Refine
Language
- English (24) (remove)
Document Type
- Articles (18)
- Dissertations (4)
- Collections (2)
Has Fulltext
- no (24) (remove)
Year of publication
- 2022 (24) (remove)
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.
The Pathology of Normalcy and Consensual Validation: Thinking Beyond Neoliberalism with Erich Fromm
(2022)
Think of the ease in which one can acquire food and clothing today. Consider the ubiquitous availability of machines that save us hours of boring labour. For the average person in the global core, it is obvious: the material standard of living has increased exponentially since the industrial-capitalist revolution. Although we may celebrate these achievements it is also clear that such rampant capitalist development has created many horrific ‘negative externalities’.
Tibor Scitovsky’s >The Joyless Economy< (1976) is now regarded as a landmark publication in the combined fields of economics and psychology, with standard accounts of Scitovsky’s ideas emphasizing the influence of 1960s motivational psychology literature. While this encounter is all-important, Scitovsky’s ideas must at the same time be read in the context of the evolution of his critique of twentieth-century mass society. The present paper presents that critique and demonstrates its fundamental importance for Scitovsky’s diagnosis of an economy he termed >joyless<. Drawing upon his >Memoirs<, we show how Scitovsky’s ideas were initially shaped by the culture/aesthetics of his early years in Budapest, followed by his experiences of rising totalitarianism in interwar Europe, and further affected by his move to the consumption society of postwar America. The way he engaged with the writings of influential contemporary cultural commentators, including André Gide, Erich Fromm, Bertrand de Jouvenel, Lewis Mumford, and Bernard Rudofsky, was incisive. Close scrutiny also reveals resonances between Scitovsky’s cultural concerns and those of some of the Bloomsbury Group.
Psychoanalysis in the shadow of fascism and genocide: Erich Fromm and the interpersonal tradition
(2022)
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.
One of the challenges of modern business ethics is to deal with the limitations of the existing model of man in economics and business – the image of homo economicus as a rational selfish being – and search for alternative visions of criteria of success for business entrepreneurs and leaders. Business ethics needs the concept of genuine love. Otherwise, business ethics is reduced to an instrumental endeavor and cannot play the ultimate role it should in a world dominated by big corporations which compete fiercely on a global market. The so-called >the Ethics Management Paradox< is an important warning against the problems with a rational and technocratic conception of ethics. The paper applies Erich Fromm’s concept of >productive love< in business education. To contextualize Fromm’s concept of love, the paper draws on the author’s personal experiences with the course >Ethical action< that has been offered for more than two decades at NHH Norwegian School of Economics in Bergen. The central question is: Can Fromm’s conception of love be applied in a business school setting with the purpose to develop the students’ empathy, to enrich their personal development and their understanding of what a good manager looks like?
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]
This paper explores Erich Fromm’s contribution to Deweyan democratic education by referring to his psychoanalytic interpretation of John Dewey’s pragmatic theory. First, it employs the work by Gert Biesta to secure a space between critical pedagogy and Deweyan democratic education, from which Fromm’s theory can be discussed. Furthermore, it argues that Biesta’s perspective offers a valuable theoretical ground to extend the emancipatory potential of Deweyan democratic education, while avoiding some pitfalls of critical pedagogy. Subsequently, the paper contrasts Marcuse’s and Fromm’s views on Dewey to show how Fromm’s understanding of Dewey was more effective than that of Marcuse for developing the potential of Dewey’s philosophy. Next, the paper clarifies key similarities and differences between Fromm’s psychoanalysis and Dewey’s pragmatism, as it is applicable specifically to emancipatory education. Finally, the paper argues that despite the differences between these two thinkers, Fromm’s theory further radicalizes Deweyan democratic education by adding new elements to the list of preconditions on the role of the emancipatory teacher.
Direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising (DTCPA) is pervasive in the United States. Beyond its effect on consumer behavior, DTCPA changes the relationship between individuals and physicians. The author provides a brief history of pharmaceutical advertising in the United States. The author then analyzes the current commonly used marketing techniques of pharmaceutical companies and argues that pharmaceutical companies are >irrational authorities< in Erich Fromm’s sense of the term since they seek to exploit persons. Using concepts from various philosophers from the Continental tradition, with a particular emphasis on the work of Michel Foucault, the author analyzes the power relations involved in DTCPA and ultimately argues that DTCPA subtly undermines the contemporary paradigm of patient autonomy while simultaneously depending upon it by treating health consumers as >dividuals<, that is, as porous entities to be manipulated.
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.
Obedience
(2022)
This is a phenomenological description of existential obedience, which draws out a contrast between it and ressentiment and existential envy, and compares it with pedagogical obedience. The discussion is developed with reference especially to the work of Erich Fromm, Emerson, and Nietzsche. Eds.: This paper forms part of a special issue titled >Beyond Virtue and Vice: Education for a Darker Age<, in which the editors invited authors to engage in exercises of >transvaluation<. Certain apparently settled educational concepts (from agency and fulfilment to alienation and ignorance) can be reinterpreted and transvaluated (in a Nietzschean vein) such that virtues become vices, and vices, virtues. The editors encouraged authors to employ polemics and some occasional exaggeration to reimagine educational values that are all too readily accepted within contemporary educational discourses.
The philosophical foundations of interpersonal psychoanalysis: Albert Dunham Jr. and racial politics
(2022)
More simply human than otherwise: interpersonal psychoanalysis and the field of the >negro problem<
(2022)
Nowadays, the society is in the rapid development stage of scientific and technological innovation. However, to some extent, the traditional extensive concept of development has led to increasingly tense conflicts, resulting in increasingly serious conflicts between man and nature, man and man, man and society, and man and himself, seriously affecting the sound development of human society. In China, people-oriented is the starting point and the driving force of social development. >People-centered< is an important principle for upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics. In this regard, the importance of human beings is self-evident. In the field of foreign humanistic thought, Fromm is one of the most representative scholars. This thesis examines Fromm’s anthropological thought from three aspects: the formation, logical composition, and evaluation of his anthropological thought. The formation of Fromm’s humanistic thought is inseparable from three aspects: personal experience, social background, and its theoretical origin. In the logical composition of Fromm’s humanistic thought, human nature is the core element of Fromm’s humanistic thought. He carried out research and analysis on human nature from four aspects. First, the dualistic definition of human nature. Specifically discussed from the following angles: one was based on the original living conditions, insurmountable survival ambiguities and non-inevitable history to explain the contradiction of human nature; the other was to analyze the relationship between human nature and human nature and the relationship between human nature and survival needs to interpret human consciousness. Secondly, Fromm regarded the concept of social character as the intermediary link between individuals and society. Thirdly, Fromm analyzed the concept of alienation from the perspective of psychology and sociology, and exposed the alienation of people in modern Western society in the unconscious level and the reality level through criticizing the alienation of capitalism. Finally, Fromm put forward a set of strategies for solving alienation problems based on psychological revolution and social revolution, which provides a relatively complete solution strategy for the problem of social change. Specifically, it takes >moral renewal< as a prerequisite, and at the same time takes into account the reform work in the political, economic and cultural fields, so as to create a better environment for the all-round development of individuals. Fromm’s anthropological thought has the characteristics of value presupposition and utopia. From the standpoint of Marxism, although Fromm’s humanistic thought has certain limitations, the humanistic criticism of his humanistic thought on society has promoted the happiness and development of human beings, which has certain practical significance. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 4/2023]
In the process of the continuous development of capitalism, the ecological crisis and a series of environmental problems have been caused by the incorrect understanding of the relationship between man and nature. In this context, William Leiss, who has long been concerned about ecological issues, criticized the capitalist society on the basis of inheriting and developing Marxism’s theory of need and Herbert Marcuse’s theory of >True or false need<, with a new perspective to explain the needs of the capitalist system of human needs, the formation of their own ideological characteristics of the needs of the theory. Specifically, William Leiss is mainly concerned with the complexity of human desires, which is an important reason for the formation of the capitalist high consumption society, and the need to be oriented toward the commodity world, which is the root cause of the formation of the capitalist high consumption society, and the thought of human conquering nature is the important foundation of the formation of the capitalist high-consumption society. On this basis, Leiss pays attention to the quality of commodities, pays attention to the multi-dimension and relevance of human needs, and understands the close relationship between human needs and natural environment, familiar with the estimated characteristics of commodities in four aspects of the future human needs to express and meet the concept, and the future human needs to express and meet the way to explore, namely the following four aspects, advocating a general orientation of human needs towards a non-single field of goods, and an open minded self-interest to replace anthropocentrism ideology in an easily viable society, it is suggested that natural entities have the same legal rights as human beings. William Leiss’s theory of needs, while providing a new perspective on the mode of production of capitalism, enriches ecological Marxism and provides a useful reference for the establishment of a correct concept of consumption, but there is also a certain degree of misunderstanding of Marxism’s concept of goods, the lack of a certain global vision, its proposed solution is utopian. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 4/2023]