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The New Left was founded on a reaction against the trend toward a wholly empirical approach to social theory. The insistence that some utopian elements be retained is a preoccupation of the Marxist-oriented Frankfurt School, of which Erich FROMM is a member. As a social critic, FROMM has a strong optimistic outlook. He asserts that as man enlarges his potentialities as a creative being, he increases his need for freedom from all types of constraints. In view of this conception of human nature , FROMM accuses Freud of an overly >biological< or mechanistic approach to human personality. Instead of considering only the forces of sexual gratification and self-preservation, FROMM suggests that Freud's analysis should also consider the elements of humanistic and dialectic thinking. Also receiving consideration are FROMM's concepts of: (1) community, (2) capitalism, and (3) social character as it relates to Marxian material substructure and ideological superstructure.