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As one of the most prominent and prolific writers in contemporary Canada, Margaret Atwood has won the Booker Prize twice. >Oryx and Crake< is Margaret Atwood’s eleventh novel, which mainly describes the clear recollections of sole human survivor Jimmy-Snowman before the crack of doom. His best friend Crake has destroyed humanity by creating a deadly virus that quickly spreads to the whole world and causes the destruction of human beings. By depicting the alienation phenomenon in the novel, Atwood reveals the predicament of modern people in a modern society and shows her humanistic concern. Based on Fromm's alienation theory, this thesis analyses the phenomenon of alienation from three aspects: the self-alienation, the relationship alienation and the social alienation. Firstly, the self-alienation means that man loses his creativity and subjectivity. Through creative activities and self-love, man can achieve his spiritual development and subjectivity. Secondly, this thesis also explores the relationship alienation. In modern society, people tend to make use of each other to safeguard their interests, which leads to the love that between family members and lovers is not pure. Through mature motherly love and erotic love, children will establish a more harmonious relationship with their parents and lovers will have a deeper understanding of each other. Thirdly, it comes to the social alienation. Technology alienation and consumption alienation are embodied in the social alienation. The misuse of technology and the possession of material things cause the alienation between man and society. In order to establish a humane society, humans can establish a harmonious relationship with society by having a humanistic planning and humanized consumption. By discussing the alienation phenomenon and the methods to eliminate alienation, this thesis attempts to provide a salutary lesson. In order to eliminate alienation, people should establish a harmonious relationship with themselves, others and society with the creativity, love and humanistic spirit. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 4/2023]
Erich Fromm is an American psychologist and psychoanalyst. In his system of doctrine, the existence concept occupies an important position. In Fromm’s view, existence mode not only reflects the individual’s living conditions, but also reflects the status and level of social development. Existence mode is not only an issue of values, but also an issue of ethics and psychology. Fromm’s concept is deeply influenced by Marx and Freud. Marx’s alienated labor theory and Freud’s psychoanalytic theory constitute important theoretical sources of his existence concept. Fromm divides existence mode into two types: the mode of having and the mode of being. Fromm profoundly reveals the social psychology and character characteristics of having, as well as the negative effects of having on all levels of society. On this basis, Fromm believes that it is necessary to shape a proactive mode of existence with >freedom<, >creativity< and >love< as the core demands, and to promote the construction of a new society through reforms at the political, economic and cultural levels, and to cultivate the new person with ideas of existence mode. By doing so, it is effective to eliminate the negative effects caused by alienation, reification and fetishism, and to transcend the existence mode of having. Fromm’s denial and criticism of the existence mode of having and the advocacy and assumption of the existence mode of being have positive enlightenment significance for the spiritual civilization construction of our society and the all-round development of human beings. However, Fromm’s existence thought also has obvious limitations. He lacks historical materialism. Although he recognizes that the generalization of the existence mode of having is the result of the development of private ownership, he ignores and downplays the decisive role of the economic foundation in social change. The social reform plan he proposes is out of touch with reality and has a strong utopian color, making it difficult to become a reality. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 4/2022]
Critical Theory has traditionally been interested in engaging classical psychoanalysis rather than addressing postclassical thought. For the first time, this volume brings Critical Theory into proper dialogue with modern developments in the psychoanalytic movement and covers a broad range of topics in contemporary society that revisit the Frankfurt School and its contributions to psychoanalytic social critique. Theoretical, clinical, and applied investigations in social pathology are explored in relation to new directions in critical cultural discourse from a variety of psychoanalytic perspectives. In this volume, internationally acclaimed social political theorists, philosophers, psychoanalysts, cultural critics, and scholars of humanities examine contemporary issues in social critique that address a myriad of topics.
In this chapter, we argue that Frankfurt School Critical Theory is in crisis and we offer three potential remedies drawn from the work of Erich Fromm (1900–1980). Juxtaposing a critical analysis of the state of ‘domesticated’ contemporary Critical Theory with a sympathetic reconstruction of Fromm’s work, we identified crucial insights which have been neglected by many of those who work within the ambit of Frankfurt School Critical Theory today. In this endeavour, we seek to build upon and extend the work of Michael J. Thompson, Stathis Kouvelakis, and Nancy Fraser.
This chapter presents several different conceptualizations of the ambivalence which, it argues, is a central feature of the psyche of the modern individual. It is produced by two basic but potentially contradictory needs – for the assertion of individuality, and for membership of a collectivity. The understanding of this ambivalence is an important contribution of psychoanalysis to psychosocial theory. It bridges between sociohistorical and clinical perspectives and throws light on many aspects of the contemporary world.– The starting point is Fromm’s >Fear of Freedom< (1942). Fromm describes the depth of fearful aloneness and vulnerability felt by the modern individual who has emerged from the very limited individuation of pre-modern societies. This leads to the dangers of a regressive escape from that fear, and into identification with an idealized collective, which is the basis of popular support for authoritarianism.– This remains a highly relevant analysis, though another, complementary dynamic must now also be considered. This involves a fear of the collective, a libertarian denial of the pains of separation, and an idealization of the unfettered individual. A deficit of confidence in the core, individuated self produces vulnerability to both of these anxieties, trapping us in an ambivalence between freedom and belonging, unable to feel fully secure with either.– Developments in post-Freudian theory have offered clinically-based elaborations and variations on this idea of a basic ambivalence. Here the focus is on Guntrip’s account of the schizoid dilemma, and on descriptions of a >core complex< (Glasser) involving agoraphobic and claustrophobic impulses and oscillations between them. These different formulations converge in their picture of a self unable to live either with or without human relationships.– A number of key topics in politics today are then considered in the light of this analysis: attitudes toward the state, national identity and nationalism, terrorism, and populism. In each area, the expression and interplay of these complementary anxieties and defences against them are seen to contribute to the present difficulties of democracy.