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Erich Fromm's scientific contributions were based on his theory of social character and the methods he developed to test it. Social character describes the deep-rooted emotional attitudes shared by people raised in the same culture. Family, schooling, work, and play shape the social character so that people want to do what they need to do to prosper economically and socially in a particular culture. Fromm's first study of German employees and workers before the rise of Hitler showed that despite subscribing to a democratic ideology the majority would support whoever gained power. The second study of Mexican peasant villagers provided statistically significant results demonstrating that social character explained both productivity and psychopathology. These findings were reinforced by subsequent studies. The nucleus of social character is the psychoanalytic character types discovered by Freud and modified by Fromm. This theory makes use of knowledge from economics, sociology, anthropology, and history. Maccoby has continued to show the relevance of the concept of social character in understanding leadership and motivation at work.
Über Kultur und Äquivalenz
(1971)
On Culture and Equivalence I
(1966)
Über Kultur und Äquivalenz
(1971)
On Culture and Equivalence I
(1966)
Work and Human Development
(1980)
Erich FROMM's strategy of social change was based on reform, with the institutions of alienated society changing in response to increased public commitment to humanistic values. While Herbert Marcuse did not reject reformist strategies outright, and even insisted that every opportunity on that level should be taken advantage of, he distrusted >controlled democracies< and their tendency to manipulate consciousness. The two thinkers did not differ in their advocacy of humanistic values and reformist strategies but in their respective estimates of their efficacy; Marcuse tended to believe that extralegal and politically revolutionary steps would ultimately be required to bring about meaningful social change.
Erich Fromm
(1980)