měi guó lěng zhàn zhōng de měi guó  (1900niánsānyuè23rì～1980niánsānyuè18rì)

Erich Seligmann Fromm

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埃里希-弗洛姆，世界闻名的德裔美籍心理学家、精神分析学家、哲学家。1900年生于德国法兰克福犹太人家庭，1922年获德国海德堡大学哲学博士学位，是20年代“法兰克福学派”重要成员。纳粹上台后，他于1934年赴美，在从事心理咨询工作的同时，在哥伦比亚大学等学术机构讲学，并先后执教于墨西哥国立大学、密歇根州立人学等高校。1980年，弗洛姆病逝于瑞士。

埃里希·弗罗姆（德语：Erich Fromm，1900年3月23日－1980年3月18日），又译作弗洛姆，美籍德国犹太人。人本主义哲学家和精神分析心理学家。毕生致力修改弗洛伊德的精神分析学说，以切合西方人在两次世界大战后的精神处境。他企图调和弗洛伊德的精神分析学跟人本主义的学说，其思想可以说是新弗洛依德主义与新马克思主义的交汇。弗洛姆被尊为“精神分析社会学”的奠基者之一。

弗洛姆是法兰克福学派的成员，后来从德国移居美国后仍然保持与学派的联系。 

生平与经历

弗洛姆1900年生于一个德国法兰克福犹太人家庭，为家中独子。1918年弗洛姆进入法兰克福大学学习两学期法学。1919年暑假后，弗洛姆进入海德堡大学学习，改学社会学，师承阿尔弗雷德·韦伯（马克斯·韦伯的兄弟）、卡尔·雅斯贝斯和海因里希·李凯尔特。1922年获哲学博士学位。次年至慕尼黑大学专攻精神分析学，1925年至1930年间，在柏林精神分析学会接受精神分析训练。1930年，他开始临床实践，加入法兰克福社会观察学会。纳粹在德国执政后，弗洛姆搬到日内瓦，1934年到纽约哥伦比亚大学工作。离开哥伦比亚大学后，在1943年他帮助组建华盛顿精神病学学校纽约分校。1945年又组建了William Alanson White 精神病学，精神分析和心理学协会。

1950，弗洛姆搬到墨西哥城，在墨西哥国立自治大学出任教授，并在那里的医学院建立精神分析部。另一方面，他从1957年到1961年担任密歇根州立大学心理学教授，又从1962年担任纽约大学文理学院心理学客座教授。1965年弗洛姆退休，然后在1974年搬到瑞士穆拉尔托。1980年，弗在八十岁生日前五天于家中去世。弗洛姆一生坚持临床实践，出版了一系列著作。

学说内容

弗洛姆的作品以纪录社会政治以及作为基础哲学和心理学著名。

弗洛姆于1941年发表他的第一本重大著作《逃避自由》。1947年出版其续集——《为自己的人》。这两本著作概述了弗洛姆的人的本性理论中人的性格理论。弗洛姆最流行的著作是1956年出版的《爱的艺术》，他在这著作中概括并补充了《逃避自由》和《为自己的人》及其他著作中的人性理论。

弗洛姆从小学习《塔木德经》（犹太教的法典），人生观受其影响深远。年轻时他跟随犹太教祭司J. Horowitz学习《圣经》，后来在海德堡大学修读社会学博士时跟随祭司Salman Baruch Rabinkow学习 。在法兰克福读书时又跟随过Nehemia Nobel和Ludwig Krause。弗洛姆的祖父及其两个哥哥都是祭司，一个舅公是著名的《塔木德经》学者。然而在1926年，弗洛姆离开正统犹太教，转向以人本主义解释《圣经》的典范。

弗洛姆对《圣经》中亚当与夏娃被逐出伊甸园的故事的解释奠定了他的人本主义哲学的基石。弗洛姆指出，辨别善恶通常被视为是一种美德，研究《圣经》的学者却都认为亚当与夏娃吃知善恶树的果实犯了罪，因为他们违背了上帝代表父性的一面。他认为人应运用其创造力来建立自己的价值，不是以服从父性权威和依赖母性的关爱来建立道德价值。弗洛姆认为人应当脱离宗教中将上帝当作父亲和母亲来爱的主流态度，认识到上帝是人类所需要追求的全部事物投射，从而拥有成熟的、爱的能力，而非停留于幼稚的爱。他也认为关于上帝的观念，在历史和宗教的形成中，根据精神分析的理论是逐渐演变和成熟的。

除了纯粹谴责权威主义的价值体系，弗氏也把亚当与夏娃的故事作为比喻，以解释人类不安的情绪。亚当与夏娃吃了知识树的果实，他们意识到当自己仍然是大自然的一部分，自己与大自然已不再是一体。于是他们觉得 “赤裸”和“羞愧”。他们已经进化成人类，意识到自己，意识到道德价值，意识到面对大自然和外部世界的巨大力量带来的无力感，不再是与自然为一体，只有动物本能的那个“准人类”。按照弗洛姆，罪恶感和羞愧源于人意识到人和自然、人和人之间存在的割裂性。要解决这种存在的分裂，唯有发挥人类的积极力量和创造性——爱和理性。

弗洛姆认为爱是人与人之间的创造力，而不是感情。他以此创造力把各种经常来当作“真爱”的证明的自恋神经症和性虐待倾向区别开来。弗氏相信爱的本质有四大元素：关怀、责任、尊重和了解。认为“爱情”的经验只代表一个人未能真正了解爱的本质。弗氏利用《圣经》里约拿的故事说明在现今人际关系中，关怀和责任的特质已十分少见。故事讲述尼尼微城镇的居民有罪，要承受恶果，约拿却不愿意去拯救他们。弗氏称现代社会的人缺少对别人的自由的尊重，更不了解别人真正的希望和需要。

他认为资本主义社会病态、不义的尺度便是它不符合人性和人的需求，据此他提出了人有五种需求：

• 相属需求。指个体具有爱人与被爱的需求，希望认识别人，了解、关怀别人，并愿意对别人承担责任；
• 超越需求。指个人希望在作为上超越物质条件的限制，在精神上能表现出创造性的人格特质；
• 落实需求。指个人希望与别人、社会及与大自然亲密结合，从而获得安身立命的需求；
• 统合需求。指个人力求自己人格统整，希望在世界上活出意义来的心理倾向；
• 定向需求。指个人具有努力寻求生活方向从而获得心安的心理倾向。

他讨论了资本主义社会中人们应付孤独感的几种心理机制，他称之为性格的动力倾向性：

• 接纳倾向性——这种倾向性的人没有生产或提供爱的能力，他所需要的一切完全寻求别人帮助、依赖别人，是接受者而不是给予者。
• 剥削倾向性——这种倾向性的人，并不期望接受，而是依其暴力、诡计等，从他人处巧取豪夺，以满足自己的欲望。
• 贮藏倾向性——这种倾向性的人把外部世界视为威胁，通过贮存和占有而获得安全感。
• 市场倾向性——这种倾向性的人的价值观是在市场上把自己当作商品，使自己具备适合雇主所需之性格特征。
• 创造倾向性——这种倾向性的人充分发挥其潜能，成为创造者，对社会可以作出创造性的奉献。

上述前四种倾向性都是人格的病态表现，针对有心理疾病的人而言，提出应当根据患者的心理需求和性格倾向实施治疗与拯救；只有创造倾向性是人格常态的、健康的表现，对一般的健康人，应加以积极的引导，促使他们的人格健全地发展。

弗洛姆提出了社会潜意识，社会潜意识是一个社会的大多数成员共同存在的被压抑的领域。他指出，历史上大多数社会都是少数人统治并剥削多数人，因此必然会想方设法不让大多数人意识到这种社会的不合理，必须把人们的怨恨情绪压抑下去。压抑的机制是每个社会都有的一套决定人 的认识方式的体系，其作用类似于过滤器。除非人们的经验能够透过这个过滤器否则就不能成为意识。这种社会过滤器由三种要素组成：一、语言。难以用语言表达 的经验和现象则难以成为明确的意识；二、逻辑，不合逻辑的经验被排斥在意识之外，而不同文化有不同的逻辑；三、社会禁忌，指每个社会都排斥某些思想和感 情，使之不被思考、感受和表达。在构成过滤器的三种要素中，社会禁忌是最重要的。社会潜意识和社会性格一样是联系经济基础和意识形态的中介环节。对个人方面，是个体为逃避被他人和社会所孤立和排斥而形成的心理机能。

著作

出版年份	英文书名	中文书名		备注
1941	Escape from Freedom	逃避自由
1947	Man for Himself	自我的追寻、 为自己而活	为自己的人
1950	Psychoanalysis and Religion		心理分析与宗教	台湾无出版
1951	Forgotten language; an introduction to the understanding of dreams, fairy tales, and myths	梦的精神分析	被遗忘的语言
1955	The Sane Society	理性的挣扎	健全的社会
1956	The Art of Loving	爱的艺术	爱的艺术
1959	Sigmund Freud's mission; an analysis of his personality and influence	论佛洛以德、 弗洛伊德的使命	弗洛伊德的使命— 人格与影响力分析
1960	Psychoanalysis and Zen Buddhism	禅与心理分析	心理分析和禅宗
1960	Let Man Prevail – A Socialist Manifesto and Program			无中文译本
1961	May Man Prevail? An Inquiry into the Facts and Fictions of Foreign Policy		人性会占优势吗	无中文译本
1961	Marx’s Concept of Man. With a Translation of Marx's Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts	马克思关于人的概念	马克思论人
1962	Beyond the Chains of Illusion: my encounter with Marx and Freud	在幻想锁链的彼岸— 我所理解的马克思和弗洛伊德	在幻想锁链的彼岸— 我所理解的马克思和弗洛伊德
1963	The Dogma of Christ and Other Essays on Religion, Psychology and Culture	基督教义的心理分析	基督教义分析
1964	The Heart of Man. Its Genius for Good and Evil	人的心	人的心—他的善恶天性、 恶的本性
1965	Socialist Humanism. An International Symposium		社会主义的人道主义	无中文译本
1966	You Shall Be as Gods. A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and Its Tradition		像上帝一样生存	无中文译本
1968	The Revolution of Hope. Toward a Humanized Technology	人类新希望	希望的革命— 通向人性化的技术
1968	Nature of Man		人的本性	无中文译本
1970	The Crisis of Psychoanalysis. Essays on Freud, Marx and Social Psychology		心理分析的危机	无中文译本
1970	Social character in a Mexican village; a sociopsychoanalytic study		一个墨西哥村庄的社会性格— 一项社会心理分析研究	无中文译本
1973	The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness	人类破坏性的剖析	人的破坏性剖析
1976	To Have or to Be	生命的展现	占有还是生存
1979	Greatness and Limitation of Freud's Thought	超越佛洛伊德	弗洛伊德思想的伟大和局限
1980	The Working Class in Weimar Germany. A Psychological and Sociological Study, edited and introduced			无中文译本
1981	On Disobedience and Other Essays		论不服从	台湾无出版
1983	For the Love of Life	生命之爱	生命之爱
1985	The Erich Fromm Reader. Readings Selected and Edited			无中文译本
1989	The Art of Being		生存的艺术	无中文译本
1990	The Revision of Psychoanalysis			无中文译本
1991	The Art of Listening		听的艺术	无中文译本
1991	The Pathology of Normalcy. Contributions to a Science of Man			无中文译本
1992	Beyond Freud: From Individual to Social Psychoanalysis, ed. and with a foreword			无中文译本
1992	On Being Human			无中文译本
1994	Love, Sexuality, and Matrarchy. About Gender, ed. and with an introduction			无中文译本
2010	On Disobedience. Why Freedom Means Saying “No” to Power			无中文译本

以上部分著作有一种或更多的中文译本.

参见

• 宗教心理学
• 社会角色
• 自动化从众

外部链接

• 国际弗洛姆协会
• 弗洛姆档案
• "Homo Consumens"

Erich Seligmann Fromm (/frɒm/; German: [fʁɔm]; March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was a German Jew who fled the Nazi regime and settled in the US. He was one of the Founders of The William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis and Psychology in New York City and was associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory.

Life

Erich Fromm was born on March 23, 1900, at Frankfurt am Main, the only child of Orthodox Jewish parents, Rosa (Krause) and Naphtali Fromm. He started his academic studies in 1918 at the University of Frankfurt am Main with two semesters of jurisprudence. During the summer semester of 1919, Fromm studied at the University of Heidelberg, where he began studying sociology under Alfred Weber (brother of the better known sociologist Max Weber), psychiatrist-philosopher Karl Jaspers, and Heinrich Rickert. Fromm received his PhD in sociology from Heidelberg in 1922. During the mid-1920s, he trained to become a psychoanalyst through Frieda Reichmann's psychoanalytic sanatorium in Heidelberg. They married in 1926, but separated shortly after and divorced in 1942. He began his own clinical practice in 1927. In 1930 he joined the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research and completed his psychoanalytical training.

After the Nazi takeover of power in Germany, Fromm moved first to Geneva and then, in 1934, to Columbia University in New York. Together with Karen Horney and Harry Stack Sullivan, Fromm belongs to a Neo-Freudian school of psychoanalytical thought. Horney and Fromm each had a marked influence on the other's thought, with Horney illuminating some aspects of psychoanalysis for Fromm and the latter elucidating sociology for Horney. Their relationship ended in the late 1930s. After leaving Columbia, Fromm helped form the New York branch of the Washington School of Psychiatry in 1943, and in 1946 co-founded the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology. He was on the faculty of Bennington College from 1941 to 1949, and taught courses at the New School for Social Research in New York from 1941 to 1959.

When Fromm moved to Mexico City in 1949, he became a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and established a psychoanalytic section at the medical school there. Meanwhile, he taught as a professor of psychology at Michigan State University from 1957 to 1961 and as an adjunct professor of psychology at the graduate division of Arts and Sciences at New York University after 1962. He taught at UNAM until his retirement, in 1965, and at the Mexican Society of Psychoanalysis (SMP) until 1974. In 1974 he moved from Mexico City to Muralto, Switzerland, and died at his home in 1980, five days before his eightieth birthday. All the while, Fromm maintained his own clinical practice and published a series of books.

Fromm was reportedly an atheist^{[n 2]} but described his position as "nontheistic mysticism".

Psychological theory

Beginning with his first seminal work of 1941, Escape from Freedom (known in Britain as Fear of Freedom), Fromm's writings were notable as much for their social and political commentary as for their philosophical and psychological underpinnings. Indeed, Escape from Freedom is viewed as one of the founding works of political psychology. His second important work, Man for Himself: An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics, first published in 1947, continued and enriched the ideas of Escape from Freedom. Taken together, these books outlined Fromm's theory of human character, which was a natural outgrowth of Fromm's theory of human nature. Fromm's most popular book was The Art of Loving, an international bestseller first published in 1956, which recapitulated and complemented the theoretical principles of human nature found in Escape from Freedom and Man for Himself—principles which were revisited in many of Fromm's other major works.

Central to Fromm's world view was his interpretation of the Talmud and Hasidism. He began studying Talmud as a young man under Rabbi J. Horowitz and later under Rabbi Salman Baruch Rabinkow, a Chabad Hasid. While working towards his doctorate in sociology at the University of Heidelberg, Fromm studied the Tanya by the founder of Chabad, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi. Fromm also studied under Nehemia Nobel and Ludwig Krause while studying in Frankfurt. Fromm's grandfather and two great grandfathers on his father's side were rabbis, and a great uncle on his mother's side was a noted Talmudic scholar. However, Fromm turned away from orthodox Judaism in 1926, towards secular interpretations of scriptural ideals.

The cornerstone of Fromm's humanistic philosophy is his interpretation of the biblical story of Adam and Eve's exile from the Garden of Eden. Drawing on his knowledge of the Talmud, Fromm pointed out that being able to distinguish between good and evil is generally considered to be a virtue, but that biblical scholars generally consider Adam and Eve to have sinned by disobeying God and eating from the Tree of Knowledge. However, departing from traditional religious orthodoxy on this, Fromm extolled the virtues of humans taking independent action and using reason to establish moral values rather than adhering to authoritarian moral values.

Beyond a simple condemnation of authoritarian value systems, Fromm used the story of Adam and Eve as an allegorical explanation for human biological evolution and existential angst, asserting that when Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, they became aware of themselves as being separate from nature while still being part of it. This is why they felt "naked" and "ashamed": they had evolved into human beings, conscious of themselves, their own mortality, and their powerlessness before the forces of nature and society, and no longer united with the universe as they were in their instinctive, pre-human existence as animals. According to Fromm, the awareness of a disunited human existence is a source of guilt and shame, and the solution to this existential dichotomy is found in the development of one's uniquely human powers of love and reason. However, Fromm distinguished his concept of love from unreflective popular notions as well as Freudian paradoxical love (see the criticism by Marcuse below).

Fromm considered love an interpersonal creative capacity rather than an emotion, and he distinguished this creative capacity from what he considered to be various forms of narcissistic neuroses and sado-masochistic tendencies that are commonly held out as proof of "true love". Indeed, Fromm viewed the experience of "falling in love" as evidence of one's failure to understand the true nature of love, which he believed always had the common elements of care, responsibility, respect, and knowledge. Drawing from his knowledge of the Torah, Fromm pointed to the story of Jonah, who did not wish to save the residents of Nineveh from the consequences of their sin, as demonstrative of his belief that the qualities of care and responsibility are generally absent from most human relationships. Fromm also asserted that few people in modern society had respect for the autonomy of their fellow human beings, much less the objective knowledge of what other people truly wanted and needed.

Fromm believed that freedom was an aspect of human nature that we either embrace or escape. He observed that embracing our freedom of will was healthy, whereas escaping freedom through the use of escape mechanisms was the root of psychological conflicts. Fromm outlined three of the most common escape mechanisms:

• Automaton conformity: changing one's ideal self to conform to a perception of society's preferred type of personality, losing one's true self in the process; Automaton conformity displaces the burden of choice from self to society;
• Authoritarianism: giving control of oneself to another. By submitting one's freedom to someone else, this act removes the freedom of choice almost entirely.
• Destructiveness: any process which attempts to eliminate others or the world as a whole, all to escape freedom. Fromm said that "the destruction of the world is the last, almost desperate attempt to save myself from being crushed by it".

The word biophilia was frequently used by Fromm as a description of a productive psychological orientation and "state of being". For example, in an addendum to his book The Heart of Man: Its Genius For Good and Evil, Fromm wrote as part of his humanist credo:

"I believe that the man choosing progress can find a new unity through the development of all his human forces, which are produced in three orientations. These can be presented separately or together: biophilia, love for humanity and nature, and independence and freedom."

Erich Fromm postulated eight basic needs:

Need	Description
Transcendence	Being thrown into the world without their consent, humans have to transcend their nature by destroying or creating people or things. Humans can destroy through malignant aggression, or killing for reasons other than survival, but they can also create and care about their creations.
Rootedness	Rootedness is the need to establish roots and to feel at home again in the world. Productively, rootedness enables us to grow beyond the security of our mother and establish ties with the outside world. With the nonproductive strategy, we become fixated and afraid to move beyond the security and safety of our mother or a mother substitute.
Sense of Identity	The drive for a sense of identity is expressed nonproductively as conformity to a group and productively as individuality.
Frame of orientation	Understanding the world and our place in it.
Excitation and Stimulation	Actively striving for a goal rather than simply responding.
Unity	A sense of oneness between one person and the "natural and human world outside."
Effectiveness	The need to feel accomplished.

Fromm's thesis of the "escape from freedom" is epitomized in the following passage. The "individualized man" referenced by Fromm is man bereft of the "primary ties" of belonging (i.e. nature, family, etc.), also expressed as "freedom from":

There is only one possible, productive solution for the relationship of individualized man with the world: his active solidarity with all men and his spontaneous activity, love and work, which unite him again with the world, not by primary ties but as a free and independent individual.... However, if the economic, social and political conditions... do not offer a basis for the realization of individuality in the sense just mentioned, while at the same time people have lost those ties which gave them security, this lag makes freedom an unbearable burden. It then becomes identical with doubt, with a kind of life which lacks meaning and direction. Powerful tendencies arise to escape from this kind of freedom into submission or some kind of relationship to man and the world which promises relief from uncertainty, even if it deprives the individual of his freedom.

— Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom [N.Y.: Rinehart, 1941], pp. 36–7. The point is repeated on pp. 31, 256–7.)

Five basic orientations

In his book Man for Himself Fromm spoke of "orientation of character". He differentiates his theory of character from that of Freud by focusing on two ways an individual relates to the world. Freud analyzed character in terms of libido organization, whereas Fromm says that in the process of living, we relate to the world by: 1) acquiring and assimilating things—"Assimilation", and 2) reacting to people—"Socialization". Fromm asserted that these two ways of relating to the world were not instinctive, but an individual's response to the peculiar circumstances of his or her life; he also believed that people are never exclusively one type of orientation. These two ways of relating to life's circumstances lead to basic character-orientations.

Fromm lists four types of nonproductive character orientation, which he called receptive, exploitative, hoarding, and marketing, and one positive character orientation, which he called productive. Receptive and exploitative orientations are basically how an individual may relate to other people and are socialization attributes of character. A hoarding orientation is an acquiring and assimilating materials/valuables character trait. The marketing orientation arises in response to the human situation in the modern era. The current needs of the market determine value. It is a relativistic ethic. In contrast, the productive orientation is an objective ethic. Despite the existential struggles of humanity, each human has the potential for love, reason and productive work in life. Fromm writes, "It is the paradox of human existence that man must simultaneously seek for closeness and for independence; for oneness with others and at the same time for the preservation of his uniqueness and particularity....the answer to this paradox – and to the moral problems of man – is productiveness."

Fromm's influence on other notable psychologists

Fromm's four non-productive orientations were subject to validation through a psychometric test, The Person Relatedness Test by Elias H. Porter, PhD in collaboration with Carl Rogers, PhD at the University of Chicago's Counseling Center between 1953 and 1955. Fromm's four non-productive orientations also served as basis for the LIFO test, first published in 1967 by Stuart Atkins, Alan Katcher, PhD, and Elias Porter, PhD and the Strength Deployment Inventory, first published in 1971 by Elias H. Porter, PhD. Fromm also influenced his student Sally L. Smith who went on to become the founder of the Lab School of Washington and the Baltimore Lab School.

Critique of Freud

Fromm examined the life and work of Sigmund Freud at length. Fromm identified a discrepancy between early and later Freudian theory: namely that, prior to World War I, Freud had described human drives as a tension between desire and repression, but after the end of the war, began framing human drives as a struggle between biologically universal Life and Death (Eros and Thanatos) instincts. Fromm charged Freud and his followers with never acknowledging the contradictions between the two theories.

Fromm also criticized Freud's dualistic thinking. According to Fromm, Freudian descriptions of human consciousness as struggles between two poles were narrow and limiting. Fromm also condemned Freud as a misogynist unable to think outside the patriarchal milieu of early 20th century Vienna. However, in spite of these criticisms, Fromm nonetheless expressed a great respect for Freud and his accomplishments. Fromm contended that Freud was one of the "architects of the modern age", alongside Albert Einstein and Karl Marx, but emphasized that he considered Marx both far more historically important than Freud and a finer thinker.

Political ideas and activities

Fromm's best known work, Escape from Freedom, focuses on the human urge to seek a source of authority and control upon reaching a freedom that was thought to be an individual's true desire. Fromm's critique of the modern political order and capitalist system led him to seek insights from medieval feudalism. In Escape from Freedom, he found value in the lack of individual freedom, rigid structure, and obligations required on the members of medieval society:

What characterizes medieval in contrast to modern society is its lack of individual freedom…But altogether a person was not free in the modern sense, neither was he alone and isolated. In having a distinct, unchangeable, and unquestionable place in the social world from the moment of birth, man was rooted in a structuralized whole, and thus life had a meaning which left no place, and no need for doubt…There was comparatively little competition. One was born into a certain economic position which guaranteed a livelihood determined by tradition, just as it carried economic obligations to those higher in the social hierarchy.

The culmination of Fromm's social and political philosophy was his book The Sane Society, published in 1955, which argued in favor of a humanistic and democratic socialism. Building primarily upon the early works of Karl Marx, Fromm sought to re-emphasise the ideal of freedom, missing from most Soviet Marxism and more frequently found in the writings of libertarian socialists and liberal theoreticians. Fromm's brand of socialism rejected both Western capitalism and Soviet communism, which he saw as dehumanizing, and which resulted in the virtually universal modern phenomenon of alienation. He became one of the founders of socialist humanism, promoting the early writings of Marx and his humanist messages to the US and Western European public.

In the early 1960s, Fromm published two books dealing with Marxist thought (Marx's Concept of Man and Beyond the Chains of Illusion: My Encounter with Marx and Freud). In 1965, working to stimulate the Western and Eastern cooperation between Marxist humanists, Fromm published a series of articles entitled Socialist Humanism: An International Symposium. In 1966, the American Humanist Association named him Humanist of the Year.

For a period, Fromm was also active in U.S. politics. He joined the Socialist Party of America in the mid-1950s, and did his best to help them provide an alternative viewpoint to McCarthyist trends in some US political thought. This alternative viewpoint was best expressed in his 1961 paper May Man Prevail? An Inquiry into the Facts and Fictions of Foreign Policy. However, as a co-founder of SANE, Fromm's strongest political activism was in the international peace movement, fighting against the nuclear arms race and U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. After supporting Senator Eugene McCarthy's losing bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Fromm more or less retreated from the American political scene, although he did write a paper in 1974 entitled Remarks on the Policy of Détente for a hearing held by the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Fromm was awarded Nelly Sachs Prize in 1979.

Criticism

In Eros and Civilization, Herbert Marcuse is critical of Fromm: In the beginning, he was a radical theorist, but later he turned to conformity. Marcuse also noted that Fromm, as well as his close colleagues Sullivan and Karen Horney, removed Freud's libido theory and other radical concepts, which thus reduced psychoanalysis to a set of idealist ethics, which only embrace the status quo. Fromm's response, in both The Sane Society and in The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, argues that Freud indeed deserves substantial credit for recognizing the central importance of the unconscious, but also that he tended to rectify his own concepts that depicted the self as the passive outcome of instinct and social control, with minimal volition or variability. Fromm argues that later scholars such as Marcuse accepted these concepts as dogma, whereas social psychology requires a more dynamic theoretical and empirical approach. In reference to Fromm's leftist political activism as a public intellectual, Noam Chomsky said "I liked Fromm's attitudes but thought his work was pretty superficial".

Notes

References

Bibliography

Early work in German

See also

• American philosophy
• Ernst Simmel
• Group narcissism
• List of American philosophers
• Psychoanalytic sociology
• Psychohistory

External links

•  Publications by and about Erich Fromm in the catalogue Helveticat of the Swiss National Library
• erich-fromm.de – Erich Fromm Archives; Literary Estate
• International Erich Fromm Society
• Rainer Funk "Life and Work of Erich Fromm", Logos, 6:3, Summer 2007
• International Foundation Erich Fromm (Italian)
• hrc.utexas.edu, 1958 Mike Wallace interview
• , 1958 Mike Wallace interview (Russian) DOI:10.5281/zenodo.10672
• FBI file on Erich Fromm
• Erich Fromm, Mechanisms of Escape from Freedom (1942)
• Erich Fromm at Encyclopædia Britannica
• Erich Fromm online