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The Greatness and Limitations of Fromm's Thought: On Dreams

  • Paul Lippmann continues exploring the strengths and weaknesses of Fromm's work and directs our attention to Fromm's contribution to the under-standing of dreams. As Lippmann observes, at times >the adventure down the royal road had become a lockstep for the faithful on a narrow and rigid path<. Fromm reawakened an interest in exploring the richness and insight potential of dreams by focusing on the experi-ential approach to dream interpretation. To his credit, Fromm seriously engaged Jung's fundamental contribution. Although Fromm steered away from the stereo-type of fixed universal archetypes, he agreed that dreams could give expression to the very best in us. He tried to reconcile Jung's contribution of the dream's expres-sion of intellectual and spiritual insight with Freud's emphasis on the irrational mo-tives expressed in dreams. The result was a more complex, balanced, and clinically useful approach to dreams that anticipated many creative efforts to expand our un-derstanding of these mysterious nighttime visions. Yet, as Lippmann observes, dreams have the Rorschach-like capacity to elicit in would-be interpreters the re-flection of their own interests and motivations, and are influenced by the analyst's theories. Fromm's dream interpretations were often the expression of his own be-liefs, the voice of humanistic conscience, the expression of an irrational mother fixa-tion, or the rebellion against the dehumanizing effect of modern society. In short, he introduced his own creed to dream interpretation.

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Metadaten
Author:Paul Lippmann
Parent Title (English):M. Cortina and M. Maccoby (Eds.), A Prophetic Analyst. Erich Fromm's Contribution to Psychoanalysis, Nothvale and London (Jason Aronson Inc.) 1996, pp. 133-150.
Document Type:Articles
Language:English
Year of first Publication:1996
Release Date:2012/12/13
Format:PDF-file upon request / PDF-Datei auf Anfrage
IdNo:Lippmann_P_1996
Writings about Erich Fromm (Secondary Literature):Articles / Artikel
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Articles / Artikel
Licence (German):
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