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Fromm's Humanistic Ethics and the Role of the Prophet

  • Marianne Horney Eckardt offers a thoughtful meditation on the issue of normative principles in development and the practice of psychotherapy. She discerns three possible positions. The classical position as articulated by Heinz Hartmann would advise the analyst to stay clear of any moral position and hope for the best. In the position taken by Karen Horney, the issue of ethics lies at the center of neurotic development. The analyst's role, to use a metaphor, is to be a good gardener who will restore healthy development by providing the right conditions for further growth. We should mention in passing, that the belief in a self-righting tendency is central to many contemporary views such as Lichtenberg and colleagues' (1992) and Weiss's (1993). A third position, taken by Fromm and Stephen Jay Gould, claims that nature does not provide us with answers to the problem of living. Quoting Gould (1977), Eckardt believes that the complexity of human existence requires >humanists of every stripe< (p. 146) to provide us with moral guidelines by which we can live. She interprets Fromm as believing that humans are not inherently good or evil, but that life presents us with choices that can incline us in one direction or another. The role of the analyst in this position is much like the old biblical prophet or a Greek chorus. As therapists we can describe the alternatives provided by life choices and can urge patients to consider the possible consequences of different paths, some of them dire, others promising and hopeful, but we cannot tell patients which road to take. Fromm's position was dialectical and incorporated elements of the second and third positions. Fromm thought that the main tendency in humans was toward goodness. The path to love and brotherliness also offered the best >solution< toward happiness. Evil was a second, ever-present potential, a capacity for cruelty and destructiveness that far exceeded anything observable in the animal kingdom. At its best, Fromm's approach to a humanistic ethics was historical. Any discussion of real possibilities – in a Hegelian sense – for good and evil had to be inserted within the context of a specific historical period and a particular life history. Without this contextualization, any discussion of ethics results in, by omission or by commission, simply supporting an ideology. Eckardt's distinctions are valuable and help frame some of the issues of a humanistic ethics. We think her discussion of Fromm's belief in a negative theology also has implications for our position as therapists. Just as we cannot know what God is, we are also unable to predict, nor should we prescribe, formulas that lead to the good life. And just as a negative theology is defined by what God is not, so we can and do know about negative consequences for development when favorable conditions are lacking. Furthermore, we should not hide our values as therapists. A central paradox of human development is that while development is lawful, it is not predictable on an individual basis.

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Metadaten
Author:Marianne Eckardt Horney
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. 151-166.
Document Type:Articles
Language:English
Year of first Publication:1996
Release Date:2012/12/13
Format:PDF-file to download
IdNo:Eckardt_Horney_M_1996
Writings about Erich Fromm (Secondary Literature):Articles / Artikel
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Articles / Artikel
International Erich Fromm Society's Writings:Articles / Artikel
Licence (German):
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