>On the Present Escalation of Violence: Causes, Connectivities, and Containment Strategies<: The current increase in youthful crimes of violence mainly directed against foreigners is often put down to defective education. This essay will have none of such simplifying explanations, pointing instead to a connection between >direct< (youthful) violence, >structural< violence (in the public sphere and the economy), and >cultural< violence (in the media). As to the psycho-social genesis of youthful crimes of violence, Helmut Johach distinguishes a >classically asocial< socialization type, mainly restricted to the lower class, from a >narcissistic< deviance syndrome that more characterizes the middle class. An alteration in socialization conditions, affecting both types equally, has been brought about by television more and more replacing primary social experiences in the family. The fact that youthful violence by skinheads and other rightist groups is mainly directed against foreigners is seen as being due to a post-reunification >drift to the right< in German public life and society at large – a drift also manifested in e.g. the asylum-seeker debate in the bundestag. Finally, the author locks horns with the thesis that the >anti-authoritarian upbringing< propagated in the aftermath of the 1968 student revolts has led to a >value decay< in today's younger generation. The ideological function of such pronouncements is to attract attention away from the real causes of the crisis, which are in the nature of the capitalist economic system. Helmut Johach concludes that calls for a >strong state< are quite wrongheaded if the aim is to combat rightwing radicalism; what is needed instead is a more energetic commitment to maintaining a democratic and socially concerned framework.
Die Mauer in uns selbst
(1993)
La aproximacion de Fromm a la teoria psicoanalitica y su relevancia para el trabajo terapeutico
(1993)
>Humanism in the Life and Work of Erich Fromm. A Laudatio on his 90th Birthday<: Apart from the socio-psychological concern informing Erich Fromm’s whole opus, it is his humanist thought that runs as a leitmotif through his life and work. This essay attempts to indicate the wellsprings of Fromm’s humanist thought and to systematically delineate the essential traits of Fromm’s humanism. The primary early impulse behind Fromm’s humanism was the embodiment of Jewish humanism he encountered in the person of Salman Baruch Rabinkow, the Habad Hassid and Erich Fromm’s Talmudic teacher in Heidelberg between 1919 and 1925. Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis with its teaching and guiding precept of opening oneself up to persons in their wholeness was to become the second source of Fromm’s humanism. For all that Fromm stressed his roots in the humanism of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, there is no doubting the uniqueness and authenticity of his own version, nor that his reading of the essence of humanism transcended these traditional forerunners in essential points. This essay is rounded off by a characterization of the humanist Fromm using only statements quoted from Fromm himself and others on the personality of his teacher Rabinkow.
Vom Haben zum Sein
(1992)
>Narcissism and Violence against the Alien<: Not the increasing frequency of clinically relevant narcissistic disturbances alone, but also the wide dissemination of the narcissistic character as a new social type, explains why many people do not characteristically suffer passively from xenophobia, but react instead with hostility and aggression towards what is alien to them. As far as the narcissist is concerned, the more he is driven to indulge himself and stabilize his fragile sense of self with the help of grandiose phantasies, the more he projects the alien-inhimself onto others – with the result that he feels himself existentially threatened by others. The other person is made into the epitome of evil and weakness, of the wicked and the menacing. The narcissistic compensation is invariably associated with hostility towards whatever lies outside one's idealized self. This essay first demarcates narcissistic violence towards the alien from other social-characterological forms of violence towards the alien. Enlisting the reception of the Frommian conception of the self, as it was developed towards the end of the thirties, Rainer Funk distinguishes two different psychodynamics of narcissism; he then uses these to interpret violence towards the alien as an expression of wounded narcissism. Finally, the social causes behind the growth of narcissism in industrial cultures are reviewed.
Erich Fromm
(1994)
Biophilie
(1994)
Einführung in die Tagung
(2013)
Erich Fromm was not only one of the founders of IFPS in the 1960s, but also one of the forerunners of the intersubjective tradition in psychoanalysis. Trained at the Berlin Institute, he started in the 1930s, after emigrating to the USA, to reformulate psychoanalytic theory by focusing on man’s need to be related to reality, to others, and to him- or herself. Similarly to Sullivan, Fromm looked at man primarily as a social being. But in contrast to Sullivan, Fromm stressed much more man’s being molded by societal requirements and by an intersubjectivity that is determined by strivings originating in the structure of his social character. Because of Fromm’s ‘‘societal’’ orientation, his approach to psychoanalysis is still of relevance to understanding how the intersubjective and intrapsychic are interwoven in each individual. Beyond that, his approach enables insights into what is going on psychically in society and how these changes can influence the individual’s welfare or suffering.
Particularly due to technical innovations, we are witnessing an unbounding of reality that increasingly is reflected in an inner striving to get rid of the limitations and boundaries of our own personality by reconstructing it anew. This pursuit of de-limitation, dissolution and blurring of boundaries is seen as a central character trait of the Ego-oriented social character. Such a fabrication of a limitless per-sonality doubtless results in a weakening of such psychic abilities as experiencing one’s self as a consistent and ambiguous entity, being emotionally attached to oneself and to others, feeling one’s own strivings, affects and emotions, and being guided by one’s internalized norms and values. Lastly, the impact of this character formation is discussed in regard to clinical and therapeutic issues.
Funktion und Bedeutung von Vorurteilen und Projektionen für das Leben und Zusammenleben der Menschen
(2014)
Es wird über ein Streitgespräch einer Expertenrunde über die Leistungen Erich FROMMs berichtet. Zunächst wird darüber diskutiert, ob FROMM die Libido-Theorie tatsächlich überwunden habe. Hierüber gehen die Meinungen ebenso weit auseinander wie über die Frage, ob FROMM mehr zu Optimismus oder Pessimismus neigte. Einerseits wird behauptet, FROMM sei keine Alternative zu Freud, sondern habe lediglich dessen Konzept erweitert, andererseits wird eingewandt, FROMMs Ansatz sei etwas weitgehend Neues. Einigkeit herrscht darüber, dass FROMM ein genialer Mann gewesen sei, der die Psychoanalyse in wesentlichen Punkten ergänzt habe. Er sei aber mehr Suchender und Anreger denn Vollender gewesen. Seine Bedeutung liege in seiner Charaktertheorie, in geringerem Masse in seinen Beiträgen zur therapeutischen Technik und zu klinischen Fragen. FROMM sei ohne Freud, aber auch ohne Karl Marx kaum zu begreifen.
Particularly due to technical innovations, we are witnessing an unbounding of reality that increasingly is reflected in an inner striving to get rid of the limitations and boundaries of our own personality by reconstructing it anew. This pursuit of de-limitation, dissolution and blurring of boundaries is seen as a central character trait of the Ego-oriented social character. Such a fabrication of a limitless personality doubtless results in a weakening of such psychic abilities as experiencing one’s self as a consistent and ambiguous entity, be-ing emotionally attached to oneself and to others, feeling one’s own strivings, affects and emotions, and being guided by one’s internalized norms and values. Lastly, the impact of this character formation is discussed in regard to clinical and therapeutic issues.
Erich Fromm’s Legacy
(2015)
Das Vermächtnis Erich Fromms
(2015)
Erich Fromm
(1993)
Vie et œuvre d’Erich Fromm – une esquisse biographique. Presented at Aix en Provence November 2000.
(2000)
Erich Fromm hat vor etwa 90 Jahren eine Theorie undMethode der Analytischen Sozialpsychologie entwickelt und in der Folgezeit zur Anwendung gebracht. Die Analytische Sozialpsychologie ist es wert, in Erinnerung gerufen und auf ihre Relevanz für die Gegenwart befragt zu werden. Nach einer Einleitung werden in mehreren Abschnitten Fromms Theorie und Methode der Analytischen Sozialpsychologie detailliert nachgezeichnet. In einem weiteren Abschnitt werden Fromms humanbiologische Begründungen seiner Sozialpsychoanalyse skizziert. Deren Anwendung und Relevanz werden daran anschließend anhand der Phänotypik und Psychodynamik von Sozialcharakter-Orientierungen illustriert. Abschließend wird die Frage von Fromms Aktualität erneut aufgegriffen.
Der Soziologe und Psychoanalytiker Erich Fromm (1900–1980) entwickelte eine sozialpsychologische Methode, deren besondere Bedeutung darin liegt, dass sie auch unbewusste Motivationen und Antriebskräfte erfasst. Auf diese Weise lassen sich auch Strebungen und Verhaltensweisen sowie öffentliche Wertvorstellungen und Denkmuster ermitteln, die in einer humanistischen Perspektive als gesellschaftlich erzeugte psychische >Defekte< anzusehen sind. Mit seinem Konzept des Sozialcharakters lässt sich das, was in einer bestimmten Gesellschaft als >normal< und >vernünftig< empfunden wird, als mögliche >Pathologie der Normalität< hinterfragen. Wie aktuell sein Ansatz für eine Kritische Psychologie ist, wird am derzeit dominanten Sozialcharakter verdeutlicht.
Erich Fromm
(2022)
This article, based on the author’s keynote speech at the first International Conference on Critical and Radical Humanist Work and Organizational Psychology at the University of Innsbruck, draws on radical humanist theorizing on human productivity and the >pathology of normalcy< in demon-strating the importance of the contribution of Erich Fromm as a basis for Critical Psychology . The sociologist and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm (1900-1980) developed a social psychological method, the special significance of which is that it explicitly captures unconscious motivations and impulses. This makes it possible to identify strivings and behaviors, as well as common values and thought patterns, which, from a humanistic perspective, represent socially patterned mental >defects<. Based on Fromm’s concept of social character, what is perceived as >normal< and >reasonable< in a given society can be exposed as a potential >pathology of normalcy<. After briefly outlining major con-cerns of the project of Critical Psychology, Erich Fromm's social-psychoanalytical approach is in-troduced. The following sections are dedicated to the significance of character formation for ex-plaining social behavior, social repression and socially patterned defects. Next, some indications will be given regarding the meaning of human productivity according to Erich Fromm. Subsequently, the pathogenic impacts of social character orientations will be illustrated based on the exemplary types of the authoritarian and the contemporary marketing social character. The article concludes with a short summary of Erich Fromm’s contribution to Critical Psychology.
Human Relationships and Mental Health. Insights and Findings from Erich Fromm’s time in Mexico
(2023)
The paper analyzes right-wing populism according to Erich Fromm’s socialpsychoanalytic approach and using his social-characterological insights on authoritarianism and narcissism. Right-wing populism can be explained much more plausibly if it is understood as an expression of a reactive narcissistic identity construction rather than as a return of fascism and authoritarianism.