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Chap 7: Fromm: Humanistic Psychoanalysis
- Self-awareness contributes to:
o loneliness
o isolation
o homelessness
- People strive to be reunited with nature and
fellow human beings
- Emphasis
o Sociobiological factors
o Economics
o History
o Class
o Structure
- Basic anxiety
o Humanitys separation to natural world
loneliness and isolation
- Focus: historical perspective and cultural
perspective
- Individuals < characteristics common to a
culture
- EVOLUTIONARY VIEW OF HUMANITY
- Humans
o - animal instincts
o + an increase in brain development
that permitted self-awareness,
imagination, planning, and doubt
- RISE OF CAPITALISM
- growth of leisure time and personal freedom
- feelings of anxiety, isolation, and powerlessness
- 2 alternative:
o 1) to escape from freedom into
interpersonal dependencies
o 2) to move to self-realization through
productive love and work
BIOGRAPHY
ERICH FROMM
- Jewish family life, suicide of the young woman,
extreme nationalism of the German people
contributed to his conception of humanity
- Born: March 23, 1900 (Frankfurt, Germany)
- Parents: Napthali Fromm & Rosa Krause Fromm
- with their vision of universal peace and
harmony, their teaching that there are ethical
aspects to history- that nations can do right
and wrong, and that history has its moral laws
- Childhood = less ideal
- very neurotic parents
- probably a rather unbearably neurotic child
- Father - being moody
- Mother - prone to depression
- 2 very distinct worlds
o Traditional Orthodox Jewish world
o Modern capitalist world
- lifelong tendency to see events in more than
one perspective
- wondered why the woman preferred death
than life
interest in Freud and psychoanalysis
learned about Oedipus complex
Conclusion: young woman is irrationally
dependent on her father
- World War I
o How could normally rational and
peaceful people become so driven by
national ideologies, so intent on killing,
so ready to die?
- End of World War I
o How was war possible?
- wish to understand the irrationality of human
mass behavior, by a passionate desire for
peace and international understanding.
- Became a socialist but not a part of the
socialist party
- Focus on his studies on psychology, philosophy,
sociology in Univ ersity of Heidelberg
- received his PhD in Socio
- Personality theorist
- Social critic
- Psycho- therapist
- Philosopher
- Biblical Scholar
- Cultural Anthropologist
- Psycho-biographer
- 1925-1930: psychoanalysis Munich
Frankfurt Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute
(analyzed by Hanns Sachs)
- 1926: married Frieda Reichmann
o His analyst
o Mother figure to Fromm
o Resembled his mother
- Marriage: not a happy one
- 1930: separated - arrogant
o Both emigrated to USA - pious
- Found (with other):South German Institute for - autocratic
Psychoanalysis (Frankfurt)
- shy

- sincere
- Switzerland
- phony
-
- brilliant
- Joined: International Institute of Social Research
in Geneva - Fromms theory of personality

- 1933: Gave series of lectures at Chicago o has myriad sources

Psychoanalytical Institute
- 1934: moved to United StatesPrivate practice
in NYC
- Karen Horney
o Met in Chicago & New York
o Strong mother and mentor to him
o Joined: Association for the
Advancement of Psychoanalysis
o Became lovers
- 1943: conflict made them rivals
o most broadly based theory in this book
- 5 important influences
o the teachings of the humanistic rabbis
o the revolutionary spirit of Karl Marx
o the equally revolutionary ideas of
Sigmund Freud
o the rationality of Zen Buddhism as
espoused by D. T. Suzukit
o the writings of Johann Jakob Bachofen
on matriarchal societies

- Fromm & other members quit AAP then

planned to begin an alternative organization Fromms basic assumptions
- 1946: William Alanson White Institute of most basic assumption
Psychiatry

o Fromm chaired both faculty and the
training committee Individual personality

- 1944: married Henny Gurland who had

rheumatoid arthritis
- 1951: move to Mexico because it was more
favorable climate for Gurland
- joined the faculty at the National Autonomous
University in Mexico City
- established a psychoanalytic department at
the medical school
only in the light of human history
HUMAN DILEMMA
- torn away from their prehistoric union with
nature
- no powerful instincts
- acquired the facility to reason

- 1952: Gurland died human ability to reason

- United States - blessing

o 1957-1961: Professor of psychology & o permits people to survive

Michigan State University - curse
o 1962-1970: Adjunct professor & New o forces them to attempt to solve basic
York University insoluble dichotomies
- Mexico - existential dichotomies
o 1953: Freeman Annis 1. Life and death
- 1968: Fromm: serious heart attack 2. Humans are capable of conceptualizing
o slow down his busy schedule the goal of complete self-realization, but
we also are aware that life is too short to
- 1974: moved: Muralto, Switzerland reach that goal.
- Death: March 18, 1980 3. People are ultimately alone, yet we cannot
- authoritarian tolerate isolation.

- gentle

- pretentious
Human Needs
(Existential Needs)
- Can move people toward a reunion with the
natural world
- 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 people find answers to their existence
Relatedness
- The drive for union with another person or
other persons.
- SUBMISSION
o Transcending the separateness of ones
individual existence by becoming part
of somebody or something bigger than
oneself and experiences ones identity
in connection with the power to which
one has submitted.
- POWER
o Searching for a relationship with
domineering people
o Establishes a symbiotic relationship
o Being drawn to one another not by
love but by a desperate need for
relatedness
o Blocks growth toward integrity and
psychological health
- LOVE
o Union with somebody or something
outside oneself under the condition of
retaining the separateness and integrity
of ones own self
o Only route by which a person can
become united with the world and at
the same time, achieve individuality and
integrity.
o Care
o Responsibility
o Respect/ knowledge
Transcendence
- Urge to rise above a passive and accidental
existence and into the realm of purposiveness
and freedom
- One can transcend their passive nature by
either CRE ATING life or by DE STROYING it.
- Creating
o Means to be active and to care about
that which we create.
- Destroying
o Malignant Aggression
o To kill for reasons other than survival
Rootedness
- The need to establish roots or to feel at home
again in the world.
- May cause unbearable isolation and
helplessness.
- Productive strategy
o Being weaned from their mother and
actively and creatively relating to the
world and becoming whole and
integrated.
- nonProductive strategy
o (fixation)
o Reluctance to move beyond the
protective security provided by ones
mother
- Incestuous Desires/Feelings
o Universal but not essentially sexual and
are based in the deep-seated craving
to remain in or to return to the all-
enveloping womb or to the all-
nourishing breasts.
sense of identity
- Capacity to be aware of ourselves as a
separate entity
- Identity of most people still resides in their
attachment to others or to institutions (nation,
religion, occupation or social group)
- Without a sense of identity, people could not
retain their sanity which is a powerful
motivation to acquire a sense of identity.
frame of orientation
- Enables people to organize the various stimuli
that impinge on them. A solid frame of
orientation can help make sense of these
events and phenomena
the burden of freedom
- Being able to gain more freedom to express
ones individuality, to move around
unsupervised, to choose friends, clothes and so
on means being free from the security of being
one with the mother.
Basic Anxiety
- Feeling of being alone in the world
Mechanisms of Escape
- Ways of fleeing from freedom to prevent basic
anxiety.
- Driving forces in NORMAL PEOPLE, both
individually and collectively.
 authoritarianism relates himself to the human and natural
world
o Tendency to give up independence of
ones own individual self and to fuse ones o The substitute for instincts which people act
self with somebody or something outside according to.
the self in order to acquire the strength
nonproductive orientations
w hich the indiv idual is lacking.
o Strategies that fail to move people closer to
o masochism
positive freedom and self-realization
- Result from basic feelings of
o receptive
powerlessness, weakness and inferiority
and is aimed at joining the self to a o Tendency to give up independence of
more powerful individual or institution. ones own individual self and to fuse ones
self with somebody or something outside
- Often disguised as love or loyalty but
the self in order to acquire the strength
can never contribute positively to
w hich the indiv idual is lacking.
independence and authenticity
o Positive
o sadism
Loyalty
o More neurotic and more socially harmful
Acceptance
o 1. The need to make others dependent on
oneself and to gain power over those who Trust
are weak
o Negative
o 2. The compulsion to exploit, take
advantage and use others for ones benefit Passivity
or pleasure. Submissiveness
o 3. The desire to see others suffer, either Lack of self-confidence
physically or psychologically
exploitative
destructiveness
o Aggressively taking what they desire rather
o Rooted in the feelings of aloneness, than passively receiving it.
isolation and powerlessness.
o Prefer to steal or plagiarize rather than
o Does not depend on a continuous create.
relationship with another person; it seeks to
do away with people o Using cunning or force to take someone
elses spouse, ideas and properties.
Conformity
o Positive
o Giving up ones individuality and becoming
whatever other people desire one to be Impulsive

o Characteristics: Proud

Seldom expression of opinion Charming

Cling to expected standards of behavior Self-confident

Appear stiff and automated o Negative

Do not know what one wants, thinks or Egocentric

feels
Conceited
Positive freedom
Arrogant
o Being free and not alone, critical and yet Seducing
not filled with doubts, independent and yet
an integral part of mankind hoarding
o Spontaneous and full expression of both o Saving which one has already obtained.
rational and emotional potentialities
o Tries to possess the loved one and to
o active love and work preserve the relationship rather than
allowing it to change and grow.
Character orientations
o Tends to live in the past and is repelled by
- Persons relatively permanent way of relating to
anything new
people and things
o Positive
character
Orderliness
o The relatively permanent system of all non-
instinctual strivings through which man Cleanliness
 punctuality Personality Disorders
o Negative Necrophilia
Rigidity - Love of death
Sterility - A sexual perversion in which a person desires
sexual contact with a corpse
Obstinacy
- Any attraction to death
Compulsivity
- Opposite of biophilia
Lack of creativity
- harm to humanity, death, dirt, and darkness
marketing
Malignant narcissism
o I am as you desire me
- Benign form of narcissism
o Empty vessels waiting to be filled with
whatever characteristic is most marketable o Interest in their own body
and is currently in fashion
- Malignant form of narcissism
o Ones personal value depends on their
o Distorts perception of reality
exchange value or their ability to sell
oneself. o Everything to the narcissist is high
valued, everything else devalued
Positive
- Hypochondriasis
o Changeability
o Obsessive attention to ones health
o Open-mindedness
- Moral Hypochondriasis
o Adaptability
o Preoccupation with guilt about previous
o Generosity
transgressions
Negative
- Possess neurotic claims
o Aimlessness
- Feel that they are superior to others
o Opportunism
- Cannot take criticism
o Inconsistency
- Result in depression
o Wastefulness
- Depression, intense guilt, and hypochondriasis
The productive orientation could be symptoms of deep underlying
narcissism
- Working toward positive freedom and a
continuing realization of their potential Incestuous Symbiosis

productive work - Extreme dependence on the mother or mother

- A means of creative self-expression and
producing lifes necessities
Productive love
o biophilia
o A passionate love of life and all that is
alive
o Being concerned with the growth and
development of oneself as well as others
o Influence people through love, reason, and
example not by force
o Lov e of others and self-lov e are
inseparable but that self-lov e m ust com e
first
surrogate
o Mother substitute is not necessarily
another human, could be a group of
people
- Exaggerated form of mother fixation
- Originates in infancy as a natural attachment
to the mother
- Sexual strivings is the result, not cause, of
fixation to mother
- Feel extremely anxious and frightened when
the relationship is threatened
- Cannot live without mother substitute
- Incestuous orientation

Productive thinking o Distorts reasoning powers

o Motivated by a concerned interest in o Destroys capacity for authentic love

another person or object
o Prevents people from achieving
o Seeing others as they are and not as they independence and integrity
would wish them to be
Syndrome of decay
o Knowing oneself for who one is and has no
- Possession of all three personality disorders
need for self-delusion
Syndrome of growth
- Opposite of syndrome of decay
o Biophilia
o Love

o Positive freedom
Psychotherapy
Aim of therapy: Patients to come to know
themselves
Without knowledge of ourselves, we cannot
know any other person or thing
Patients come to therapy seeking satisfaction of
their basic human needs
Free association
Dream analysis

Dream symbols are not universal

Patients are asked to associate their
dreams