This article examines Fromm’s 1935 paper, >The Social Determinants of Psychoanalytic Therapy,< situating it in the context of Fromm’s life and setting forth its contrast between Freud’s >authoritarian, patricentric attitude< and the >humane, philanthropic attitude< of Ferenczi, who was deeply influenced by Groddeck. Despite critiquing Fromm’s tendency to give insufficient attention to the >the individual fate of the person,< such as would be necessary to explain the differences between Freud and Ferenczi, in expounding his concept of the >social character,< the present paper argues that Fromm’s >calling card,< published while Freud was still alive, is >one of the greatest papers in the psychoanalytic literature.<
One of the perennial questions in Shakespeare studies concerns what Coleridge called the >motiveless malignity< of Iago. Instead of looking at Iago as an individual, however, I will argue that he is best understood as a representation of the >social character< of early modern bourgeois man. Iago’s denial of spiritual values and his mercenary nature can be understood in this light. Fromm’s theses concerning the interconnections among anal libido, the death instinct, malignant aggression, and necrophilia all find support in Shake-speare’s supreme villain.