escapes from freedom

Two kinds of unproductive families Symbiotic Families Withdrawing Families

Families

Symbiotic Families “Swallowed up” by other members

Withdrawing Families Parents are very demanding of

their children (Rules are more important than people) (Cold version)

No real adult guidance

The Social Unconsciousness Our way of doing things is

the only way All the actions have all

become unconscious Best understood by

examining five personality types (orientations)

Five Orientations

All efforts at life The receptive orientation The exploitative orientation The hoarding orientation The marketing orientation The productive orientation

Five Orientations

The receptive orientation Expecting to get what they need

Peasant Freud’s oral passive Submissive and accepting Peasant

Five Orientations

The exploitative orientation Expecting to have to take what they need

Upper classes Freud’s oral aggressive Aggressive and conceited (-)Proud and captivating (+)

Five Orientations

The hoarding orientation Expecting to keep Bourgeoisie Possessions Freud’s anal retentive type Stubborn, stingy, and unimaginative

(-)Steadfast, economical, and practical (+)

Five Orientations

The marketing orientation Expecting to sell Sell myself, package myself, and

advertise myself Modern industrial society Freud’s vague phallic personality Opportunistic and childish (-)

Purposeful and social (+)

Five Orientations

The productive orientation Without a mask Without rejecting nature Yet no society Humanistic communitarian

socialism Altruism

The Having Mode

Focus on consuming, obtaining, and possessing

Receptive, Exploitative, Hoarding, and Marketing orientation

The Being Mode

Defined by your actions in this world

Live without a mask, experiencing life, and being yourself

Productive orientation

Orientation

Society Family Escape from

Freedom

Receptive Peasant societySymbiotic (passive)

Authoritarian (masochistic)

Exploitative

Aristocratic society

Symbiotic (active)

Authoritarian (sadistic)

Hoarding Bourgeois societyWithdrawing (puritanical)

Perfectionist to destructive

Marketing Modern societyWithdrawing

(infantile)Automaton conformist

ProductiveHumanistic

communitarian socialism

Loving and reasoning

Freedom and responsibility acknowledged and accepted

Biophilous & Necrophilous Biophilous

Life-loving Trying to cope with life Receptive, Exploitative, Hoarding,

Marketing, and Productive orientation Eros

Necrophilous The lovers of death To destroy Thenatos

Human Needs

Go far beyond the basic needs To find an answer to his

existence

Relatedness Transcendence Rootedness Sense of identity A frame of orientation

Relatedness

Aware of our separateness from each other and seek to overcome it

Relationships with others, care, respect, knowledge

Narcissism

Creativity

Desire to overcome being passive creatures

Creators Creativity, develop a loving

and interesting life. Can lead to destruction

Rootedness

Need to feel at home (safe environment)

Feeling of belonging Schizophrenia

Sense of Identity

Need to have a sense of identity, of unique individuality

Narcissism

A Frame of Orientation

Need to understand the world and our place in it

Our society attempts to provide attempts to provide us with this understanding.

Fromm’s Research

Freud = Sexual Observation method and

clinical practice Karen Horney, Karl Jung Marx = Social economic Cultural variations, history,

social conditions

Bibliography

http://www.answers.com/topic/erich-fromm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Fromm

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/fromm.html