TY - JOUR A1 - Kühn, Thomas T1 - Any chance for a revolution of hope? Transformative leadership as normative identity work - https://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000412 JF - The Humanist Psychologist (American Psychological Association - APA), Vol. 53 (2025), pp. 631-652. N2 - This article develops a humanistically grounded and critically informed conceptualization of transformative leadership through the lens of normative identity work. Drawing on Erich Fromm’s social psychology, it reframes leadership as a moral and cultural practice that responds to systemic inequality, ethical disorientation, and the fragmentation of meaning in contemporary societies. Leadership, in this view, is not about directing others but about creating spaces in which people can orient themselves ethically and act with integrity within complex and contested contexts. The article integrates three strands of critical scholarship—humanistic ethics, critical leadership theory, and biographical research on identity—to substantiate this approach. This triangulation enables a multidimensional understanding of leadership that connects structural conditions with the subjective work of identity formation. The proposed >normative ABC< model—agency, belonging, and coherence—provides an analytical framework to explore how identity work unfolds at the intersection of power, meaning, and ethical striving. Rather than prescribing fixed ideals of >good leadership,< the article advocates for a reflexive, context-sensitive practice that engages with contradiction and supports dialogical, emancipatory processes. In times of overlapping crises, transformative leadership entails cultivating a shared horizon of responsibility and hope—while remaining attentive to social conflict, ideological tensions, and the contested nature of identity. From this vantage point, leadership becomes a space of critical engagement with the conditions that shape human development and possibilities for social transformation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) Y1 - 2025 ER - TY - BOOK A1 - Buechler, Sandra T1 - Erich Fromm. A Contemporary Introduction, New York and London (Routledge), 2025, 150 pp. Y1 - 2025 ER - TY - GEN ED - Fantauzzi, Joseph ED - Levitin, Maor ED - Maley, Terry T1 - Erich Fromm and Left Strategy . New Paths Toward Radical Transformation, New York (Palgrave Macmillan) 2025, 32ß pp. Y1 - 2025 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Frindte, Wolfgang T1 - Is this still authoritarianism? A discussion contribution on the 125th birthday of Erich Fromm - https://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000406 JF - The Humanist Psychologist (American Psychological Association - APA), Vol. 53 (2025), pp. 565-580. N2 - Against the backdrop of a global >authoritarian turn,< the question arises as to what extent social science conceptions of authoritarianism do justice to current social developments and to what extent it is worthwhile to seek additional explanations. After a look at the history of authoritarianism research, various concepts of authoritarianism are discussed: Altemeyer’s >right-wing authoritarianism,< the concept of authoritarianism developed by Decker and colleagues, Sidanius and Pratto’s >social dominance theory,< Duckitt’s >dual process model,< and Amlinger and Nachtwey’s concept of >libertarian authoritarianism.< In addition, Erich Fromm’s concept of >group narcissism< is compared with Tajfel and colleagues’ >social identity approach.< For Erich Fromm, group narcissism is a relatively stable aspect of a social character. Authoritarian group narcissists are exclusively and unscrupulously concerned with their own (and group-related) uniqueness, their power, and their money and therefore shamelessly discriminate against weak and inferior groups. It is therefore discussed whether group narcissism might not be a useful theoretical approach to observe and analyze the elitism of Trumpists and their supporters in addition to existing concepts of authoritarianism. Finally, Erich Fromm’s Theory of the Self is acknowledged as a meta-theoretical framework within which >academic< social psychological theories of identity and the self can also be placed. Therefore, a bridge between >academic< and psychoanalytic social psychology is advocated. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) Y1 - 2025 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hietalahti, Jarno T1 - Humanism contested: Four Frommian responses to feminist critique, antihumanism, posthumanism, and transhumanism - https://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000399 JF - The Humanist Psychologist (American Psychological Association - APA), Vol. 53 (2025), pp. 545-564. N2 - In this article, I will analyze how Erich Fromm’s humanism responds to the relatively recent criticism that humanism has faced. To accomplish this, I will address four challenges: antihumanism, transhumanism, posthumanism, and feminism. My main argument is that criticism of humanism in general can be countered using Fromm’s humanistic theories and ideals. I argue that humanism has been wrongly or inadequately accused of various horrors based on shallow premises and flawed arguments. Even when the criticism is valuable and challenges traditional humanism, Fromm’s interpretation of this philosophical tradition can address these accusations. The article’s main research question is how Fromm’s humanism overcomes the aforementioned forms of criticism. Additionally, are any of the critical accusations still relevant to Fromm’s writings? Most importantly, are there critical questions to which Fromm cannot respond? I will argue that, while Fromm’s personal opinions may have been problematic on certain issues, his theoretical framework is stronger. In the broader sense, his theories help us overcome issues that he may have personally neglected. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) Y1 - 2025 ER - TY - BOOK A1 - Romanetto, Matheus T1 - Critique and Affirmation in Erich Fromm. Humanistic Politics and the Psychoanalytic Clinic, London (Routledge), 2025, 295 pp. Y1 - 2025 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Thompson, Michael J. T1 - Critical Theory and Radical Psychoanalysis: Rethinking the Marcuse-Fromm Debate JF - Theory, Culture & Society, Vol. 42 (No. 3, 2025), pp. 59-74. [Online ISSN 1460-3616] [doi.org/10.1177/02632764241299350] N2 - I explore the ways that the debate between Herbert Marcuse and Erich Fromm relates to the possibility of informing both a critical psychoanalysis as well as how psychoanalysis can fit into critical social theory. I argue that Fromm’s emphasis on the social nature of the mind and the self is a more attractive template that Marcuse’s more anachronistic reading of Freud and his metapsychology. Fromm grants centrality to the issue of praxis as central to the nature of critique, both in terms of one’s relation to oneself in psychoanalytic terms as well as to the dynamics and structures of the social world of which we are a part. Y1 - 2025 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Beckh, Anna Rosa A1 - O'Donnokoé, Niclas T1 - The clockwork of liberation: Success and failure of socialist practice in reference to Erich Fromm and the Boimondau community of work - https://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000397 JF - The Humanist Psychologist (American Psychological Association - APA), Vol. 53 (2025), pp. 615-630. N2 - This article investigates the psychological and institutional conditions under which socialist practice can succeed or fail, using Erich Fromm’s theory of social character and the case study of the French cooperative Boimondau (1941–1971). It first reconstructs Fromm’s concept of a productive orientation, situating it within his broader humanist and psychoanalytic framework. Building on this, the article conceptualizes socialist practice as a dynamic interplay between social structures and psychic transformation, requiring spaces that cultivate alternative relational forms. Boimondau is then analyzed as an empirical realization of Fromm’s communitarian socialism—integrating economic, cultural, and interpersonal life through democratic self-management. Finally, the article explores the internal and external pressures that led to Boimondau’s gradual disintegration: structural exposure to market rationality, organizational shifts toward managerialism, democratic erosion, and gendered labor hierarchies. The analysis concludes that while socialist enclaves like Boimondau can instantiate utopian potential, their long-term viability depends on navigating the psychological fragilities of democratic practice under conditions of systemic constraint. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) Y1 - 2025 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wankmüller, Agnes Edith T1 - Demonstrating morality or symbolic mastery? Outrage dynamics on progressive social media communities versus a Frommian ethics of engagement - https://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000407 JF - The Humanist Psychologist (American Psychological Association - APA), Vol. 53 (2025), pp. 581-597. N2 - Contemporary outrage dynamics in progressive online communities are frequently dismissed by far-right critics as mere >virtue signaling.< However, this reductive framing obscures the complex motivations behind moral expressions in these digital spaces, which range from genuine ethical concern to hedonistic punishing and performative self-distinction. This article interrogates the ambivalent motivations for outrage within progressive social media communities, examining how hedonic or nonmoral motives can become foregrounded in commodified or algorithmically amplified social media environments. Drawing on critical theory and Bourdieusian social theory, I situate the engagement in these dynamics as affective and symbolic strategies that can function both as critical impulse and to obscure prevailing inequalities while reaffirming the outraged subject as >good.< Using Erich Fromm’s concepts of marketing orientation and social sadism, I reflect on how contemporary outrage practices reflect these distorted social characters shaped by capitalist incentive structures and attention economies. To offer an outline for ethical engagement in social media outrage, I utilize Fromm’s humanist social philosophy which puts emphasis on relatedness, autonomy, and solidarity, thereby providing a critical ethics that resists the logic of punishment and moral performance in commodified spaces. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) Y1 - 2025 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Layton, Lynne T1 - Erich Fromm: Ancestor of Social Psychoanalytic Practice JF - Psychoanalytic Inquiry, Routledge, Vol. 44 (No. 1, 2024), pp. 026-036. N2 - Erich Fromm offered two key psychoanalytic concepts that bridge the psychic and the social: social unconscious and social character. In his view, these concepts are not only critical for understanding socio-historical phenomena but also ought to inform psychoanalytic clinical practice such that it might resist unconsciously encouraging patients to adapt to inequitable social conditions. This essay pays tribute to Fromm’s thinking while elaborating some of the differences between Fromm’s understanding of social unconscious/social character and my own. I argue that >social unconscious< does not quite capture the dynamic and conflictual nature of unconscious process, the ongoing conflict that social demands for conformity create in subject formation. To address that conflict, I propose the bridging concept of normative unconscious processes, processes that are always in conflict with counter-normative resistances. Points of both conflict and dissociation are precisely where analysts can challenge the psychic effects of oppressive social norms. Further, while agreeing with Fromm that analyzing social character ought to be central to clinical work, I argue that various and overlapping systemic oppressions – e.g. racism, heterosexism, classism – create, in any given society, multiple social characters and not just one dominant type. In agreement with Fromm’s argument that analysts themselves need to reckon with their own social character, I stress the importance for all of us to be as aware as possible of our own identity investments and social locations within unequal and overlapping power hierarchies. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hahn, Marie T1 - I Shall Not Hate: A Theatre Pedagogical Examination of the Phenomenon of Hate and Fromm’s Theory of a Productive Character Orientation JF - Tiedemann, M. (Ed.): Philosophical Education Beyond the Classroom, Stuttgart (Springer) 2024, pp 439-462. [Online ISBN 978-3-476-05948-2] [doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-05948-2_26] N2 - >I shall not hate.< This sentence ends the production at the Staatsschauspiel Dresden about Izzeldin Abuelaish’s biography, who lost three of his daughters in the violent conflict between Israel and Palestine. This particular attitude within a crisis situation becomes the starting point and framework of a teaching unit in which the students deal with the following questions: What is hate? Is it possible not to hate? How can hate be classified in the field of tension between the instinctual nature of human beings and a conscious attitude? How are crises and loss of orientation related to hate? Can a society be sick? How are Izzeldin’s attitude and Fromm’s theory of a productive character orientation connected and how is Izzeldin’s or Fromm’s offer of orientation to be judged against the background of crises and conflicts in the students’ lifeworld? Through a visit to a performance as well as theatre pedagogical forms of work, an access to this complex thematic field will be created. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - BOOK A1 - Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka T1 - The Psychologx of Collective Narcissism. Insights from Social Identity Theory, London and New York (Routledge) 2024, 251 pp. N2 - The Psychology of Collective Narcissism is a ground-breaking text that presents a new theory of collective narcissism, a belief that exaggerated greatness of one’s own group should be but is not sufficiently appreciated by others. The book presents this concept against the background of social identity theory and research. It explores antecedent as well as social and political consequences of collective narcissism. The author discusses how this burgeoning theory and research can help to elucidate a wide range of psychological dynamics involved in pressing societal issues, such as the declining appeal of democracy, increasing populism, decreasing social solidarity, increasing societal polarization and prejudice, intergroup hostility and political violence, social inequality, and fake news and belief in conspiracy theories. Also referring to societal problems exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, this highly topical work explores socially shared beliefs as risk factors when predicting responses to crises and highlights conditions in which collective narcissism can be expected. The author also reviews research on interventions reducing the link between collective narcissism, prejudice, and retaliatory intergroup hostility focusing on her recent research on mindfulness. This is a valuable read for academics and students in psychology and the social sciences, those interested in societal processes as well as professionals dealing with the impact of collective narcissism. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Chancer, Lynn S. T1 - How Fromm’s Ideas Resonate Politically as well as Philosophically: The Contemporary Case of Guaranteed Income JF - Psychoanalytic Inquiry, Routledge, Vol. 44 (No. 1, 2024), pp. 124-134. N2 - Erich Fromm is not generally associated with policy positions and politics. Yet, Fromm was an early proponent of guaranteed income as an important practical entitlement necessary if greater human freedoms were to be realized. The article traces the development of the idea of basic (or guaranteed income) in US social movement history going back to the 1960s and including the writings of Erich Fromm on this topic. It argues that the concept of guaranteed income flows easily from, and is consonant with, Fromm’s humanistic philosophy overall. Four reasons are offered, including those that are politically, ethically and pragmatically oriented, as to why providing basic income to all citizens has major advantages over the kind of economic precarity and anxieties that many people currently experience. Lastly, after making a multi-dimensional case for guaranteed income, the article responds to a common objection – namely, if basic income became universally available, people would not wish to work. Quite to the contrary, and as empirical experiments have shown, Fromm’s ideas suggest that guaranteed income would encourage people to work with increased commitment and passion and that more positive than negative consequences would ensue from the concept becoming a widespread and much more generally accepted public policy. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - BOOK A1 - Buechler, Sandra T1 - Erich Fromm. A Contemporary Introduction, London and New York (Routledge) 2024, 152 pp. N2 - In this passionate volume, Sandra Buechler introduces Erich Fromm's groundbreaking contributions to psychoanalysis, sociology, philosophy, political action, and social criticism. Buechler explores how Fromm's thinking and interdisciplinary vision are able to frame discussions of dilemmas in contemporary society. She offers a comprehensive biography of Fromm, before delving into his role as analyst, author, activist, sociologist and philosopher. From her own experience as a psychoanalyst, and from the testimony of Fromm's many ardent followers, Buechler illuminates Fromm's capacity to inspire. She considers how Fromm's writing equips students, beginning clinicians and more experienced professionals to understand what can give meaning to their efforts on behalf of troubled individuals, their riven communities, and the wider world. Assuming no prior knowledge of Fromm's work, this books offers students in clinical and social psychology, sociology, and philosophy a vital insight into his theoretical contributions. It will also be of interest to psychoanalysts, psychologists and social workers. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Daniel, Burston T1 - Remembering The Sane Society: An American Lament JF - Psychoanalytic Inquiry, Routledge, Vol. 44 (No. 1, 2024), pp. 116-123. N2 - Erich Fromm’s book >The Sane Society< was published in 1955, the second year of President’s Eisenhower’s administration, but had a profound impact on the ideas and agendas of social activists during the 60s and 70s, including this author. Its central theses were that the middle-class prosperity characteristic of that era masked a >pathology of normalcy,< and that capitalism transforms active citizens into passive consumers by compelling people to fill their material needs in ways that are at variance with their existential or human needs. The result is a dramatic diminution of their critical faculties, an atrophy of conscience, and the proliferation of a >marketing character,< a kind of alienated, hedonistic lifestyle whose emptiness is palliated by the consumption of ever larger quantities of consumer goods. Fromm’s analysis still rings true in some respects, but the middle-class prosperity and bland uniformity of opinion he critiqued began to wane in the late 1970s, gradually giving way to sharp extremes of poverty and wealth. The resulting political polarization has now reached a critical point, where the future of American democracy – or what little is left of it – is now in peril. So, as we approach 2025, Fromm’s analysis of America in the mid-20th century must be updated and modified to fit the contours of contemporary social realities. In so doing, however, we discover that American society is even more alienated, more atomized and fragile than it was in Fromm’s day. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - BOOK A1 - Huppke, Andrea T1 - Psychoanalysis Globally Networked. The Origins of the International Federations of Psychoanalytic Societies, translated from German by Robin Verner, Bicester (Karnac Books - IFPS Series) 2024, 227 pp. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lindebaum, Dirk A1 - Langer, Susanne T1 - On the Psycho-emotional Deficitisation of Workers in the Age of Cognitive Enhancement JF - Organization, Vol. 31 (No. 4, 2024), pp. 703-719. [Online ISSN 1461-7323] [doi.org/10.1177/13505084221145617] N2 - Despite being the subject of public and scholarly debates for some time, the topic of cognitive enhancement remains theoretically under-developed in organisation studies. This is because the ‘dots’ still have to be ‘connected’ between macro-level phenomena (here, the therapeutic ethos and cognitive capitalism), and micro-level phenomena (in this case, cognitive abilities). In this essay, we use Fromm’s notion of social character to theorise dialectally about the interaction between these macro and micro-level phenomena. Doing so enables us to examine how the macro/micro interaction fosters to adoption of cognitive enhancement in the context of work, and what kinds of consequences might emerge from this. We propose the psycho-emotional deficitisation of workers as a central consequence of the aforementioned interaction, and define it as an internalised version of external ideals of what it means to be a productive worker under cognitive capitalism, which over time generates and reinforces the affective experience of being deficient. Our theorising around socially patterned defects of a cognitive kind has crucial ramification for our understanding of technology-mediated affective control at work and how human–technology interactions shape the subjectivities of workers towards greater self-inferiorisation vis-à-vis the perceived superiority of technology. We close by foreshadowing avenues for future research. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Morelock, Jeremiah A1 - et al., T1 - Towards living a better future: political vision and the humanistic conscience JF - Journal of Psychosocial Studies, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. xx; DOI: 10.1332/14786737Y2024D000000028 N2 - Fromm’s theories can help the Left overcome its collective rejection of individualism and universalism, which limit socio-political possibility, offering Left solutions to these challenges and promoting alternate perspectives. His humanistic vision shares much with humanistic and positive psychology but differs in important respects. Centrally, Fromm’s notion of emancipation emphasises both individual and societal components. He believes independent and authentic relationships are a higher expression of human potential and bring true fulfilment. Fromm identifies a creative, non-alienated character orientation that includes a ‘humanistic conscience’. Comparing authoritarian and humanistic consciences, he emphasises human potential and social and individual interdependence. Personal development must also drive social change, and vice versa. Fromm’s perspective rejects zero-sum, either/or thinking about social change vis-à-vis individual flourishing. For him, both are important, and they are related. Following Fromm’s example, the Left should stress that individualistic societies cannot satisfy individual needs. Self-fulfilment requires fairness, community and shared personal experiences. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Funk, Rainer A1 - Kühn, Thomas T1 - Editorial: Humanistic transformation and contemporary pathologies of normalcy impulses following the analytical social psychology of Erich Fromm T2 - Journal of Psychosocial Studies, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 1–5; DOI: 10.1332/14786737Y2024D000000030 Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - KoƗoszyc, Dawid T1 - Identity politics and the politics of difference: critical transformations in contemporary thought JF - Journal of Psychosocial Studies, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. xx; DOI: 10.1332/14786737Y2024D000000031 N2 - This article explores the relationship between identity politics and the politics of difference, focusing especially on the tensions that characterise this relationship within progressive theories and political discourses, and on their implications. The development of the concepts of identity and difference, as well as their limits and possibilities, are examined in relation to several theorists: Slavoj Žižek, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, Michel Foucault, Cornel West and Judith Butler. This is followed by a discussion of Fromm’s social psychology insofar as it anticipates the growing importance of the concepts of identity and difference within late modern culture, and insofar as it identifies a number of critical concerns around these concepts which remain relevant today. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - McLaughlin, Neil T1 - How Erich Fromm Can Help Address the Jordan Peterson Problem in Psychoanalysis JF - Psychoanalytic Inquiry, Routledge, Vol. 44 (No. 1, 2024), pp. 053-070. N2 - The current political climate is marked by polarization, which presents new difficulties for psychoanalysis. Erich Fromm, as a Freudian theorist and clinician, is uniquely positioned to address these issues. Fromm is a politically radical thinker who can help psychoanalysis think about society and social injustice beyond the clinical context while avoiding the dangers of excessively orthodox left-wing thinking that risks taking the field away from its core mission. Fromm can help psychoanalysis avoid what we are calling the >Peterson problem,< which is partly the result of provocative and extreme ideas in institutions and psychoanalytic publications that create reputational problems for the field. The >Peterson problem< brings new attention to the political bias of left-liberal authoritarians inside the profession, who focus on changing society rather than healing individuals and neglect audiences outside the liberal university and highly educated classes and thus create space for polarizing figures like psychologist Jordan Peterson to fill the gap. Peterson’s fame and influence serves as a lightning rod for the wider critique of left leaning political and cultural currents in psychoanalysis. Fromm can act as a role model as well as provide the intellectual resources for responding to these challenges. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Byrd, Dustin J. T1 - Can religion be rescued in the 21st century? On Erich Fromm’s religious humanism in an age of authoritarian populism JF - Journal of Psychosocial Studies, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. xx; DOI: 10.1332/14786737Y2024D000000027 N2 - In the recent years, much of the West has seen the rise of right-wing forms of authoritarian populism and their attacks on democracy and the multicultural societies. In many cases, such movements have recruited Christian traditions, ideas, and symbols into their nativist agenda. Nevertheless, the aspects of Christianity that have been functionalised have been primarily the ‘exterior’ of religion, wherein the humanistic core have all been neglected. On the basis of the Erich Fromm's understanding of the world religions' humanistic core, and informed by the Frankfurt School, I demonstrate the hollowness of the right-wing movements adoption of religion, and argue for a new form of humanistic-religious ecumenicism on the basis of the shared values, principles, and ideals that rest at the heart of religion and humanistic philosophy. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Chancer, Lynn S. T1 - Reconsidering Fromm and feminisms, part II: a case for psychosocial compatibilities JF - Journal of Psychosocial Studies, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. xx; DOI: 10.1332/14786737Y2024D000000034 N2 - This article continues an earlier one about how the work of Erich Fromm and feminist theories are compatible despite the connection usually remaining overlooked. Drawing on Fromm’s critique of Freud’s analysis of Dora, but also going further, I argue that associating Fromm and contemporary feminist thought is particularly important in the context of growing authoritarianism on the right and sometimes as reflected also on the left. The article elaborates upon five points of ‘psychosocial compatibility’ between Fromm’s humanistic vision and the ideas of several well-known feminist theorists including Simone de Beauvoir, Nancy Chodorow, Jessica Benjamin and others. The five points of psychosocial compatibility addressed between From and contemporary feminisms as addressed here are: connecting the personal and the political while stressing the prefigurative; kindred issues concerning objectification and self-love; emphases on relatedness and the pre-oedipal stage of human development; concerns about multi-dimensionality and intersectionality; and shared political beliefs aimed at overcoming gender and other oppressive inequalities. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - BOOK A1 - Elliott, Anthony T1 - Algorithms of Anxiety. Fear in the Digital Age, Cambridge (Polity Press), 2024, 220 pp. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ernø, Steffen A1 - Birk, Rasmus T1 - Rethinking Freedom for Contemporary Psychology JF - Culture & Psychology, Vol. 30 (No. 3, 2024), pp. 479-498. [Online ISSN 1461-7056] [doi.org/10.1177/1354067X241226456] N2 - The purpose of this paper is to rethink the topic of freedom for contemporary psychology. Freedom, within psychological research today, is a neglected, even slightly old-fashioned term. In this paper, we explore the practical, normative, and political dimensions of freedom as a psychological concept. We begin by tracing out key understandings of freedom from political theory, before discussing how thinkers such as Skinner, Maslow, Fromm, and May understood the different dimensions of freedom. We then discuss a governmental perspective on freedom, drawn from the work of Nikolas Rose, before finally turning to the sociocultural psychology of L. S. Vygotsky. We contend that freedom is not merely the absence of constraints but a complex interplay between agency, responsibility, and social connections. Our paper argues that the modern emphasis on negative freedom, characterized by reduced interference and obligations, has resulted in a paradoxical situation where individuals feel overwhelmed and seek escape from freedom. By revisiting the insights of Erich Fromm and other scholars, we emphasize the need for positive freedom, which involves voluntary connections with others and active participation in shaping society. We argue that psychology’s mandate should be to facilitate the exploration of alternative avenues that lead to flourishing and self-actualization. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Frie, Roger T1 - A call to action: The enduring relevance of Cushman and Fromm JF - Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, Vol. 44 (No. 2, 2024), pp. 119-122. [Online ISSN 2151-3341] [doi.org/10.1037/TEO0000250] N2 - This article examines Phil Cushman’s significance as a hermeneutic psychologist, a relational psychoanalyst, and an activist for progressive social change. Parallels are drawn between Cushman’s […] article and the work of the mid-century social critic and psychoanalyst, Erich Fromm, particularly his book (Fromm, 1941). The author reflects on his own relationship with Cushman and on the enduring relevance of Cushman’s cross-disciplinary scholarship for psychology. [APA PsycNet] Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gerson, Sam T1 - Affiliation vs. Alienation JF - Psychoanalytic Dialogues, Vol. 34 (No. 3, 2024), pp. 280-287. [Online ISSN 1940-9222] [doi.org/10.1080/10481885.2024.2346513] N2 - Contemporary psychoanalytic thinking has been marked by a >social turn< – a shift in emphasis from internal and endogenous process to those that prioritize the social and political context in which psychological life is shaped. In this discussion of Rozmarin’s work, the concept of “belonging” is considered as a bridge between the individual and the community. The entities to which one belongs and the dynamics that underline the choices attendant to belonging are considered as constituents of both identity and unconscious processes. An individual’s unconscious is viewed as nested within the broader historical and social configurations of life and structured by these forces. Reference is made to the work of Erich Fromm and Erik Erikson as aides in understanding the power of the social to shape both identity formation and social affiliation. The dynamics of conflict between affiliation and alienation are considered as a constituent of contemporary movement toward authoritarian political structures. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Smith, David Norman T1 - The Agitator Supplies What the Base Demands: Trumpism Before and After Donald Trump JF - Critical Sociology, Vol. 50 (No. 4-5, 2024), pp. 813-843 [Online ISSN 1569-1632] [doi.org/10.1177/08969205231208921] N2 - The fierce loyalty of Donald Trump’s base has long mystified his critics. For 8 years now, they have expressed puzzlement that his followers support him >despite everything< – despite his incendiary rhetoric, his misogyny, his racial prejudices, and his authoritarianism. In this paper, I argue that, in fact, Trump’s hectic agitation is precisely what his base wants. My reading of the data – including data I gathered with my collaborator, Eric Hanley, in 2016 – is that Trump owes his demagogic success to the fact that he says what his followers want him to say and acts accordingly. Donald Trump, today’s agitator par excellence, supplies what his base demands. Trump, in short, is less an architect of Trumpism than its reflex. However effectively he performs in the public arena, he remains an emissary, personifying a social movement that preceded him and will survive him. And that movement, I will argue, is authoritarian in a very specific sense – driven by a wish for a domineering leader who is loyal to his partisans and hostile to their adversaries. Analytic insight into this phenomenon is drawn, below, from a range of authors, including marketing professionals and critical theorists including Erich Fromm and Theodor W. Adorno. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Voigt, Katrin T1 - Nationalism as collective narcissism: the pathology of an everyday practice JF - Journal of Psychosocial Studies, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. xx; DOI: 10.1332/14786737Y2024D000000016 N2 - The article brings together the social psychoanalytic approach by Erich Fromm with current research on nationalism in Western democratic societies. While current research often focuses on the extreme forms of nationalism, the work of Erich Fromm contributes to an understanding of nationalism that encompasses the whole society in a world structured by nation states. The notion of a social unconscious helps to reflect upon both visible and often unnoticed forms of nationalism and links it to an interconnected understanding of psychic and social structure. With Fromm we can understand nationalism as collective narcissism which has been preceded by a loss of self-esteem. Relevant threats to self-esteem in Western democratic societies shaped by a neoliberal ideology, like individualisation and singularisation, will be outlined in the article. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - BOOK A1 - Romanetto, Matheus T1 - Critique and affirmation in Erich Fromm: Humanistic politics and the psychoanalytic clinic, London (Routledge) 2024, 278 pp. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Romanetto, Matheus T1 - Is There Room for Otherness in Humanism? Erich Fromm’s Alternative JF - Psychoanalytic Inquiry, Routledge, Vol. 44 (No. 1, 2024), pp. 071-084. N2 - Humanism has been criticized as a philosophical and political stance from different points of view in recent decades. The paper summarizes four common types of criticism, stemming from political, ethical, technological, and ecological concerns. These criticisms relate back to a preoccupation with the respect for otherness or difference, either toward human or non-human beings. The paper tries to demonstrate that these concerns are also to be found as essential elements in the development of humanism itself, not only among its political and theoretical opponents. It does so with reference to Erich Fromm’s works, where a life-oriented ethics is coupled with a demand for sustained political relatedness to difference, without giving up notions of a radical humanism and the anthropology that accompanies it. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Philipson, Ilene T1 - The Plague of Certitude: Why Fromm Matters Today JF - Psychoanalytic Inquiry, Routledge, Vol. 44 (No. 1, 2024), pp. 045-052. N2 - Today, a plague of certitude is spreading within American psychoanalysis. This socially constructed virus is increasingly dominating our unmoderated list serves, appearing in our journals, and slowly seeping into our institutes. Having transcended the objectivism of traditional Freudian analysis, we seem to be revivifying its spirit. Rigorous claims to truth, superior knowledge, and contempt for those not in agreement abound. The life and work of psychoanalyst and sociologist Erich Fromm is offered as an antidote and model for resistance to this plague. He consistently objected to all forms of authoritarianism, from the Right and the Left. As a radical humanist he viewed us all as responsible selves, not mere vessels for instinctual drives or victims of unbearable circumstances. As Paul Roazan said about Fromm: >It still seems to me remarkable how he was willing to stand up for what he believed in. He should be a model of independence and autonomy for us all.< Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Braune, Joan T1 - The psychological is crucial: why Erich Fromm’s understanding of human needs contributes to defeating fascism JF - Journal of Psychosocial Studies, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. xx; DOI: 10.1332/14786737Y2024D000000036 N2 - This article uses Erich Fromm’s list of five fundamental human needs discussed in >The Sane Society< (1955) to critically explore the role of psychological needs and desires in the concerning resurgence of fascist and far-right movements globally and especially in the United States. First, the article addresses the hesitancy expressed by some activists and theorists about engaging psychology in relation to fascism. I critique the view that such psychological inquiry undermines structural critique of society. I demonstrate that unproductive and harmful attempts to meet human needs outlined by Fromm are contributing to fascist resurgence and also to the rise of the ‘fascistic’ mass shooter, who must be understood as both influenced by structural/political dynamics and by the personal attempt to resolve the ‘existential’ problems of human life described by Fromm. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - BOOK A1 - Frie, Roger T1 - Edge of Catastrophe. Erich Fromm, Fascism, and the Holocaust, Oxforn (Oxford University Press), 2024, 202 pp. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - O'Donnokoe, Niclas A1 - Steffen, Christopher A1 - Langer, Phil C. T1 - Hope in crisis: revisiting Erich Fromm’s dialectic of transformation JF - Journal of Psychosocial Studies, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. xx; DOI: 10.1332/14786737Y2024D000000029 N2 - In this article we explore Erich Fromm’s concept of hope within the context of contemporary social and political crises. We formulate two primary objections to his vision of a revolution of hope: the individualistic moralisation of societal problems, and the accusation that hope is persuasive and manipulative. By embedding Fromm’s ideas within a broader dialectical framework and engaging with Walter Benjamin’s thoughts on history, we reinterpret hope as a liminal, transformative state rather than a concrete, prescriptive notion. This reconceptualisation presents hope as a fundamental prerequisite for transformative political practice, emphasising its role in fostering active citizenship and collective social change. Ultimately, we argue for the critical importance of hope in navigating and overcoming the challenges of modernity. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kühn, Thomas T1 - Normative identity work: exploring Erich Fromm’s perspective on self and society JF - Journal of Psychosocial Studies, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. xx; DOI: 10.1332/14786737Y2024D000000033 N2 - This article explores the potential of normative identity work to foster humanistic transformation, drawing from Erich Fromm’s social theory. By engaging with Fromm’s insights into the interplay between individuals and societal structures, the analysis demonstrates how identity work – understood as an ongoing process of self-construction within social contexts – can confront what Fromm terms the ‘pathology of normalcy’. Central to the discussion are Fromm’s reflections on identity and its relationship to the human needs for rootedness, relatedness and the construction of a frame of orientation. J14125The article integrates Fromm’s views on identity with contemporary identity research, illustrating the tensions between conforming to societal expectations and the pursuit of self-realisation. It introduces the ‘normative ABC of identity work’, a model structured around three key dimensions: agency, belonging and coherence. This model offers a lens to examine the various ways societal forces shape identity work, influencing individuals in directions that may either align with societal norms or open pathways towards humanistic growth and transformation. In the conclusion, the article emphasises the relationship between identity work and Fromm’s concept of social character, highlighting how social character can reflect and reinforce societal patterns while also pointing to the transformative potential embedded in humanistic values. This synthesis provides a critical framework for understanding how identity work can both sustain and challenge existing social norms and power structures. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - McLaughlin, Neil T1 - Answering populist attacks on psychosocial ideas: why Fromm matters more than Marcuse JF - Journal of Psychosocial Studies, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. xx; DOI: 10.1332/14786737Y2024D000000032 N2 - The reactionary American intellectual Christopher Rufo has made German critical theorist Herbert Marcuse the centre of his campaign to purge the American academy of radical ideas and movements. Marcuse’s ideas have significant influence in contemporary psychosocial scholarship, so attacks on his work may have negative consequences for psychosocial scholars. Rufo’s critique of the influence of Marcuse’s ideas is mostly exaggerated but it contains elements of truth. This article will outline ways in which some of Marcuse’s ideas are echoed in elements of the contemporary left/liberal intellectual and political orthodoxy. We revisit the Fromm/Marcuse debate from the 1950s, and offer an analysis of why Rufo might have picked Marcuse for attack when Fromm might well have been a viable target, as Fromm was in the 1980s when he was famously scapegoated by Allan Bloom in The Closing of the American Mind (1987). I then offer an analysis of how Erich Fromm’s alternative psychosocial radicalism can help better defend the psychosocial perspective in mass politics than Marcuse’s framework. Fromm’s framework also offer a theoretical foundation for radical psychosocial studies that can help our field defend itself against the new McCarthyism of Rufo and his allies on the global right who are likely to attack radical psychosocial perspectives in the near future. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - McLaughlin, Neil A1 - Wegenschimmel, Neil T1 - How Erich Fromm Can Help Address the Jordan Peterson Problem in Psychoanalysis JF - Psychoanalytic Inquiry, Vol. 44, No. 1 (2024), pp. 53-70. [Online ISSN 0735-1690] [doi.org/10.1080/07351690.2023.2296367] N2 - The current political climate is marked by polarization, which presents new difficulties for psychoanalysis. Erich Fromm, as a Freudian theorist and clinician, is uniquely positioned to address these issues. Fromm is a politically radical thinker who can help psychoanalysis think about society and social injustice beyond the clinical context while avoiding the dangers of excessively orthodox left-wing thinking that risks taking the field away from its core mission. Fromm can help psychoanalysis avoid what we are calling the >Peterson problem,< which is partly the result of provocative and extreme ideas in institutions and psychoanalytic publications that create reputational problems for the field. The >Peterson problem< brings new attention to the political bias of left-liberal authoritarians inside the profession, who focus on changing society rather than healing individuals and neglect audiences outside the liberal university and highly educated classes and thus create space for polarizing figures like psychologist Jordan Peterson to fill the gap. Peterson’s fame and influence serves as a lightning rod for the wider critique of left leaning political and cultural currents in psychoanalysis. Fromm can act as a role model as well as provide the intellectual resources for responding to these challenges. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - BOOK A1 - Braune, Joan T1 - Understanding and Countering Fascist Movements: From Void to Hope, New York (Routledge 2024, 143 pp. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gili, Guido A1 - Mangone, Emiliana T1 - Is a Sociology of Hope Possible? An Attempt to Recompose a Theoretical Framework and a Research Programme JF - The American Sociologist, Vol. 54, No. 7 (2023), pp. 7-35. [Online ISSN 1936-4784] [doi.org/10.1007/s42048-021-00114-7] N2 - The societal changes of the last century, especially in the aftermath of World War II, have led thinkers to imagine philosophical anthropology centered on the concept of hope. From very different perspectives, authors such as Ernst Bloch, Erich Fromm, and Hannah Arendt understood that hope is deeply connected with the condition and destiny of humanity. Various sociologists have developed concepts closely linked with hope: action, social change, utopia, revolution, emancipation, innovation, and trust. However, a coherent and systematic analysis is yet to emerge. Taking up the threads of this rich but fragmented reflection, this paper intends to outline the traits of a >sociology of hope< as a tool for critically interpreting today’s society and the processes of change crisscrossing it, starting from some crucial questions: Who are the actors and historical bearers of hope? What are the main socio-historical forms of hope? What social, political, and cultural conditions favors the emergence and strengthening of this disposition? What are the effects and consequences on personal and social life? Y1 - 2023 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Layton, Lynne T1 - Social Psychoanalysis: From Theory to Practice JF - Frosh, S., Vyrgioti, M., Walsh, J. (Eds.): The Palgrave Handbook of Psychosocial Studies, Cham (Palgrave Macmillan) 2023, pp. 1-19. [Online ISBN 978-3-030-61510-9] [doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61510-9_61-2] N2 - While many psychosocial theorists have drawn on psychoanalysis to explore conscious and unconscious connections between the psychic and the social, most such efforts have been in the realm of >applied psychoanalysis,< that is, the exploration of unconscious process in group relations, institutions, cultures, historical eras. Few, but increasingly more psychosocial psychoanalytic writers are taking up how socially shaped unconscious processes emerge and are worked with in the clinic.– In this chapter, I review some of the psychosocial psychoanalytic theory that has informed clinical work, including the work of Fanon, Fromm, liberation psychologists, psychoanalytic feminist theorists, and critical race theorists. My focus is on how concepts that bridge the psychic and the social, without reducing one to the other, have found their way into clinical theory and practice.– The chapter surveys a few different conceptualizations of what is meant by clinical social psychoanalysis and then focuses more specifically on what I have called >normative unconscious processes,< my own attempt conceptually to bridge these domains. Extending Fromm’s concepts of social unconscious and social character, I argue that a properly psychosocial psychoanalysis must account for the ways that patients’ and therapists’ intersectional social locations (e.g., class, race, gender, sexuality), as they are lived and enacted within particular power relations and histories, unconsciously and consciously emerge in the clinic, at times reproducing, and at times countering what Fromm called the >pathology of normalcy.< Given the current conjuncture, particular attention will be paid to neoliberal subject formations as they are met with in the clinic. The chapter concludes with a review of recent clinical papers that offer ways to counter the reproduction of normative unconscious processes. Y1 - 2023 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lee, Austina Frances A1 - Smith, Gareth Dylon T1 - Where is the Love, y’all? Punk Pedagogy in High School Choir JF - Research in Education, Vol. 115, No. 1 (2023), pp. 100-115. [Online ISSN 2050-4608] [doi.org/10.1177/00345237231152605] N2 - Capitalism and its offspring, neoliberalism, are omnipresent in modern and postmodern societies. Illich, Giroux, and McLaren, among others, point to the futility and inequity of current models of education that focus on standardization, vocationalism, and conformity. Running counter to these powerful hegemonic systems, critical pedagogues and educational philosophers such as hooks and Silverman follow philosophers Frankfurt and Wolf in identifying a teaching approach rooted in love. Such an ethic embodies a robust, punk confrontation to potentially damaging, dehumanizing institutional norms perpetrated by current systems of schooling (Hewitt & Smith, 2020). The authors present and discuss vignettes as a duo-ethnographic study of one teacher’s work with a high school choir in Colorado Springs, USA, through which she works to engage young people as compassionate artistic citizens (Elliott & Silverman, 2015; Hendricks 2018). By teaching with love and by modeling love, she teaches young people to love, embracing what Noddings (2005) identifies as an ethic of care. This choral community demonstrates the messy, anarchist ideal that Wright (2019) highlights as a necessary future for music education, wherein the educator diverts from teaching solely to standardized expectations to address the affiliative needs of her students through a love that desires good for her students (Fromm, 1956; Noddings, 2005) Y1 - 2023 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Funk, Rainer A1 - Lechhab, Hamid T1 - The Significance of Erich Fromm for the Present. Rainer Funk in Conversation with Hamid Lechhab, Neuhofen/Ybbs (Zeuys Verlag) 2023, 108 pp. Y1 - 2023 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Abromeit, John T1 - Critical Theory and Primary Source Research: Subjective Reflections on Working in the Herbert Marcuse and Max Horkheimer Archives JF - Aubert, I., Nobre, M. (Eds.): The Archives of Critical Theory, Cham (Springer) 2023, pp. 225-250. [Online ISBN 978-3-031-36585-0] [doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36585-0_16] N2 - Historians, including intellectual historians such as myself, rely more on primary source research than philosophers. During the period 1992–2001, I conducted extensive research on both the Herbert Marcuse and Max Horkheimer Archives in Frankfurt, Germany. This essay describes my experiences working in these archives. I highlight, in particular, some of the most important discoveries I made in the archives and how the primary source documents shaped my understanding of Herbert Marcuse and Max Horkheimer’s crucial contributions to the development of Critical Theory. The essay also emphasizes the value of primary source research, especially for those working in the materialist tradition of the early Frankfurt School, which emphasizes the >Zeitkern der Wahrheit<, that is, the impossibility of separating ideas from a historically specific social context. Y1 - 2023 ER - TY - GEN ED - Aubert, Isabelle ED - Nobre, Marcos T1 - The Archives of Critical Theory T2 - The Archives of Critical Theory, Cham (Springer) 2023, 296 pp. [eBook ISBN 978-3-031-36585-0] [doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36585-0] N2 - On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main, in 1923, this book aims at shedding light on the archives of some of the key thinkers of Critical Theory of Society, also well known as >Frankfurt School<. To pay homage to this current of thought, this contributed volume aims to make the archives speak for themselves, to show the public the quantity of unpublished material still existing by the authors of the Critical Theory which are now in funds in different parts of the world (in Germany, in Italy, or in the United States), and to show that Critical Theory remains alive 100 years after its inception.– The volume starts by presenting the archives of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the thinkers who inspired Critical Theory, and the archives of the Institute for Social Research itself. Then it dedicates separate sections to the archives of Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Friedrich Pollock, Herbert Marcuse, Leo Löwenthal and Jürgen Habermas. The book is composed of chapters written by researchers and editors who worked in the different fonds, as well as chapters written by or interviews with researchers who were or are in charge of some of the archives, or who are especially familiar with the material.– The Archives of Critical Theory will be an invaluable tool for researchers in many disciplines working with Critical Theory of Society, such as Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science, Philosophy, History, Education, Law and Cultural Studies, among others. Readers will find information about the content of each archive and the history of its constitution. The various contributions present many ways in which the materials may be explored and explain how such explorations affected or may yet affect the state of the research. Y1 - 2023 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Chevalier, Jacques M. T1 - The Courage of Disobedience JF - The Ethics of Courage, Cham (Palgrave Macmillan) 2023, pp. 401-424. [Online ISBN 978-3-031-32743-8] [doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-32743-8_19] N2 - Albert Camus, Emmanuel Levinas, Erich Fromm, Paulo Freire, and Mahatma Gandhi take issue, each in their own way, with the individualism and pessimism of Existentialist philosophy. They also question the ideological complacency and oversimplifications of social evolutionism. While these thinkers disagree on the role of God and rational thought in human affairs, they see courage as an important lever for resisting oppressive systems that undermine people’s freedom, their capacity for self-affirmation, their hopes for lasting peace, and their sense of humanity and ethical responsibility. The critical and progressive stance they take on the ravages of modern-day authoritarianism, colonialism, and imperialism is a world away from Hitler’s heinous call for the >courage of aggression< and the horrors that ensued. Y1 - 2023 ER - TY - BOOK A1 - Byrd, Dustin J. T1 - The Dark Charisma of Donald Trump. Political Psychology and the MAGA Movement, Kalamazoo, Michigan (Ekpyrosis Press), 2023, 490 pp. Y1 - 2023 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bates, Agnieszka T1 - Learning >in the Hive<: >Social Character< and Student Wellbeing in the Age of Psychometric Data JF - Critical Studies in Education, Vol. 64, No. 1 (2023), pp. 19-34. [Online ISSN 1750-8495] [doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2021.1948880] N2 - Growing societal concern about a crisis in the wellbeing of young people has prompted a range of responses from governments and corporations, predicated on an ideal of the resilient, self-reliant individual. Behavioural economists, data scientists and educational technology companies now offer a variety of psychological interventions based on psychometric data, aimed at ‘equipping’ individual students with the necessary skills and character to enable them to withstand the pressures of contemporary life. As a consequence, the critical importance of mutually supportive interpersonal relationships continues to be neglected in mainstream approaches to Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). This article draws on Fromm’s theory of social character and Zuboff’s analysis of >life in the hive< to challenge the assumptions about human behaviour underpinning data science and its application in digital tools for social and emotional learning and self-managed wellbeing. To improve students’ wellbeing, we need to begin with an understanding of why they are more likely to thrive within a network of mutually supportive social relationships than a digital >hive<. Y1 - 2023 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Aarseth, Helene A1 - et al., T1 - Freedom, Resonance, Interaction. Critical Theory and Creative Relations Between the Psyche and the Social JF - Frosh, S., Vyrgioti, M., Walsh, J. (Eds.): The Palgrave Handbook of Psychosocial Studies, Cham (Palgrave Macmillan) 2023, pp. 1-20. [Online ISBN 978-3-030-61510-9] [doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61510-9_53-1] N2 - This chapter introduces a psychosocial strand of thinking that offers a way to conceive of creative relations between the psyche and the world. Whereas much current psychosocial theory stresses how anxieties are managed by defending the self against the world or fuel subjection to oppressive social norms, the theories we engage with here point to ways in which anxieties can be employed in the urge to bridge inner longings and external realities. These ideas took form in the early Frankfurt School, which despite their comprehensive integration of psychoanalytic and social theory until recently has been comparatively marginalized in Anglophone Psychosocial Theory.– The chapter presents and discusses three notions: Erich Fromm’s Freedom, Hans Loewald’s Resonance, and Alfred Lorenzer’s Interaction. Even though different in emphasis and outlook, these notions contribute to a shared intellectual project, namely, to point to potentially productive and non-antagonist interactions between the psyche and society. They do so not by virtue of some resistant part of unspoiled nature residing in the body or in the mind, but by virtue of being able to point to the more or less life-enhancing and life-impeding forms this interaction of psychic energies and societal needs may take.– We argue that these theorists and their notions of freedom, resonance and interaction, contribute to further developing the materialist conception of the psychosocial in ways that appear specifically urgent today. They enable us to theorize tensions within current society, between dynamics that drive instrumentalization and reification on the one hand, and more life-enhancing and mutually enriching interactions between human beings, social structures, and natural environments on the other. Y1 - 2023 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Janebová, Radka A1 - Štěpánek_, Daniel T1 - Possibilities of Using the Humanistic Ethics and Psychoanalysis of Erich Fromm in Establishing a Relationship with a Client within the Context of Anti-oppressive Social Work JF - International Social Work, Vol. 66, No. 6 (2023), pp. 1727-1739. [Online ISSN 1461-7234] [doi.org/10.1177/00208728221107482] N2 - This article has been conceived as a theoretical essay on the possibility of using the theory of Erich Fromm in establishing and maintaining a client relationship in the context of anti-oppressive social work. The first section of the text presents possibilities of using Fromm’s models in resolving the risk of self-sacrifice to the client; the second focuses on how to work within the client’s boundaries and the risk of paternalistic approaches; the third proposes concepts with regard to working with client ir/responsibility. Y1 - 2023 ER -