In undertaking this study, the writer became aware of the following problem of study method in theology: skepticism indeed is an indispensable part of the theologian’s equipment; he must train himself to be disturtful of anything he sees on the printed page unless there seems good reason to believe that it can be trusted. In our theological culture, the printed word is generally regarded with such excessive respect that the grossest errors in fact may go unchallenged for years until the properly skeptical reader comes along. The above stated problem dictated the formulation of this study with the following purpose in mind: to develop a critical study method in theology. Accordingly, Erich Fromm's thought of religion was criticized from such standpoint in this study.
Cine este omul?
(1983)
A Severe Case of Penis Envy: The Convergence of Cultural and Individual Intra-Psychic Factors
(1983)
More's Autonomy
(1983)
Editorial
(1983)
Tears of Joy
(1983)
Family dynamics in psychotic and severe psychosomatic disorders: A comparison. Typescript, 29 pp.
(1983)
Psychiatry in America
(1983)
La relazione felice
(1983)
Psychiatry and Samizdat
(1983)
Erich Fromm
(1983)
Gespannt auf das Verborgene
(1983)
Wer ist der Mensch?
(1983)
Erich FROMMs soziobiographische Deutung der Person Adolf Hitlers und andere sozialpsychologisch-psychoanalytische Interpretationen des Faschismus werden dargestellt und diskutiert. – Aus dem Inhaltsverzeichnis: (1) Die wissenschaftliche Bedeutung der Biographie. (2) Exkurs: Die psychologischen Dimensionen im Umgang mit der nationalsozialistischen Vergangenheit. (3) Erich FROMMs Bedeutung für eine Soziobiographie Adolf Hitlers. (4) Wichtige Aspekte in Adolf Hitlers Lebensgeschichte. (5) Der autoritäre und nekrophile Charakter Adolf Hitlers. (6) Weitere sozialpsychologische Ansätze in der Hitler-Biographik [Alice Miller; Joachim C. Fest; Helm Stierlin; Rudolph Binion; Erik H. Erikson; Wilhelm Reich.
Presents a Marxist consideration of the current tendency in psychoanalysis to understand the relationship between psychoanalysis and society. The author considers the writings of Freud, Reich, FROMM, and certain others with reference to his theory of a twofold division in understanding the psychoanalysis-society link. The 1st tendency, represented by Freud and his early followers, is a psychoanalytic interpretation of society, hence >social-psychoanalytic-psychology<. The 2nd trend, not so well defined, returns an absolute autonomy to the society and attempts to understand the relationship of society to psychoanalysis through its effect on the individual by considering social, cultural, and economic effects.
>Biophile< und >nekrophile< Momente in der Gruppe [Biophilous and necrophilous motives in groups
(1983)
Die von FROMM beschriebenen >biophilen< und >nekrophilen< (bzw. destruktiven) Tendenzen werden zur Beschreibung und Untersuchung von gruppendynamischen Vorgängen herangezogen. Anhand von Beobachtungen in sechs Gruppen (fünf therapeutische Gruppen und eine experimentelle Selbsterfahrungsgruppe) wird aufgezeigt, daß die Kategorien des >biophilen< und des >nekrophilen< Verhaltens auf das Gruppengeschehen gut anwendbar und zur Beschreibung und Klassifikation der Gruppenphänomene geeignet sind. Die Analyse des Gruppengeschehens zeigte, daß averbales Agieren destruktiver oder >nekrophiler< Tendenzen und verbale Beschäftigung mit >nekrophilen< Gesprächsthemen miteinander abwechselten, wobei die Unterdrückung oder Korrektur averbalen Agierens im Sinne einer destruktiven oder >nekrophilen< Tendenz regelmässig von einem Durchbruch >nekrophiler< und destruktiver Gesprächsthemen abgelöst wurde.
Zunächst wird ein Überblick über die Hauptgedanken im Lebenswerk Erich FROMMs gegeben: (1) der >sozialpsychologische Ansatz<, das heisst seine Überzeugung, daß das Grund- und Schlüsselproblem der Psychologie das der Beziehung des Menschen zur Welt und zum anderen ist, (2) die zwischen produktiver und nicht-produktiver Orientierung unterscheidende Charakterologie, (3) die Darstellung des vielfach illusorischen Charakters menschlicher Überzeugungen, (4) die Lehre von der Kunst des Liebens und (5) die Bekämpfung des menschlichen Egoismus. In diesen Grundgedanken der Lebensarbeit FROMMs wird eine wesentliche Wahlmöglichkeit für den gegenwärtig vor die Entscheidung zwischen produktiver Orientierung und egoistischem Versorgungsdenken gestellten Menschen erblickt.
It is argued that although the classical critical theory of the Institute for Social Research criticizes the consumer society that is typical of advanced capitalism, new perspectives on commodities, needs, and consumption are necessary. The ideas of Herbert Marcuse, Erich FROMM, and others on this are reviewed, and are criticized for advocating an excessively global critique of commodities, needs, and consumption as uniformly alienating and manipulative. A theory is presented that distinguishes between true and false needs, useful and useless commodities, and life-enhancing and alienating consumption. It is suggested that critical theory should accommodate a diversity of consumer practices in evaluating consumption, and should provide more discriminating accounts of commodities and needs. Rational and progressive consumer practices are proposed, and the argument is advanced that critical Marxists should take consumer, environmental, and health movement struggles more seriously in developing critiques of contemporary capitalism and theories of social change.
A comparison of social themes and political trends of the 1950s and 1980s shows some marked similarities: conservatism and career thinking are prevailing moods, fear of crime and communism are common, and social consciousness and liberalism have lost public favor. Some conservative intellectuals of the 1950s are still writing in the 1980s, including William F. Buckley, Norman Podhoretz, and Irving Kristol. Dissenting liberals of the 1950s, eg, Irving Howe, Gore Vidal, and Norman Mailer, have retained their positions. It is noted, however, that the radical voices of the 1960s are absent. One explanation for this situation is that many 1960s critics were European, including Erich FROMM, Paul Baran, and Herbert Marcuse; they influenced, but were not essentially a part of United States radical thought. A major difference between the intellectuals of the 1980s and those of the 1950s is that the former are mostly academics; by this trend, radical discourse has been limited to within-University forums, and large sectors of the lay public are ignored or alienated.
An examination of the mechanisms and costs of the repression of psychoanalysis, focusing on the case of the >political Freudians'< transplantation to America, in 7 Chpts with an author's Preface. (1) The Repression of Psychoanalysis-discusses the choice made by post-World War II immigrant psychoanalysts between the breadth of European psychoanalysis and a cautious exile in an anti-Marxist environment, and it is suggested that >the structure of psychoanalysis is founded on...the repression of its own past>. The history of Otto Fenichel's secret circle-including Edith Jacobson, Annie Reich, Kate Friedlander, George Cero, Barbara Lantos, Edith Ludowyk Gyomroi, and Berta Bornstein-and their Rundbriefe (round letters) is outlined. (2) Spring's Awakening: Analysts as Rebels-describes the atmosphere of psychoanalysis in pre-World War I Europe, focusing on the importance of theories of sexuality, and the impact of Otto Gross and the youth movements. (3) The Berlin Institute: The Politics of Psychoanalysis-treats Fenichel's activities among the Berlin psychoanalysts during the 1920s and early 1930s, including his controversial, political >Children's Seminar<. Fenichel's socialism, attitude toward communism, and visits to the USSR are evaluated. (4) Exile: The Secret Freudians and Their Rundbriefe-charts the Fenichel group's flight from the Nazis, their vain attempts to form a united front with Wilhelm Reich, and subsequent efforts to explore a social and political psychoanalysis in the face of the psychoanalytic establishment's growing conservatism. (5) Psychoanalysis and Its Discontents: Freudians against Freudians-outlines the disagreements Fenichel had with positions of Erich FROMM, Sandor Ferenczi, Karen Horney, Margaret Mead, and various Reichians, neo-Freudians, and conservatives. (6) The Illusion of a Future: Political Psychoanalysis in the United States-describes Fenichel's life and death in Los Angeles, Calif, where he was one of the few advocates of lay praxis and a classical and theoretical psychoanalysis. (7) The Americanization of Psychoanalysis-contrasts the works of Robert Lindner, C. Wright Mills, and Paul Baran, pointing to their different accesses to the classical and radical literature of their respective fields. The narrowing of psychoanalysis is examined, focusing on the change in translation from one cultural idiom to another, the loss of humanism and politics in the processes of medicalization and professionalization, and the repression of the possibilities of psychoanalysis. Appendix: Four Rundbriefe. Notes
Unlike Freud, A. Mitscherlich was able to integrate psychoanalysis into socialization theory and family sociology. Mitscherlich's position was influenced by previous works by Marxist analysts W. Reich and E. FROMM, whose view of psychoanalysis as a science of intrapsychic processes complements the Marxist theory of historical materialism. Also discussed are the influence of Parson's socialization theory and some of Mitscherlich's psychosomatic concepts that contain existentialist undertones.
Compares the views of E. FROMM (1947, 1973, and 1980-1981) on the subject of guilt with some of the more recent theoretical and empirical contributions in this area, and suggests that many of these developments were anticipated by FROMM, but that his contributions have not received due recognition. FROMM's contribution in this area is mainly formulated in theoretical terms. An integration of FROMM's theoretical concepts with later developments could have clinical relevance by leading to an alternative framework within which to organize the clinical data regarding aggressiveness and guilt. Specific issues addressed include FROMM's distinction between authoritarian and humanistic conscience, the development of different concepts of guilt (e.g., M. Friedman, see record 73-09143), and the integration of FROMM's concepts of ontogenesis, aggression, and phylogenesis with more recent developments.
A vol in II PARTS and 14 Chpts, with an author's Introduction, which is part of the International Library of Group Psychotherapy and Group Process series, under the editorship of Malcolm Pines and Earl Hopper. Presented is the argument that Freudian psychoanalysis has been widely misinterpreted as a therapy primarily for the individual, and that its central concepts are basically social in nature and should be applied to the study of societies, their values, cultures, and politics. – PART I presents (1) Body and Mind – which evaluates materialist and mentalist interpretations of the theory of instincts; (2) Individual and Society – assesses the conflict between an individual's desires and the barriers or requirements of cultures, and the importance of libidinal forces for uniting groups; (3) Normality, Neurosis and Therapy – considers the supremacy of a health paradigm of normal versus pathological in contemporary society as against the historical religious paradigm characterized by good and evil; Freud's view of normality is analyzed; (4) Culture, Normality and Morality – examines Freudian discourse as a moral philosophy, with consequent implications for values of enjoyment, pleasure, joy, and truth; (5) Science and Philosophy – discusses four features of psychoanalysis: Freud's positivism, the value element in his work, his causal imagery, and certain basic concepts, eg, the unconscious; (6) Utopia and Illusion – examines attributions of utopian thinking in the concepts of pleasure and emphasis on sexuality in Freud's work; utopias of both Eros and Logos are analyzed; and (7) Psychoanalysis and Culture – outlines a role for psychoanalysis in the human sciences by applying the apparatus for interpreting dreams and neuroses to sociocultural problems. – PART II indicates directions for the application of psychoanalysis to modern cultures, and integrates the views of social theorists whose sociocultural criticism contains concepts from psychoanalysis. Thus, Wilhelm Reich's and Erich FROMM's analyses of fascism as a social rather than political occurrence both apply Freud's view of the psychology of character-structure and borrow from Marx the revolutionary concepts inherent in dialectical materialism. Chpt (8) – The First Radicalization of Freud: Reich and FROMM, the Optimistic Utopians – describes Reich's and FROMM's views of the family as a socializing agent, Reich's views on sexuality, and his analysis of fascism; and Reich's and FROMM's integration of Marxian and Freudian concepts; (9) The Discovery of the Radical Freud: Marcuse and Brown – describes the belief in a distorted human nature and the quest for a cure in a new civilization; both Herbert Marcuse and Norman O. Brown support psychoanalytic concepts in the analysis of human sickness caused by repression. (10) Psychoanalysis and Contemporary American Culture: The Present as Utopia in the Work of Rieff – introduces Philip Rieff's application of Freudian concepts to a cultural theory of the end-of-ideology in an analysis of contemporary America; (11) Ernest Becker's Homo Heroica': Narcissus as the Cosmic Hero Without Followers – discusses Becker's view of a harmony between man and nature, the concept of >genius of man<, and the absence of real meaning in modern life and culture; (12) Narcissism and Contemporary Culture – characterizes the modern narcissist as a result of the absence of love in a modern world dominated by bureaucracies; (13) The Death Instinct and the Age of the Machine – prescribes alternative modes of regarding moral disintegration, social-overregulation, and the depersonalization of modern life; (14) Conclusions – analyzes contemporary culture in terms of a polarity between a robot and a narcissist, but criticizes the reductionist tendencies of many modern social theorists. A therapeutic role for psychoanalysis, in application to contemporary culture, is outlined. Appendix: An Attempt at Integration – Talcott Parsons – deals with Parsons's views on the integration of personality theories and social systems. Also considered are his theory of socialization and the role of love and eroticism in the process, the function of the family, and the formation of personality.
Discusses the theories of Freud, Jung, Francoise Roustang, Erich FROMM, and Theodor Reik on transference and alienation. The tragic results of institutional policy related to learning and diffusion of didactic psychoanalysis in the cases of Victor Tausk and Arthur Honegger are analyzed.
Erich Fromm
(1983)
Erich Fromm
(1983)