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This chapter tackles the perennial critical conundrum of Iago’s motivation. Agreeing with Coleridge’s assessment of his >motiveless malignity,< it argues that all attempts to explain Iago’s character in terms of individual psychology prove inadequate and that he can be more satisfactorily understood by employing Fromm’s concept of >social character.< Iago is the prototype of early modern capitalist man who exhibits the >pathology of normalcy< and exemplifies three of Fromm’s four >unproductive orientations<—exploitative, hoarding, and marketing. Iago’s lack of a sense of self leads him to destroy rather than to create, and thus manifests the impulse for negative transcendence, or what Fromm terms necrophilia. As necrophilia is the most malignant form of the anal character, this analysis accounts for the pervasiveness of anal imagery in Othello, including in the speeches of the otherwise feeble Clown. Iago, neither devil nor human, is at once a product of his age and the quintessence of all those, from Caligula to Hitler, for whom madness is a way of life because they seek to transcend through destruction the limits of human existence.
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and humanistic psychotherapy: an integrative approximation
(2019)
This article explores the similarities between humanistic (and existential) psychotherapy, represented here by the ideas of Viktor Frankl, Erich Fromm and Irvin Yalom, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Despite the ongoing dialogue between both therapies during the last decade, regarding both their convergences and divergences, there is a gap in the literature concerning their complementarity in clinical practice. This analysis addresses this gap with the integrative (or pluralistic) clinician in mind, and approximates a theoretical and practical integration anchored upon the trans-theoretical model.
Drawing on the author’s lifelong practice in the non-competitive and defensive Japanese art of Aikido, this book examines education as self-cultivation, from a Japanese philosophy (e.g. Buddhist) perspective. Contemplative practices, such as secular mindfulness meditation, are being increasingly integrated into pedagogical settings to enhance social and emotional learning and well-being and to address stress-induced overwhelm due to increased pressures on the education system and its constituents. The chapters in this book explore the various ways, through the lens of this non-violent relational art of Aikido, that pedagogy is always something being practiced (on the level of psychological, somatic and emotional registers) and thus holding potential for transformation into being more relational, ecological-minded, and reflecting more ‘embodied attunement.’ Positioning education as a practice, one of self-discovery, the author argues that one can approach personal development as engaging in a spiritual process of integrating mind and body towards full presence of being and existence.
Capitalism and Mental Health
(2019)
The psychoanalytical framework developed by Marxist Erich Fromm strongly challenges the dominant biological and individualistic explanations of the mental-health crisis that is now sweeping the globe. Fromm emphasized that all humans have certain needs that must be fulfilled in order to ensure optimal mental health. It follows that capitalism is crucial to determining the experience and prevalence of mental well-being, as its operations are incompatible with true human need.
In the conclusion entitled >A Holistic Relational Paradigm,< the author draws on key themes in the manuscript: attachment, healing, psychosocial development, and an altruistic approach to fostering prosocial behavior. Epstein’s (2014) work relates the early trauma of the Buddha’s loss of his mother after childbirth to his resultant view of ‘suffering.’ Epstein explores how this attachment >wound< is mirrored in the Buddhist view that we suffer as the result of not knowing how to integrate the reality of ‘impermanence.’ The author continues to generalize this universal or psycho-spiritual view (as opposed to one based on our ‘personal’ pathology or ‘narrative’) through the core training principles of Ki Aikido, like the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths, as ways of laying out a more liberatory path in daily life. Drawing on the work of Erich Fromm, he further expands on the notion of love, specifically as an approach that fosters applied skillfulness in relationships as an antidote to narcissism. Expanding further, he draws on Matthieu Ricard’s (2015) work on altruism, based in research on its roots in prosocial behavior rather than as moral idealism or superiority.
Propaganda is a centuries-old term, and yet scholars and practitioners are still having a hard time defining it and pinpointing what makes propaganda unique. Many existing definitions fail to distinguish between propaganda and marketing, public relations, advertising, or even mass communications, in general. This essay proposes to define propaganda through psychoanalytical research pioneered by Erich Fromm on symbiotic relations. Symbiotic relations, when transferred from biology to psychology and sociology, describe a process of allowing a person to merge with something big and important, therefore creating meaning beyond an individual’s life. As a result, following its religious roots, propaganda acts similar to religion – asking for a sacrifice of individualism in the name of something bigger – god, country, society, or political party. In the end, people willingly engage in propaganda because, although sacrificing something, they receive unity with the bigger powers of other people, organizations, political parties, countries, and so on. As a result, such persons are not alone against the world; they are now a part of a bigger and stronger union.
This chapter takes to task Elisabeth Roudinesco’s biography, Freud in His Time and Others, for innumerable factual errors and, even worse, for the assumption that she is presenting the objective truth about Freud. Three traditions of Freud biography are delineated: the hagiographic, of which Roudinesco’s is the latest example, the Freud-bashing, and the revisionist, which sees Freud as having created something incontestably great but also as having been tragically flawed as a human being. Roudinesco’s errors range from the trivial, to the mildly compromising, to the inexcusable and disqualifying. With respect to Jung, Roudinesco is shown to rely on Deirdre Bair’s biography, which is itself unreliable, instead of on her own reading of the primary sources. Roudinesco’s true colors are displayed above all in her treatment of Freud’s sexuality, as when she asserts that he has been >accused< of masturbation, claims that an affair with his sister-in-law >doubtless never happened,< and alleges that Freud had a >horror of adultery.< The all-too-human Freud was very different from the lifeless icon worshiped by Roudinesco.
In Formulated Experiences, Peter L. Rudnytsky continues his quest for a >re-vision< of psychoanalysis by coupling his revival of the unjustly neglected figure of Erich Fromm with his latest groundbreaking research on Ferenczi and Groddeck. Committed at once to a humanistic and to a literary psychoanalysis, Rudnytsky explores the subjective roots of creativity and critiques the authoritarianism that has been a tragic aspect of Freud’s legacy.Through his clinically informed interpretations he brings out both >hidden realities< and >emergent meanings< of the texts and authors he examines, including Shakespeare’s Othello and Macbeth, as well as Milton’s Paradise Lost. A preeminent scholar of the history and theory of psychoanalysis, Rudnytsky displays an interdisciplinary expertise that makes Formulated Experiences truly sui generis and unlike any existing book. Bridging the artificial divide between the academic and clinical worlds, his eloquent championing of the interpersonal and relational traditions will captivate contemporary psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, while his insightful close readings provide a model for psychoanalytic literary critics.
This chapter offers a proto-Frommian reading of Paradise Lost. The opening section reviews the debate between >theological< and >Romantic< critics of Milton’s poem—C. S. Lewis and Stanley Fish, on the one hand, and A. J. A. Waldock and William Empson, on the other. Although Waldock pointed to the structural contradictions in the epic, and Empson argued that God was >put on trial< in the narrative, the neo-Christians have gotten the upper hand because the neo-Romantics have been unable to provide an overarching framework to account for their observations. The middle section furnishes such a framework by synthesizing Kenneth Burke’s >logological< analysis of the Fall as inevitable from a narrative perspective with Bernard Paris’s insight that God is the supreme narcissist in the poem. The final section compares Milton’s God and Freud as patriarchs who impose a double bind on their followers and are motivated by a compulsive need for fame.
This chapter employs Fromm’s concept of the >magic helper< to analyze the symbiotic nature of the Freud-Ferenczi relationship. Because both sadists and masochists, according to Fromm, are unable to tolerate genuine freedom, the sadist is dependent on the masochist, no less than the masochist is dependent on the sadist. As Clara Thompson, who was in analysis with both Ferenczi and Fromm, recognized, Ferenczi suffered from his need to be loved and accepted by Freud, and unconsciously resented him for that reason. Fromm’s contrast between the >original self< and the >pseudo self< parallels Winnicott’s antithesis between the True Self and the False Self, as well as Horney’s antinomy between the >real self< and >phony self.< Marcuse’s critique of Fromm is based on an adherence to Freud’s outmoded drive theory. Whereas Freud plays the role of what Daniel Shaw calls the >traumatizing narcissist< in his relationship with Ferenczi, Ferenczi, until his emancipation in his final years, exhibits the deformations resulting from what Bernard Brandchaft calls >pathological accommodation.<
Groddeck’s Lessons
(2019)
This chapter examines both >Groddeck’s teaching,< in the sense of the enduing value of his contributions to psychoanalysis, as well as >Groddeck’s lessons,< that is, what we can learn from his blind spots. The question of who is a psychoanalyst stands at the center of Groddeck’s relationship to Freud, and in accepting Groddeck’s assertion that transference and resistance are the >hubs of treatment,< Freud offers his most expansive definition of a psychoanalyst. Groddeck’s genius is most fully displayed in The Book of the It, the epistolary form of which casts him at once in the roles of analyst and patient. From Groddeck’s biography, it is clear that he was an extremely traumatized individual, as is further attested by his analysis in Letter 25 of his penchant for the number 26,783. But Groddeck does not recognize that he has been traumatized, and his one-sided theory that the It is >responsible for everything< reflects his inability to give due weight to environmental factors. Despite his astonishing candor, Groddeck never discusses his divorce from his first wife or the tragic story of his daughter Barbara, wounds that must have too painful for him to expose to the gaze of the reading public.
Introduction >One Man Cannot Be the Same as Many<: Glimpsing New Paradigms through Old Keyholes
(2019)
The introduction sets the stage for the ensuing chapters by meditating on the key phrases in the title, which are indebted to and inspired by the work of Donnel Stern as well as Philip Bromberg. Fromm is praised for his espousal of a humanistic psychoanalysis as well as his critique of authoritarianism, and his concept of >literary psychoanalysis< is introduced. Freud’s interpretation of Oedipus Rex is shown to be important as much for its >unformulated< assumption of a >hidden reality< theory of the mind as for his extrapolation of the idea of the Oedipus complex. The humanism of Fromm is contrasted with Sullivan’s claim that personal individuality is an >illusion<; Stern and Bromberg are critiqued for decoupling trauma from dissociation and for positing that these are normal conditions of the mind. It is argued that a forensic stance is warranted in hermeneutic endeavors and that it is possible to reconcile objectivist and constructivist epistemologies.
In this chapter, the author introduces his autobiographical near-death experience of a motorcycle accident as the basis for examining his life and the self-study that forms this book, within a gestalt or whole. Touching on the figure-ground-contact approach of Gestalt Therapy, the author puts this self-study within the context of a lifetime of involvement in the Japanese art of Ki Aikido. In Aikido, one learns to coordinate their mind, body, and life energy (Japanese: ki) to better attune and move in synchronization with the world around them. The ethos of Aikido reflects the broader virtue ethics of traditional Japanese arts – >do<, >michi<, or >way< – and how this approach to education aims for spiritual self-cultivation in daily life, rather than mere acquisition of technical or intellectual knowledge. Through Aikido, Japanese calligraphy or shodo (which the author took up as a comparative/adjunct >way< for his study), and beyond into increased skillful awareness in motorcycling and educational praxis, this chapter draws on Yasuo Yuasa’s theory of ki as ‘teleological intentionality.’ By taking a ‘path’ approach to learning through this >ki awareness< one thus develops and enhances their embodied presence into what Yuasa calls >transpersonal synchronization.<
The problem of alienation has been a persistent issue of man since the beginning of civilization and it has been discussed in the history of philosophy since beginning. But as a serious issue the problem of alienation come in to existence after the development of industrialization and technology in a mass scale. Some twentieth century thinkers, philosophers, psychologist, sociologist, and religious scholars prescribed the way to come out from alienation. But in contemporary philosophy the existentialists took the issue of alienation most seriously. They gave their own approach on this issue and propagate a humanistic point of view as a way to come out from alienation. They try to make the philosophy free from the clutches of objectivity and bring the man in center again. Other contemporary western philosophers also influenced by existential movement. For them also the problem of alienation is a serious issue especially the famous philosopher and psychologist Erich Fromm. Fromm observes that in twentieth century man finds himself in a highly mechanical culture dominated by technology. Because of over use and emphasis on technology man becomes alienated from his own personal being. Both existentialists and Erick Fromm believes that man’s subjectivity is lost in the highly technical and mechanical contemporary world. The main issue for these thinkers is not only to understand the concept of alienation but to find out the ways to eliminate the alienation. Through which a human can understand his true being and meaning of life. This is a descriptive paper. The objective of the paper is to explore the issue of alienation in contemporary world and to suggest the ways to come out from the alienation with special reference to Existentialism and Erick Fromm.
By applying Erich Fromm’s theory of alienation and psychological analysis, this thesis explores the idea of alienation and the cause of tragedy in Arthur Miller’s early plays, >All My Sons<, >Death of a Salesman<, and >A View from the Bridge<. The adoption of Erich Fromm’s theory of alienation is based on Miller’s concern with the phenomenon of alienation in American society. On the one hand, the thesis discusses how the symbiotic relationship between man and society is undermined by historical movement and as a consequence how it affects man’s idea of morality and sense of identity by reviewing the particular American history during the time of the Depression and the wars (particularly the Second World War and the Cold War). On the other hand, the thesis discusses how personal fantasy contributes to one’s destiny by making uncompromised commitment to private beliefs as a counterpart of reality.– First of all, the thesis reviews the historical events that shape American experiences of alienation. Economically, the Depression not only exemplifies that everyone is closely related with the society and other human beings, but also implies the illusion embedded in the American Dream. Economic development does not guarantee human beings freedom but conditions men in an alienated position because of its advocacy of liberalism and individualism. The perversion of work ethic, particularly, defines man and directs them to seek self-interest. Politically, the Second World War and the Cold War make man retreat into a world of containment, separating self from the other. Accordingly, in Arthur Miller’s dramatic world, characters attach more importance to family business and family welfare. Then the thesis discusses how human psyche is equal in importance in sealing one’s fate. Although the environment provides the physical basis for practice and action, personal fantasy has a life of its own and therefore becomes a scene for dramatic actions. The point is that neither social codes nor personal ideals ensure a secure sense of identity. In contrast, one-sided indulgence in psychological world alienates man further from society and others. Social sense of identity and personal sense of identity becomes oppositional. Finally, the thesis holds that Miller conveys a message of hope of reconciliation, i. e., man represented by secondary roles in the three plays have the strength and freedom to change the status quo.– This thesis differs from previous studies in the following aspects. First of all, this thesis does not limit the scope of alienation to economic and political field but extends to human psyche, revealing that both the private and the public contribute to Arthur Miller’s tragedy. Secondly, this thesis explores the symbiotic relationships between man and society, pointing out that socially individual experience is the shaping force of human history. In Arthur Miller’s plays, the major characters have certain fantasy with its own life that finally forms the circumference around which dramatic conflicts become possible. The transformational relationship between scene and agent vindicates the combining force of society and psychology to realize Miller’s tragedies. The thesis concludes that Miller indicates one possible way out from the present dilemma of alienation, a characteristic of Arthur Miller’s early period of writing, because the author shows strong faith in humanity by presenting the sympathetic, integral and forgiving secondary characters. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 4/2023]
This chapter employs Caroline Polmear’s contemporary reinterpretation of Michael Balint’s concept of the basic fault as a lens through which to read Othello and Macbeth. In Polmear’s view, borderline pathology arises due to a traumatic rupture in the primal bond between mother and child, and it can take the form of either ocnophilia (clinging to people) or philobatism (clinging to spaces). It is proposed that Othello and Macbeth are representations of these complementary character-types. Othello cannot tolerate any separation from Desdemona, while Macbeth retreats into schizoid isolation. The handkerchief, the loss of which is tantamount to the loss of Desdemona’s love, was received by Othello from his mother at the time of her death, while in Macbeth the rupture of the mother-child bond is figured both in Macduff’s having been >untimely ripped< from his mother’s womb and by Lady Macbeth’s description of killing the baby that was nursing at her breast. Two clinical examples—one of an actual patient, the other of Philip Roth—are offered to illustrate the reciprocal interplay of literature and psychoanalysis. It is argued that the traditional notion of >applied psychoanalysis< should be replaced by what might be called, following Shoshana Felman, >implied psychoanalysis,< or what Fromm has called >literary psychoanalysis.<
In today’s society, sharing bicycle has rapidly penetrated into people’s social life and become a new way of travel because it solves the problem of >the last kilometer< for people to travel. With the share bicycle industry entering the second half of the competition, the industrial focus has returned from capital invest¬ment to product design. How to form a more user-friendly sharing bicycle interaction system and enhance user experience has become an important issue affecting the development of the share bicycle industry. At present, the research on shared bicycle human-computer interaction system is still in its infancy, mainly through regular user interviews and questionnaires. However, in traditional research, users can only describe their problems in the process of interaction sensitively, and may not be able to realize and express their deep needs. Therefore, it is very important to tap the deep needs of users in the interaction process and improve the user experience purposefully.– There are three main innovations in this paper: 1. Using innovative theoretical research methods, intro¬du¬cing psychological theory into design analysis, and based on Fromm psychology, we can get the charac¬teristic emotions of shared psychology. 2. Introducing emotional reporting method into experience evalu¬ation, and carrying out emotional quantification experiments based on the characteristic emotions of Fromm psychology. The experimental data analysis can accurately extract users’ deep interaction needs under the shared psychology. 3. Based on the deep interaction needs, the optimization design practice is finally com¬pleted. In the research process, based on the current research status of shared bicycle in academia, this study uses user interviews and other research methods to conduct in depth analysis and summary of the current shared bicycle interaction system; extracts characteristic emotions based on Fromm’s psychological theory, builds a reasonable emotional quantification experimental scheme and carries out experiments, processes and analyses the experimental data, and concludes that users are in common. In order to meet the deep demand of sharing bicycle interactive experience, the optimization design practice of new sharing bicycle interactive system is completed. The main achievements of this research include: under the gui¬dance of Fromm’s psychology theory, a method of extracting the require¬ments of shared bicycle human-computer interaction system design based on emotional quantification is proposed, and a new human-computer interaction experience model is established; a new process of deep demand mining for human-computer interaction system under shared psychology is formed; and the existing shared bicycle human-computer interaction interface is optimized. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 4/2023]
Biophilic design, based on humans’ innate connection to nature, evolved into a social movement over many decades. It emerged from Erich Fromm’s early use of the term biophilia to Edward Wilson’s book on Biophilia, the subsequent Biophilia Hypothesis book by Wilson and Stephen Kellert, to the multi-authored Biophilic Design publication in 2008. This progression involved meetings and discussions between people with a shared understanding of the human biological connection to nature and the need to bring nature back into urbanites daily lives. Their vision and passion led to the emergence of the social movement of biophilic design. The moral vision of bringing nature into city design reflects a shared understanding and collective goal beyond self-interest. There was a communal sense of the associated issues with cities which lack nature, such as disconnection from nature, urban heat island effect and water and air pollution, kindling a desire to initiate change.
The critical theory of the Frankfurt School reached Egypt in 1955, when the Arabic translation of Erich Fromm’s >The Sane Society< (New York, 1955) was published in Cairo. Later, Herbert Marcuse’s >Soviet Marxism< (1958) was translated into Arabic in Beirut in 1965, and with the rise of student protests in France, Germany, and the United States, much attention was given to Marcuse; almost all his writings were translated into Arabic between 1969 and 1973. This article explores the nature of individual >receptions< of the critical theory of the Frankfurt School at Egyptian universities. To this end, it briefly introduces the early generation of the Frankfurt School, as well as the reasons of interest in its fate in Egyptian universities. Though master’s theses and doctoral dissertations do not represent a university’s orientation to critical theory, and at best represent the perspective of their individual authors, this article shows that key individual theses and dissertations testify to an early rejection of the Frankfurt School and to the late adoption of it as a critical paradigm of the transformations in Egyptian society.
This chapter provides a comprehensive overview and rehabilitation of Erich Fromm’s importance as a psychoanalyst. Fromm is lauded for having been an unsurpassed analyst of psychoanalytic politics and the incarnation of what it means to be an independent psychoanalyst, who was unjustly attacked both by orthodox analysts and by his erstwhile colleagues in the Frankfurt School. His 1935 essay, >The Social Determinants of Psychoanalytic Therapy,< in which the influence of Ferenczi and Groddeck is directly acknowledged, and his 1959 book, Sigmund Freud’s Mission, are hailed as summits of his achievement, while The Greatness and Limitations of Freud’s Thought shows him in decline. Three weak points in Fromm’s thought are identified: (1) his tendency to flatten out an individual level of analysis into a purely social level; (2) his penchant for shifting the blame for the problems in psychoanalysis away from Freud onto his followers; and (3) his assumption that motherly love is unconditional. Fromm’s defense of radical humanism is compared with that of Orwell, and it is shown to be grounded not only in philosophy but above all in natural science in The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness.
We use to think that creativity is an attribute that any individual, to a greater or lesser extent, has. In this essay I will try to show that, besides the obvious differences among individuals, every man choose, more or less consciously, to narcotize part of his creative attitude because in some cases it is advantageous for himself and for the species. In order to do that, I will give a working definition of the concept of creativity (§ 1); then, echoing the words of Erich Fromm, I will outline an individual phenomenology of the creative attitude that might allow the reader to recognize a creative behavior when he sees it (§ 2);(§ 3) lastly, I will try to show, through the use of empirical data on man and on non-human primates, what are the advantages for the species and for the single individual of not acting creatively.
This chapter presents the discovery that Elizabeth Severn’s 1933 book, The Discovery of the Self, contains disguised case histories of both herself and Ferenczi, and thereby constitutes a companion volume to Ferenczi’s Clinical Diary. From having been known primarily as >R.N.,< the most important patient in the Diary, Severn emerges as a subject and original contributor to psychoanalysis in her own right. Severn’s reception of Ferenczi’s legacy is compared to that of two of his other American patients, Izette de Forest and Clara Thompson, the latter of whom envied Severn for her closeness to Ferenczi. Multiple correspondences between the accounts of Ferenczi and Severn of their mutual analysis, as well as of their histories, are set forth. The significance of Strindberg’s play, The Father, for Ferenczi’s transference to Severn is examined. Ferenczi and Severn are shown to have been two deeply traumatized individuals who healed themselves by finding their spiritual counterparts in each other.
This article highlights the psychosocial relevance of Erich Fromm’s concepts of >social character< and >social change< to broaden our understanding of the intergenerational traumatic legacy of neoliberalism. As part of this, it also reflects on the psychosocial significance of other related concepts – namely Pierre Bourdieu’s >habitus< and Raymond Williams’ >structures of feeling< – as ways to also acknowledge their significance when related to each other in emerging research on the neoliberal effects of changes in work and identities. This includes secondary analysis of my own earlier research on the psychosocial ramifications of the loss of stable work, changing worker-gendered identities, disrupted affect, community engagement and historical memory within a global context of insecure labour. This is all understood within a theoretical frame that stresses the emerging neoliberal forms of social character in the aftermath of the massive redundancies and unemployment experienced recently in post-industrial working-class communities in the UK.
The conflict between Freud and Ferenczi during Ferenczi’s final period centers as much on their differences in technique as on Ferenczi’s revival of Freud’s pre-1897 trauma theory. Severn is the first patient since the 1890s whose childhood sexual trauma was the focus of her analysis, just as she was the first since Anna O. whose trauma-based dissociation was integral to her treatment. The corollary of the revival of trauma theory is a model of the mind based not on repression but dissociation. Ferenczi belongs to a tradition of analysts including Breuer, Fairbairn, and Sullivan who worked with a dissociation model. The fountainhead of this tradition is Janet, but though Ferenczi read and quoted from Janet, no references to Janet are found in Ferenczi’s work after 1924, when he began to move away from Freud. It is necessary to integrate scholarship on Ferenczi with the vast body of work on dissociation. Ferenczi is situated between Freud and Severn. Reversing the traditional verdicts, Ferenczi’s relationship to Freud is viewed as an enactment, whereas his relationship with Severn constitutes an authentic dialogue.