Erich Fromm’s Insights on Personality, Society, and the Modern World

Erich Fromm, a German Social Psychologist and Psychoanalyst was the only child born to Jewish parents Naphtali Fromm and Rosa Krause, on March 23, 1900, in Frankfurt. Fromm described his childhood life as taut and he also described his parents as neurotic. His mother was prone to depression and his father, who was a businessman always tended to be very moody and overanxious. During his early years, he read the Talmud (a central text of Rabbinic Judaism) and he also admired the German mystic “Meister” Eckhart which created a lasting impact on him. Though Fromm wasn’t a devotee and didn’t practice religion, he called himself an atheistic mystic (one who practices spiritualism but has no faith towards God). Fromm tended to perceive and interpret things from more than one perspective, which has its roots in traditional orthodox Jewish ideas and also modern capitalist concepts. 

Two incidents changed the life perspective of Fromm. The first one was the suicide of a young woman. A young woman committed suicide as she wanted herself to be buried along with her father, whom she lost shortly. This made his mind restless and raised the question, how come a young woman would prefer death? And the second one was World War I, which broke out when he was 14 years old. He was astonished by the brutality of the war and overwhelmed by the absurdity of human behaviour. Fromm had an overwhelming flood of queries, How an individual can be so intent on killing, so ready to die? He started searching for answers to all his questions in Psychoanalysis and Freud’s other theories. After reading Freud’s concept of the Oedipus complex, he understood how such an event is possible. Fromm also named the irrational dependence a woman has toward her father as a nonproductive symbiotic relationship. 

Read More: Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development

The impact of Freud’s work on Fromm 

During his adolescence phase, he was deeply moved by the writings of Freud and Karl Marx. By reading them he well understood the difference between their writings. Fromm held clarity that he wanted to understand both the law that governs the life of an individual and the law of society. According to Fromm, one’s personality is a reconciliation done between one’s inner needs and societal demands. Fromm was considered one of the early lay analysts (not from a medical background). At that time, medicine is considered as a background study for psychoanalysts. Freud advocated against the concept that a medical background is necessary to serve as a psychoanalyst. He said that psychoanalysis is a simple method of treatment for neurosis where cultural factors come into play. 

Critique of Freud’s Work 

Although Fromm was greatly influenced by Freud’s ideas and theories, he criticized Freud for not acknowledging the significance of social and economic factors in personality development. He also identified a discrepancy in the ideas of Freud before and after World War I. Early theories of Freud explain that human drives are a struggle between desire and repression whereas later theories suggest that human drives are the tension between death (Thanatos) and life instincts (Eros). Despite the criticisms he made, Fromm always respected the works of Freud and acknowledged him as an “architect of the modern age”.

Career and family life 

By 1919, Fromm identified his interest as socialist and pursued a degree in Sociology and Psychology at the University of Heidelberg. He was awarded a Ph.D. Sociology in 1922 thesis titled, “On Jewish Law”. In 1926, he married his psychoanalyst Frieda Reichmann, who was 10 years older than him. G.P. Knapp (1989) said that Reichmann resembled his mother. Gail Hornstein (2000) mentioned that Fromm always wanted to be doted on which he received from his mother and later from his wife. But their marriage lasted for only four years. 

He started his teaching career at Frankfurt Psychoanalytic Institute where he worked from 1929 to 1932. Later during the rise of the Nazis, this institute was moved to Geneva, Switzerland and then to Columbia University in New York. In 1933, he underwent depression and moved to Geneva, US after separating from Frieda. In the US, he continued teaching in schools such as the New School for Social Research, Columbia and Yale. 

Agreement and Dissention in Association for Advancement of Psychoanalysis 

In 1941, Erich Fromm joined the Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (AAP), founded by Karen Horney, who was 15 years his senior and became a mother figure to him. While they were believed to have had a relationship for a few years, their dynamic changed, and by 1943, tensions within the association turned them into rivals. A major point of contention was that, despite not holding an MD degree, Fromm was invited by students to teach clinical courses. This led to a split, with Harry Stack Sullivan, Clara Thompson, and several other members leaving the institution alongside him.

Moving to the US 

In 1944, Fromm married Henny Gurland, who was two years younger than him. After becoming a U.S. citizen, he moved to Mexico, hoping the climate would help his wife recover from rheumatoid arthritis. However, she passed away in 1952. Meanwhile, Fromm joined the faculty at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1949, where he taught until his retirement in 1965. After his wife’s death, he remained in Mexico.

In 1953, he married Annis Freeman and founded the Mexico Institute of Psychoanalysis, serving as its director until 1976. Alongside this, he taught at Michigan State University (1957–1961) and New York University (1962–1970). In 1974, Fromm moved to Muralto, Switzerland, where he lived until his death from a heart attack in 1980.

Fromm’s Writings 

Fromm was known for his work on Human needs and Human freedom, especially the ‘escape from freedom’. 

Existential dichotomies 

Fromm came up with a concept called existential dichotomies. It refers to some insolvable dichotomies that were rooted in the existence of people. The first existential dichotomy is between life and death where an individual. Every individual knows that we will die. But we will refuse to accept death, which is an inevitable part of one’s life. The second dichotomy is that we are ultimately alone but we cannot put up with isolation. The third dichotomy is that each individual is responsible for acquiring self-actualization but the fact is we have very little span of life.

Human Needs 

Fromm declared one important difference between mentally healthy people and neurotic is that healthy people find meaning in their existence. 

The five human needs are 

1. Relatedness 

It is denoted as a drive for union with another person. Fromm described three different ways a person follows to relate to the world: a) Submission b) Power c) Love

2. Transcendence 

Humans are put into the world without their consent and then removed from it without their will. Transcendence is the urge to grow up against a passive or accidental existence and make it more purposeful. 

3. Rootedness 

It is the need to establish roots and to feel connected in the world. Productively it can be done by connecting with other people for social ties rather than being in the security of a mother. 

4. Sense of Identity 

It is the ability to understand ourselves as a separate identity. Individuals who don’t have a sense of identity could be unable to retain their sanity and this gives any individual a motivation to do things to acquire a sense of identity. 

5. Frame of Orientation 

Understanding the world and locating ourselves in it. People with a good frame of orientation can make sense of these events and phenomena. 

Mechanism of Escape 

Fromm suggested that the burden of freedom results in basic anxiety (the feeling of being alone). As basic anxiety creates a sense of isolation and loneliness people tend to avoid freedom through a variety of defence mechanisms. Fromm explained three basic primary mechanisms of escape. They are: 

1. Authoritarianism 

In this, an individual gives up their independence in making their decisions and handover it to other person than self, to get strength which they felt lacking in themselves. This authoritarianism takes two different forms. Masochism, that results from feelings of powerlessness, weakness and inferiority. Sadism is more neurotic and socially harmful. They may make other weak people depend on themselves to gain power. 

2. Destructiveness 

It is rooted in the feelings of loneliness and powerlessness. It is an attempt to eliminate an individual or the world as a whole. 

3. Conformity 

People will conform to the opinions of others to avoid loneliness as a mechanism of escape. In this process, they lose their sense of identity.

Landis and Tauber (1971) listed five important influences on Fromm’s thinking: 

1. The teachings of the humanistic rabbis 

2. The revolutionary spirit of Karl Marx 

3. The equally revolutionary ideas of Sigmund Freud 

4. The rationality of Zen Buddhism 

5. The writings of Johann Jakob Bachofen on matriarchal societies. 

Books of Fromm: 

Escape from Freedom (1941) 

Man for Himself (1947) 

Psychoanalysis and Religion (1950) 

The Sane Society (1955) 

Marx’s concept of Man (1961) 

The Art of Loving (1964) 

The Nature of Man (1968) 

The Anatomy of Human Development (1973) 

To Have or Be (1976) 

For the Love of Life (1986) 

The Art of Being (1993) 

On Being Human (1994)