Wie Arbeit heute entfremdet
(2016)
Wat is liefde?
(1980)
Vorwort des Herausgebers
(2018)
Vom Haben zum Sein,
(2008)
Vom Haben zum Sein
(1992)
Vie et œuvre d’Erich Fromm – une esquisse biographique. Presented at Aix en Provence November 2000.
(2000)
Verbunden sein, ohne sich zu binden. Sozialpsychologische Reflexionen zur postmodernen Lebensart
(2009)
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.
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.
The Narcissistic Character [Reprint from R. Funk: Life itself is an art, New York 2019, pp. 110-129]
(2021)
I shall start by showing Erich Fromm’s particular social psychological approach to the understanding of man. In the main part, a new character type is presented that can be observed particularly in highly industrialized countries where people are devoted to the so-called postmodern way of life. Finally, I shall interpret the meaning of an individual’s deep longing for constructing life and reality anew and without any limitations resp. to participate in those enacted life styles that establish a feeling of belonging to those fabricated realities. This will enable me to ask about such an individual’s unconscious feelings and beliefs and his or her social and personal functioning.
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.
Selbstverlustängste
(1995)
>Fears of Losing One's Self<: Fears of loss can be directed at specific objects, but at the human self no less so. When the latter occurs, we speak of fears of losing one's self – these are experienced as extremely threatening existentially, which explains why they mostly only emerge as defence mechanisms. Based on the social-psychological approach adopted by Frommian psychology of the self, the importance is first shown of inner images of both objects and the self, since these reveal fears of loss as ways of compensating for unstable personality cores. Then the various defence mechanisms in the service of the a priori relatedness to the self and others are analyzed in terms of Frommian social character orientations, and, in a second stage, systematized as compensation strategies against fears of losing one's self. After this attempt at a systematization in terms of character orientations and fears of losing one's self, the author proceeds to a heuristic analysis of both narcissistic defence strategies in terms of their psychological dynamism. Finally, he suggests ways and means of coping with these fears of losing one's self when such openly manifest themselves.
>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.
Schule, Gewalt und Narzißmus
(1994)
Registerband
(1980)
Psychoanalysis can contribute quite a lot to the question of values and to a theory of ethics. While the first part of this presentation is focused on the impact psychoanalysis continues to exert on present day ethical theory, the second part discusses Erich Fromm’s particular approach to psychoanalysis. Fromm was the first to reformulate in his psychoanalytic approach the idea of an ethic of the virtues. With his theory of character (and of social character) he made values an integral part of psychoanalytic theory. Hence, what matters most morally from a psychoanalytic stance is the quality of character orientation. Despite the fact that – in Fromm’s own socio-psychoanalytic approach – man’s character is the product of adaptation to the environment, morality for him is dictated by economic and social requirements – whatever common sense may tell us to the contrary. For Fromm there is an intrinsic primary tendency to growth in all human beings. Thus, morally good is whatever furthers the growth of our own powers by which we relate to the outside world and to ourselves in a loving, >sane< and creative way. The last section reflects some implications of Fromm’s approach to understanding values as an integral part of psychoanalytic theory, and finally discusses whether the search for truth and human values is as obsolete as postmodern thinking claims.
Psychoanalyse der Gesellschaft. Der Ansatz Erich Fromms und seine Bedeutung für die Gegenwart
(2000)
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.
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.
Pro und Contra eines bedingungslosen Grundeinkommens angesichts der gegenwärtigen Entfremdung
(2011)
Prize awarding
(2010)
Prefazione
(2005)
Prefacio
(2018)
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.
Particularmente devido às inovações técnicas, estamos testemunhando uma realidade sem limites crescente que se reflete cada vez mais em um esforço interno para nos livrarmos das limitações e fronteiras de nossa própria personalidade, reconstruindo-a novamente. Essa busca des-limitação, dissolução e indefinição dos imites é vista como um traço de caráter central do caráter social Ego-orientado. Tal fabricação de uma personalidade ilimitada sem dúvida resulta em um enfraquecimento de tais habilidades psíquicas como experimentar a si mesmo como uma entidade consistente e ambígua, estar emocionalmente ligado a si mesmo e aos outros, sentir seus próprios esforços, afetos e emoções, e ser guiado por alguém normas e valores internalizados. Por fim, discute-se o impacto dessa formação de caráter no que diz respeito às questões clínicas e terapêuticas.
>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.