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By integrating data from general psychology and perinatal clinical psychology with neuroscience and psychoanalysis, the author discusses the relations between memory and consciousness, the aim being a unitary definition of the concept of unconscious. Nobody has a brain that can be the same as any other person's: the biology of memory lies in neural networks that have been constructed in the brain of that specific person by their experience. From the fetal stage, each brain progressively learns its own individual functions during its relational neuropsychic development. The author underlines how the continuous emotional biological work of the brain, together with a person's entire relational life, produces the construction of the whole functional and individual mindbrain. The whole construction is memory and this is unconscious; indeed it may be the true unconscious. From the continuous silent work of the mindbrain of a person, some forms of conscious level may emerge in his individual's subjectivity: some functioning of mindbrain makes what an individual person can consciously remember. The unconscious is only what appears in some form in an analyst's consciousness, at some specific moment in his relationship with a patient, and which the analyst translates into some form of his verbal interpretation.
There are shared humanistic tendencies in Erich Fromm’s views and the ideas of Eastern Orthodoxy. The comparative method of this paper focuses on similarities between Fromm’s humanistic psychoanalysis and Orthodox Christianity, while noting differences between them. In his works Fromm mentioned religious approaches, but he mostly referred to Protestantism (as a development from teachings of Martin Luther and John Calvin) and more rarely to Catholicism. Both streams have differences with Eastern Orthodoxy which is traditional for Russia. The individualism common to the western protestant model is contrasted with the community spirit, which is common to Russian culture and to the view of life of Russian Orthodoxy in particular. First, Fromm wrote about overcoming negative modes of life (such as estrangement or alienation) inherent to the first model, through adopting the second model. Second, humanistic views should be marked in ideas of Erich Fromm and Eastern Orthodoxy. The ideas of Erich Fromm and Eastern Orthodoxy are both based on a perception of a human being as a distinct whole personality, who should perceive as basic the values of self-development, love, creative self-realization, freedom, and responsibility. Also, free and whole personality cannot be formed without being a part of community of other persons, which is a very important point for both.
In the light of Philipp Sarasin's work in Darwin und Foucault: Genealogie und Geschichte im Zeitalter der Biologie, the article delineates a genealogically articulated naturally produced culture and a cultured nature and discusses the genealogical implications of a carnal, becoming self in a world that could rightly be justified >as an aesthetical phenomenon.< The article demonstrates the historicity and processual materiality as a conceptual platform for a combination of the notions of experienced carnality and a socially constructed body, demonstrating such a historically embedded carnal body as a binding agent for the >social constructivist< and >biologist< approaches in sciences. Thus, the article builds a framework for the articulation of senseful, processual materiality on the backdrop of a nature-culture continuum via genealogy, suggesting the necessity for change of tone in the communication of human and life sciences via the understanding of a culturally endowed biology.
A Frommian perspective on the socio-psychological structure of post-fascism in liberal democracies
(2020)
My research explores Erich Fromm’s social theories of narcissism, alienation and authoritarianism for the purpose of linking those theories together, thereby analysing current populist phenomena as an extension of a fascist development in terms of Enzo Traverso’s conception of post-fascism. In my view, Fromm’s critical social theory of narcissism, which pertains to his two other theories, has great potential to unravel current political issues in liberal democracies that are generally tackled in terms of populism. Through a demonstration of the theoretical scope of Fromm’s social theory, which sheds light on pathological social and political phenomena in historical continuity, I argue that the primary tasks of Critical Theory in Frommian terms are to divulge the sources of fascist orientations in seemingly democratic practice and to offer appropriate remedies for these difficulties. In this light, I conclude that in terms of a Frommian social theory of narcissism, fascist types of politics thrive even in advanced liberal-democratic countries, taking the form of authoritarian populism, particularly where society rests on a narcissistic character structure intertwined with an authoritarian orientation.
This paper investigates hopes and fears connected with work as an analytic psychotherapist, in a sample of trainees attending the Italian Training School for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (SPP). Candidates were asked to complete a questionnaire with open-ended questions. In the first analysis, we found trainees to be interested in learning an effective therapeutic method to treat patients. Their wish was for a serious, demanding, but nonjudgmental training, which could support the development of both a thoughtful way of using their thinking process and a rigorous clinical method, while respecting their individuality and personality. We asked our candidates whether theoretical concepts and issues related to the analytic method effectively helped them transform difficulties in perspectives. Theoretical tendencies and authors considered to be useful in modern clinical areas such as Internet addiction disorders, Hikikomori (severe social and relational retirement in adolescence), children's school problems, and problems connected with dimensions of parenthood (e.g. LGBT parenting) were explored. A sense of inadequacy when first dealing with difficult clinical situations, and fears about the realistic difficulties of psychotherapy as a trade, today, in Italy, were found. Considerations on the psychoanalytic educational program and on the importance of workgroups were proposed.
In the present time of increasing global stress and threats from outside reality, there arise >new fears< of destruction, of annihilation, and of loss of existence. As a consequence, psychoanalysis is faced with new challenges. It is expanding its range to face the fears that arise from these global threats. This requires special attention to analysts’ personal transference and their resistance against it to enable them to be used as a container for the fears of their patients.
The author summarizes the problems inherent in nomological approaches examining the efficacy of psychoanalysis as a form of treatment. He argues that nomologically oriented research operates with assumptions lacking empirical foundation and, moreover, that studies of this type merely give the impression of the effectiveness of psychoanalytic therapies while overlooking the specificity of the psychoanalytic method. He suggests that research into psychoanalytic treatments should not be subjected to a nomological conception of science, and that structural analysis of treatment courses should be examined and systematized within the frame of psychoanalytic treatment theory relative to their outcome. Given this approach, and provided that the theory of treatment is based on conceptual common ground, such studies would enable a prognostic conclusion that psychoanalytic treatments are successful, providing that the sequences generalized in the treatment theory do actually take place in treatments that take patients’ individuality into account.
The author proposes viewing mania as a form of defense against the state of depression resulting from >narcissistic overidentification with the depressive object< (i.e., the object in relation to which the depressive state developed), rather than as a periodic rebellion against such an internalized object. An account of the analytic psychotherapy of a clinical case of bipolar depression serves to illustrate this point of view, linked to the author’s specific conception of the dynamics of depression.
In this paper, we will analyze the dynamic and relational drivers behind the choice to embark on a therapy via Skype. The fear of relationships could be the origin of this choice. Can Skype be a means by which the patient’s difficulties manifest themselves? We suggest that this is possible, and we will use the case of Matilde to show it. Matilde uses relationships to see herself, as she is unable to do this alone. She tries to find herself through others and the virtual world. She prefers to skip a session because the therapist’s webcam is not working rather than having the session without them seeing each other. Can we speculate that Matilde feels lost when she is in contact with herself without an other’s mediation? What are her fears? In this case, has Skype helped or slowed down the process? How would her borderline emptiness manifest itself in a traditional session? And what does it mean to live in the virtual world for a patient who tries to find herself through others? We will try to answer all of these questions, thinking about the functionality that technology has for some patients, for the therapist, and for the therapeutic process.
This article explores the >lack of meaning< in contemporary society as a consequence of Western dualist thought paradigms and ontologies, via Gilles Deleuze’s concept of >reactivenihilism< following the colloquial murder of God. The article then explores processual and new materialist approaches in the understanding of the lived and carnal self, arguing for immanent and senseful materiality as an ethical platform for religious, environmental, and societal solidarity for tomorrow. For the theoretical justification of the processual approach in understanding the enfleshed self, the article employs John Dupré’s processual approach in the philosophy of biology, as well as Astrida Neimani’s critical posthumanism, and contextualizes these considerations with Erich Fromm’s ethical distinction of being and having.
The authors present their design for a clinical teaching exercise to study transformation in psychoanalysis. They chose a completed analysis from which to select the sessions retrospectively so that the clinical review exercise would not influence ongoing analytic process. The co-authors selected three tranches of clinical material, a few years apart, to be presented by the analyst. They studied the material with colleagues in the impressionistic manner of traditional clinical review, and then subjected it to more systematic examination, using a modified application of the Three-Level Model (3-LM) for assessing change. Their prediction was that the use of the 3-LM model could amplify the clinical impressions of the individual analyst and provide a way of being more specific about the changes, if any, that had occurred, and arrive at which theories best explained those changes.
The authors describe a simple recurrent writing task called the >Two Page Paper Exercise,< designed to enhance candidates’ learning of analytic theory and technique. They set this task in the context of other analytic institutes’ writing programs and show that this exercise is unique. Their educational philosophy is that, as candidates confront multiple perspectives in contemporary psychoanalysis, this writing task develops their ability to conceptualize, reflect on their learning, integrate affect and cognition, and express their ideas to others in written form and in discussion with peers. The candidate group develops cohesion that reduces writing anxiety. As individuals they develop a writing habit that supports the eventual duty to develop the field of psychoanalysis through publishing. The authors present raw data from candidates’ writing for readers to make their own assessment of the usefulness of the task as a measure of candidates’ integration of learning, development of analytic sensibility and synthetic capacity, and communication of experience and ideas to others.
This paper discusses a philosophical approach to dream interpretation based on the daseinsanalytic concept of Alice Holzhey, a concept that uses psychoanalytic thinking in the light of existential philosophy. Based on this concept, I consider the generally acknowledged finding that moods play a highly important role for our dreaming in an existential-philosophical view. Martin Heidegger claims that moods confront us with our own being, especially the fundamental >philosophical< mood that he calls Angst. Angst refers to the uncanny experience of being confronted with unfathomable conditions of the human existence. It is a consternating experience beyond every understanding. Assuming that in dreams, as in moods, we are concerned with issues of emotional significance concerning our own being, I claim Angst to be the essential factor for our dreaming. Usually, however, it remains hidden in some other mood, for example in the mood of fear. What makes dreams interesting, puzzling, amazing or terrifying, is their hinting at Angst. With three examples I hope to make clear my thesis that all dreams focus on certain fundamental issues concerning a person’s own existence, meaning issues determined by Angst.
The author addresses contemporary clinical practice, where we encounter individuals, seemingly incapable of getting in touch with their own existential dimension, who communicate their detachment, at times even total, from their feelings and fears, wilfully committed as they are to avoid experiencing the inevitable angst that may accompany them through life. This dissociation from the angst-producing emotion is revealed to the clinician through either detachment or a simple action. This feeling that generates both detachment and its opposite, perhaps a hypomanic reaction, proves to be >absent,< and is not perceived by the patient. In this way, angst can be avoided and indeed seems >absent,< but what is experienced is the complete range of raw emotions connected to it, such as fear, terror, panic, detachment, apathy, and anhedonia. The author sets out to clarify the terms >fear,< >anxiety,< and >angst< as they have been historically used in philosophy, psychoanalysis, psychiatry, and psychology. Ultimately, she explains her reason for her choice of the word >angst< instead of >anxiety< in her distinct and explicit handling of this subject matter.
In the present historical context, migratory flows have acquired a particular political and social relevance by showing a deep imbalance in the globalized world. Those who migrate to wealthy countries due to wars or extreme poverty do not have an identity that can be homogenized; they are aliens, strangers carrying destabilizing life experiences. The meeting between the new idea-content represented by the Stranger and the receiving group-container can therefore have catastrophic consequences. The author’s reflection aims to focus on the significance of the figure of the Stranger and on the condition that might support an integration process, starting from an analogy between the collective dynamics of the social environment and the individual psychical ones as experienced in the psychoanalytic setting.
In this study we collocate adolescence within a broader and more present-day scenario than has been the case in psychological and psychoanalytic literature in recent years. Our analysis of this evolutionary passage and its malaise includes contextual and other aspects that condition its real development. We consider the features of contemporary Western society and naturally place them within an increasingly planetary vision of the subject, given that the culture pervading the Western world, although complex, appears to be sufficiently uniform with some specific aspects. We propose a contemporary interpretation of the developmental process of the second decade of life and the forms of malaise it can produce. In this respect, two adolescent conditions are emblematic: self-closure and anorexiform eating disorders. These conditions express paradigmatically some characteristics of subjective adolescent malaise.
Psychotherapists currently find themselves considering the extent to which sociopolitical and economic issues in a globalized world can affect the evolutionary nature of the psychic organizations sustaining the individual. It seems we are mostly witnessing a weakening of the psychic structures that contain and maintain a sufficient and constant level of integration and unity of sense within the individual–world relationship. Patients frequently come into analysis with invalidating states of anxiety, panic attacks, and the explosion of sudden psychotic crises, accompanied by experiences of depersonalization and derealization. What I would like to examine in depth relates to the influence of the trans-subjective in us as psychotherapists, committed to dealing with psychic disorders that involve us as persons emotionally and intellectually present in our times, with a sense of awareness and responsibility. The quality of the treatment depends, among other things, on the effective elaboration of fullness and emptiness that one generates in the resonance emerging from the process of transference and countertransference. The word, the presence, and the absence, physically and mentally, of the psychoanalyst and the patient are recognized as those activators of potential transformation which are an appropriate form of medicine at an analyst’s disposal during the process of changing a pathogenic state.
Supervisors who wish to meet their supervisees’ needs to grow as clinicians will encounter two paradoxical knowledge-related needs of supervisees. On one pole of this paradox is their need to assimilate new knowledge into their existing clinical knowledge; on the other pole is their need for acknowledgement, validation, and formulation of their unique experiential and unarticulated knowledge. Meeting this need helps the supervisees to balance regressive states and painful gaps between their own and their supervisors’ knowledge, which might put the supervisory relationship at risk.
Therapists’ quest for constructing meaning systems of their patients’ experiences progresses in cycles. These cycles consist of: (1) efforts to achieve closures, propelled by the depressive position with its concomitant judgments, resolutions, and decisiveness, and (2) efforts to dissolve closures, propelled by the schizo-paranoid position, searching anxiously and excitedly for new ways to construct meaning. By struggling to facilitate their supervisees’ cycles of achieving and dissolving closures, supervisors help them to grow as clinicians. Supervisees usually welcome the supervisors’ help in constructing meaning systems and achieving closures. They become wary, however, when their supervisors suggest that they dismantle these systems and dissolve their closures because these suggestions undermine their self-assurance as well as their sense of morality, both nourished by the depressive position. Several approaches are suggested for supervisors to facilitate their supervisees’ efforts to dissolve closures.
Collective narcissism is a belief that one’s own group (the in-group) is exceptional but not sufficiently recognized by others. It is the form of “in-group love” robustly associated with “out-group hate.” In contrast to private collective selfesteem (or in-group satisfaction, a belief that the in-group is of high value), it predicts prejudice, retaliatory intergroup aggression, and rejoicing in the suffering of other people. The pervasive association between collective narcissism and intergroup hostility is driven by a biased perception of the in-group as constantly threatened and out-groups as hostile and threatening. Collective narcissism is associated with hypersensitivity to provocation and the belief that only hostile revenge is a desirable and rewarding response. It arises when the traditional group-based hierarchies are challenged and empowers extremists as well as populist politicians. Instead of alleviating the sense of threat to one’s self-importance, it refuels it. The association between collective narcissism and intergroup hostility is weakened by experiences that fortify emotional resilience (e.g., positive identification with a community).
The history of migrations to Brazil is the history of the country itself, since the original inhabitants of the territory - the natives - were almost completely exterminated by the Portuguese. In Brazil, any child of school age learns that our land is mestizo and welcoming, and that its population is the result of the mixture of Portuguese, Italians, Spanish, Germans and Japanese, among other peoples. Curiously, the majority immigrant group that formed the country usually does not appear on that list: the Africans. In that case, immigration was forced, originating one of the main traumas that still mark the Brazilian culture and society. This trauma were not left in the past: it was not overcome and it continues to be updated – according to the logic of traumatic functioning, that of the compulsion to repetition - present in the entire structure of social relations in the country. In this paper I intend to deal with the peculiarity of Brazilian racism, articulating the memory of the slavery regime to psychoanalytic concepts – such as repression, narcissism of minor differences, splitting of the ego, and disavowal – capable of denouncing silent segregation that the black population suffer in the country.
Research on national collective narcissism, the belief and resentment that a nation's exceptionality is not sufficiently recognized by others, provides a theoretical framework for understanding the psychological motivations behind the support for right-wing populism. It bridges the findings regarding the economic and sociocultural conditions implicated in the rise of right-wing populism and the findings regarding leadership processes necessary for it to find its political expression. The conditions are interpreted as producing violations to established expectations regarding selfimportance via the gradual repeal of the traditional criteria by which members of hegemonic groups evaluated their self-worth. Populist leaders propagate a social identity organized around the collective narcissistic resentment, enhance it, and propose external explanations for frustration of self and in-group-importance. This garners them a committed followership. Research on collective narcissism indicates that distress resulting from violated expectations regarding self-importance stands behind collective narcissism and its narrow vision of >true< national identity (the people), rejection and hostility toward stigmatized in-group members and out-groups as well as the association between collective narcissism and conspiratorial thinking.
The article deals with some of the most common fears that can manifest in young training analysands during clinical practice. Viewed using a theatrical metaphor, the psychoanalytic situation that develops is conceived as a representation of the conflicts and deep suffering that the patient wishes the therapist to understand and alleviate. The two can be seen as actors who bring to the stage a scene involving both deeply, and which requires the right balance between illusion and reality to be therapeutically effective. The analytic theatre evokes characters that desire to be brought to the stage, and gives life to a drama that demands to be represented through the characters themselves, as happens in the play Six characters in search of an author by Pirandello (1925). Therefore, analysts need to take on a role that they are implicitly required to perform and that can at times be perceived as rather uncomfortable, while in other instances it can be rewarding. Sometimes they are the main character, while in other situations they are the audience; they may be a travel companion or a persecutor.
In an era of environmental crises, geopolitical stresses, corporate misbehavior, and inequalities of wealth and power, a new moral vision for our world is vital. Klaus M. Leisinger, one of the world’s leading ethicists and experts in ethical business management offers an essential text for our times. This is a volume akin to Machiavelli’s The Prince, as it is a guidebook for leadership, but unlike Machiavelli, Leisinger teaches the leader how to find true purpose and value through leadership. Drawing upon his vast knowledge of philosophy and experience in global business, Leisinger offers an invaluable, persuasive, inspiring, and utterly practical guide for business with purpose in the 21st century. The timing is perfect. Leading CEOs in the U.S. Business Roundtable have finally acknowledged the social responsibility of the corporation. They will find no better roadmap to fulfilling that responsibility than Klaus Leisinger’s powerful text.
We know that there are significant differences between generations of our patients in certain aspects related to the differences in historical and socioeconomic circumstances of their development. New informational technologies – smartphones and mobile Internet – are taking the role of an ever-present auxiliary ego for the generations born in the twenty-first century. This development is influenced by the characteristics of these technologies and by changes in parenting patterns. Psychoanalytic literature tends to focus on only the negative influences of these factors on the development of personality, identity, and interpersonal relationships. Probably this reflects our own fears about the invasion of new technologies into our lives and limits our understanding of the possible positive potential of these technologies for the younger generations. We still need to gain a better understanding of what it brings to our analytic work, and our transference–countertransference relationships with adolescent patients.
This article presents a research on the reception of Erich Fromm’s ideas in Bulgaria. The criticism of Fromm’s ideas is presented and an attempt is made to evaluate it according to its context – ideological, psychological and philosophical. The author aims at explaining the theoretical and substantive side of the criticism.
The present paper addresses Baruch Spinoza’s radical affirmation of individual identity emergent from within the psychosocial tensions of group membership. Focusing upon psychological experience beginning with a lived history of fearful Inquisitional persecution, and continuing from conformity to rebellion within the constraints of the Amsterdam Jewish synagogue, we trace the psychological recognition of individual identity in Spinoza’s understanding of the self-determined, immanent acts of daily life. Spinoza’s multiple names are depicted as markers, corresponding to membership in mutually exclusive social groups, each constraining freedom of thought and action.
The author discusses some aspects of the impact of our changing society on the latency phase, while presenting a clinical case. At this age, children need a reliable environment, protecting them from sexual and aggressive overstimulation, as an essential condition for the work of latency to be carried out. As some authors point out, if post-Oedipal repression is hindered, children may be pushed towards an early, highly disruptive adolescence process. Strong and untimely anxieties may arise, requiring particular defensive and adaptive strategies. According to the author’s experience, concerns about death may be observed, these not usually being expected at the latency age. In some children, these seem to promote an early process of intellectualization. The patient described here was a violent, self-harming child from a disturbed family. As soon as his psychic state improved with psychotherapy, he expressed anxiety about mortality as a general human condition and was able to reason on the concept of infinity at a quite abstract level. The significance of this observation is discussed from a developmental point of view.
In recent years, the influence of Cohen’s Religion of Reason on Erich Fromm’s con¬cept of Judaism began to appear in the research literature. The current study broadens the scope of Cohen’s influence to include Fromm’s concept of history, as well as his social criticism. In this paper I would like to suggest, that Cohen’s criticism of >historical consciousness’<in the early 20th century, can be compared to Fromm’s criticism of >intelligence< and >progress< in the mid- 20th century. Cohen’s distinction between >reason< (Vernunft) and >consciousness< (Bewusstsein) is echoed in Fromm’s distinction between >reason< and >intelligence<. For Cohen and Fromm, >reason< is an eternal universal and moral compass for evaluating history and progress. Both Cohen’s >consciousness< and Fromm’s >intelligence<, without >reason< as an ethical component, are perceived as a threat to the capability of the individual to achieve self-fulfillment, as well as to the progress of humanity.
On the Death Throes of Education: Erich Fromm's Marxism and a Rallying Cry for a Healthy University
(2020)
This article presents a clinical description of the solitary aspect of alcoholism and an original psychopathological theorization of alcoholic isolation. Our aim is to better understand this vulnerability of alcoholic patients and their secret sufferings. Solitary intoxication, whether or not in the presence of another or in a group, facilitates the avoidance of a reality experienced as too painful. This isolation would result from an early feeling of insecurity, close to that experienced in psychosis. A prototypical clinical case aims to explain how the problematic nature of this isolation can be identified and then elaborated, within a psychotherapeutic setting >that gives confidence< and starts from the >offer of speech.< We emphasize how the alcoholic individual can revisit the capacity to be alone in the presence of the other, which is a necessary condition for mentalizing a nonpathological solitude.
Hate may be regarded as a complex affective-cognitive emotion and attitude alloyed with aggression. Hate and aggression have both neurobiological and environmental determinants. Hate may be overt or covert, externalized or internalized, and/or somatized. Persistent recurrent painful and traumatic experiences generate and exacerbate hate and aggression. An amalgam of hate and love is evident in the ambivalence of all self and object relationships and in conscious and unconscious fantasy. In the mature personality, there is a preponderance of love over hate. There may be justified hatred of sociopathic individuals and groups.
After the method of infant observation, as developed by Esther Bick, and its significance for psychoanalytic training have been outlined, the method is critically assessed. The suggestion is then made that infant observation should be supplemented by video-analytic infant observation. Finally, thoughts on modifications of the process of infant observation are presented.
Abstract: In this paper, I discuss Fromm’s theories of individual and social change within the therapeutic context. I don’t know of any psychoanalyst who was able to integrate so-ciological thinking with clinical practice and conceptualization the way Fromm did in the early part of the century. On the surface, these two approaches seem incompatible – at least in their methodologies – yet they complemented each other, as Erich Fromm (1929a; 1944a) and Rainer Funk (2018) have demonstrated so clearly. My presentation today is an exercise in microanalysis rather than a broad theoretical discussion about psychic and social change. I want to show how Fromm’s theoretical framework and clinical experience have shaped my own work. First, I explore Fromm’s originality and discuss ways in which he has been personally marginalized and intellectually isolated as a pseudo-psychoanalyst. Then, I examine the overlap of psychoanalytic approaches as they related to the concept of social Third. Finally, I present fragments of a case to show how Fromm’s theoretical and clinical ideas have influenced my own work.
Given the current juncture in history, humanity is faced with the herculean task of adapting to a tumultuous present and a glimmer future. Should climate projections be accurate, there is little time to waste. This work makes the claim that we are not only in a political gridlock but also in an academic one. Researching climate philosophy from its inception, the concluding view is that no major progress, outside of a standardized descriptive analysis, has been achieved. Thus, the work evaluates an array of climate philosophers e.g. Stephen Gardiner, James Garvey, Peter Singer, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, etc., with specific emphasis on the economic philosopher John Broome, suggesting that their recommendations and assessments fall short of being totalizing in scope and therefore of producing viable theories that, if practically sought after, can achieve social sustainability. To fix the problem of a lack of social and strategic trajectory, I offer up Erich Fromm's humanistic philosophy as a suggestive model. In doing so, the argument is made that this can aid in reorienting our external/empirical obsession by shifting our focus toward our ‘interiority – our internal worlds and psyches –, since a necessary condition in achieving sustainability is changing our mindset. By focusing on the human psyche, its structure and needs, can our behavior finally shift in a way that compliments scientific recommendations and ecological demands. Hence, Fromm lends the climate philosophy discussion an ontological framework from which to better direct and more readily navigate toward less socially precarious and more ethical inclined waters.
Fromm is one of the well-known .humanistic ethicists. His whole life had focused on people. In his view, loving is an art that can guide people to better survive and promote liberation. The existing researches on the ethical thought of loving mainly revolve around his theory of love and his practice of love, while relatively few studies are conducted from the perspective of overall humanistic ethics. It would help us, investigating his ethical thought of love into a humanistic perspective of ethics, so this paper attempts to grasp the ethical thought of love and its ideological implication with comprehensively. The tradition of Judaism love planted the seeds of loving in Fromm’s heart, while the difference of Johann Jakob Bachofen’s parental love inspires him to extend love from family to society, and Zen’s enlightenment method and Freud’s psychoanalytic theory helped him cast his psychological basis, Marx’s theory of humans and the critical theory of Frankfurt School provided him with theoretical weapons to criticize the abnormal phenomena of human being and society. Thanks to these theoretical basis from the great thinkers and schools, Fromm put forward his own theory on people, setting out a logical kick-off for his discourse on ethics of love. Fromm highlighted that loving was the answer to human existence. He underwent explorations of human survival dilemma and spiritual needs, approached a >prescription< that rooted in human beings, and prescribed his medication->recipe for love< involving both theory and practice, in which >giving< is the heart of love, and >caring about oneself<, >knowing oneself<, >respecting oneself<, >taking responsibility for oneself< treated respectively as motivation, prerequisite, necessary condition and fruits, forming the basic substances of his loving. When facing different practitioners, Fromm also called their differences. The general and specific requirements of the art of loving constituted his practicing of love. Fromm believed that only a combination of the two requirements could achieve the ethical goal of self-love and of a healthy society. First of all, the people who acts >self-love< is the ideal >moral newcomer<. He must have a productive character in this way, maintain independence as well as be integrated with others in the process of >assimilation< and >socialization<. Also, he should have good interpersonal relationships, and be able to cultivate a way of survival that emphasizes existence instead of possession, so as to realize the all-round development of people. Second, a healthy society, from Fromm’s perspective, was not only the prerequisite for real love, but also the goal of love of ethics. Fromm did not only carry out ethical criticism of various fields of society, but tried to present reform plans also. He made attempts to save people and restore human nature, and love was one of his criteria and conditions for measuring and achieving goals. In addition, Fromm’s love of ethics was not only a critique of authoritarian ethics or a supplement to scientism ethics, and it’s good for us to view the development of capitalism objectively. At the same time, this Paper is based on the reality of our country, trying to explore the beneficial factors for individual liberation and social development, in order to approach its realistic value. As could be seen, these values cannot erase the limitations of Fromm’s love of ethics, his utopian nature, the bias of the individual and the fragility of the theory of human nature, etc. up to a point, all of which had blocked his ethical purpose from realizing. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 4/2023]
This paper criticizes the emphasis placed by contemporary social theory and political philosophy on institutionalism as the basis for the understanding, legitimation and changing of institutions, or social systems, and society as a whole. The more impactful characteristic of institutionalism is its technical-logical structuring, based on an impartial, neutral and formal proceduralism that autonomizes social systems in relation to political praxis and social normativity, depoliticizing these social systems. Here, they are no longer depoliticized, but assume political centrality as the fundamental social subjects of the legitimation and evolution of institutions and society. The paper’s central argument is that it is necessary to re-politicize the institutions and the social subjects or social classes in order to ground and streamline a direct political praxis and the civil society’s social-political subjects as the basis for framing and legitimizing the current process of Western modernization. Recovering the politicity and the carnality of institutions, of social classes and of the evolution of society, is the fundamental task for a contemporary critical social theory that faces the strong institutionalism based on systemic theory. Such politicization is the unforgettable teaching of Karl Marx and Erich Fromm: the institutions have political content and political subjects, they are the result of social struggles for hegemony between opposed social classes which are political. Now, such politicity-carnality must be unveiled and used for an emancipatory democratic political praxis as the route for social analysis and political change, in opposition to the technical-logical understanding both of the institutions and of the social subjects.
Revisiting Authoritarianism
(2020)
This article traces the roots of the Authoritarian Personality (AP) project in the neo-Freudian/phenomenological tradition of the Frankfurt School (FS). It focuses on three of its major proponents (Erich Fromm, Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse) and examines the construction of the F-scale. It outlines how, according to FS-influenced scholars, the AP arose from the disciplinary measures inflicted on late 19th and early 20th century German middle-class youth, and details the sado-masochistic political style of the prototypical AP. It covers the critical reception of this characterization and explanation of authoritarianism by Bob Altemeyer and Anglo-American positivism. It concludes by arguing that in overlooking the inner life of the AP, positivism blinds us to compelling truths, about authoritarianism, and also about ourselves.
This study aims to explore the meaning of love and love orientation of Catholic widows based on Erich Fromm’s theory. The research model used qualitative research with descriptive phenomenology, based on interviews among four widow members of St Peter Paulus church. This interview data was analysed using thematic analysis techniques. The results showed the participants interpreted love as an effort to give what they have. Participant’s love orientation tends to be stronger towards children and God. Meanwhile, other orientations were also found namely grandchildren, nieces, neighbours, deceased spouses, friends and themselves. Productive love is experienced primarily in relationships with children, God, and people in their extended social spheres. Relationships with partners and themselves become the least dominant relationships in the life of a widow and less interpreted with productive love. Based on the results of this study it is advisable to the church to add a counselling for their member who has loss their partner (spouse) so that they regain a sense of self-worth.
Erich Fromm (1900–1980) was a Marxist psychoanalyst, philosopher, and socialist humanist. This article asks: How can Fromm’s critical theory of communication be used and updated to provide a critical perspective in the age of digital and communicative capitalism? In order to provide an answer, this article discusses elements from Fromm’s work that allow us to better understand the human communication process. The focus is on communication (the second section), ideology (the third section), and technology (the fourth section). Fromm’s approach can inform a critical theory of communication in multiple respects: His notion of the social character allows to underpin such a theory with foundations from critical psychology. Fromm’s distinction between the authoritarian and the humanistic character can be used for discerning among authoritarian and humanistic communication. Fromm’s work can also inform ideology critique: the ideology of having shapes life, thought, language, and social action in capitalism. In capitalism, technology (including computing) is fetishized and the logic of quantification shapes social relations. Fromm’s quest for humanist technology and participatory computing can inform contemporary debates about digital capitalism and its alternatives.
The article analyzes the philosophy of Erich Fromm, the human heart, goodness and evil inclinations, sadism, the problems of freedom of worship, human destructiveness, various forms of aggression, contradictory necrophilia and biophilia. In the philosophy of Erich Fromm, the heart of the human soul is shown by the desire for destructive desires and the uplifting desires – love for humanity and freedom. Our goal is to analyze the souls of human minds based on the works of the intellectuals. From the Erich Fromm heart concept, the robotic personality and the character of the stranger are disclosed.
The article analyzes the philosophy of Erich Fromm, the human heart, goodness and evil inclinations, sadism, the problems of freedom of worship, human destructiveness, various forms of aggression, contradictory necrophilia and biophilia. In the philosophy of Erich Fromm, the heart of the human soul is shown by the desire for destructive desires and the uplifting desires - love for humanity and freedom. Our goal is to analyze the souls of human minds based on the works of the intellectuals. From the Erich Fromm heart concept, the robotic personality and the character of the stranger are disclosed.
The paper first discusses two documentaries by Donna Read, >Signs Out of Time< (2004) and >Goddess Remembered< (1989), that focus on the pacific tradition of the female centered settlements on the territories of modern Eastern Europe in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. Read depicts significant findings of a world-renowned archeologist Marija Gimbutas who claims that a peaceful image of Old Europe embodied in the omnipotent Great Mother changed radically towards the end of the third millennium when violent Indo-European nomads came from Russia and shattered the matriarchal utopia of equality and natural harmony. These tribes introduced the principles of hierarchy and violent male-rule. Read’s and Gimbutas’ findings are further developed and examined in the studies by Riana Eisler and Erich Fromm who also claim that conspicuous material aggrandizement of patriarchal culture severely damaged a blissful matriarchal bond between man and nature. These theoretical insights are applied to Williamson’s compre hension of nature vs. nurture issue in >Mary and the Seal< (1997). In portraying a tender relationship between Mary and the seal, as well as its tragic and totally unnecessary shooting, contemporary patriarchal culture is brought to a trial. The mere existence of the bond between Mary and the seal, an embodiment of an idyllic matriarchal unity between man and nature, testifies to the prevalent need for the return to its substantial but long-forgotten values. The theoretical insights of Graves, Althusser, Freire, Fiske and Miller will also be used in the interpretation of the story.
Background: This is the last in a series of four articles scheduled for publication in this journal. In the first article (Kapustin, 2015a), I proposed a new >existential criterion< for the normal and abnormal personality that is implicitly present in the works of Erich Fromm. According to this criterion, normal and abnormal personalities are determined, first, by their position regarding existential dichotomies, and, second, by particular aspects of the formation of this position. Such dichotomies, entitatively existent in human life, are inherent, two-alternative contradictions. In the other articles (Kapustin, 2015b, 2016a), I showed that this criterion is also implicitly present in the four famous personality theories of Freud, Adler, Jung, and Rogers. Objectives: To provide evidence that this criterion is present in the personality theory of Viktor Frankl and to present a comparative analysis of all six theories of personality. Results. The existential criterion for the normal and abnormal personality based on the works of Fromm is also implicitly present in theoretical conceptualizations of personality, predisposed and non-predisposed to developing various psychological problems and to mental disorders, by Freud, Adler, Jung, Rogers, and Frankl, although in more particular forms, related to more specific existential dichotomies, characterizing the nature of human life. Conclusion: The fact that the existential criterion is present in these six theories of personality, developed within totally different approaches to psychology and psychotherapy, is evidence of a high degree of its theoretical justification and of the possibility of their integration.
Ron Rash’s >Serena< (2008) is about the clash between northern industrialists who cut timber in southern Appalachia and conservationists who want the area converted into a national park. Set during the Depression, it also addresses our own times of unchecked greed and environmental holocaust. This article relates the situation of internal colonialism, which turns the region into a sacrifice zone, with the theme of the wasteland. The latter is related in the novel not only to T. S. Eliot’s poem but also to other works that Rash acknowledges as influences, including >Moby-Dick<, >The Great Gatsby< and Christopher Marlowe’s tragedies about the will to power. Characterized by what Erich Fromm calls the exploitative orientation, Serena Pemberton wields hard power and embodies the rapaciousness of economy, in contrast to a local female character, who stands for ecology and soft power.
Strains on professional resources and complex experiences of isolation and despair have taken their toll on communities, adding to the challenges for social workers and social work as a profession. In a context of austerity and locational stress, communities are increasingly relied upon to enhance or, indeed, replace the need for state intervention. However, grass-roots and mutual aid collectives have the potential for both community support and resistance. Using original qualitative data, this article explores how some groups based in Scotland’s most deprived locales provide collective and mutual aid, and, in doing so, attempt to address some of the challenges of modern life (such as overcoming addiction, isolation and mental anguish). Importantly, this article revives and develops Erich Fromm’s discourse on the importance of ‘love’ and Marx’s concept of ‘spiritual emancipation’ to explore the potential for transforming individual experiences into collective resistance.
Extremely important and basic category of Marx’s ideological system, the part of Marxist theories about human value, starting from the >realistic person< and aiming at realizing human value, is formed by examining the nature, alienation, liberation and all-round development of human from the perspective of human itself and its subjectivity, socially and practicality. Theoretically speaking, studying on Marxist human value thought provides theoretical support for contemporary China in the transition period on how to scientifically understand human nature and human development; practically speaking, this part is put forward on the basis of criticizing capitalist commodity economy so that studying it is of great significance to guide, further promotion of all-round development of human being.– First of all, Marx’s ideas of human value are raised under the realistic background of a series of unfairness existing in the capitalist private ownership system. They are based on such a social context, with severe class contradictions between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, and poor workers trapped in extreme misery in the era of booming capitalism, as well as the theoretical background of the utopia socialism and the viewpoints of the German classical philosophers. These ideas derive mainly from three aspects of Hegel’s view of human nature and Feuerbach’s theory of humanism: human nature, human development and value targets. Marx admitted the significance, and content differentiation. Secondly, it analyzes the forming process of Marx’s value thought of human being, and divides the forming process into four stages. The period from the doctoral dissertation to the >German French Yearbooks< […] is the embryonic period of Marx’s value thought on human beings. Under the influence of Hegel’s self-consciousness and Hegel’s thinking on abstract human nature with Hegel’s language, Marx discussed the values of >human freedom< […]. Through the criticism of civil society and the research and >Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right<, Marx revealed the social reality of cannibalism under the capitalist private system. In the period from >Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844< to >The German Ideology<, Marx analyzed the alienation of human and its origin from the perspective of economics It is the first time to use the concept of >realistic individual< to criticize the abstract values of human beings, to discuss the >realistic person<, to make new regulations on the values of human beings, and to point out that the essence of human beings is the sum of all social relations; >The Communist Manifesto< is the rich period of Marx’s values of human beings. In this period, Marx’s Historical Materialism has been developed the basic formation, using the weapon of Historical Materialism, analyzes the process of the development of human society, and further puts forward that the ultimate goal of human values is to achieve the free and all-round development of human beings, and the future society of human beings is a communist society; the period of >Capital< and the >three Manuscripts< is the sublimation period of Marx’s human value thought, during which Marx makes in-depth analysis. The relationship between the development of >real man< and the social development, points out the three stages of the realization of man’s value, and finds out the factors that hinder man’s development.– Finally, Marx’s thought of human value has a significant impact on Western Marxism humanism, which has triggered the Western Marxism humanism thoughts. At the same time, it has important theoretical foundation significance and practical guidance significance for China, which is currently in a period of social transformation. It is still an indispensable >critical weapon< of our era. No matter the representative of Western Marxism such as Fromm and Marcuse, who start from the early manuscripts of Marx >Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844<, or those persons who start from the mature texts of Marx >The Communist Manifesto< and >Capital<, such as Lukács and Gramsci. Although there are big differences in their ideas, it can be found that an axis and the theme around them is that there is only one Marx, that is, Marxism with the highest purpose of eliminating alienation as the realization of human value, human liberation, free and all-round development. The influence of Marxist human values on the theory of western capitalism is also enlightening to China in the transition period. Under the background of faster and faster social development and accelerated economic globalization, we should draw on the attention of Western Marxists to human beings, pay attention to the development of human subjectivity, adhere to the people-oriented ideology, and strive to achieve human value and the true existence of human create sufficient social conditions for the free and all-round development and liberation of human beings. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 4/2023]
There exists a German-Jewish cultural discourse from the early 20th century that stands in dynamic tension between spiritual and material, sacred and secular, beyond the usual static dichotomies. Several key Jewish thinkers have sought to recover spiritual meaning, in direct interaction with the profane. Under different ways they developed a process of simultaneous secularization and sacralization, in a sort of >dialectic< combination of both. The first common characteristic of these authors is their deep attachment to the German romantic culture, with its ambivalence towards modernity, and its desperate attempt at re-enchanting the world through a return to past spiritual forms. This article will demonstrate these relationships through the work of young Erich Fromm.
Toni Morrison(1931 – 2019), a renowned and influential African-American literary giant who enjoys univer¬sal acclaim, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, making her the first black woman who ever receives this distinction ever since the award started. Throughout her literary career, her novel achievement has undoubtedly become a monument in the history of African-American literature. Morrison’s novels are deeply concerned about the destiny of African-Americans and the survival of their cultural identity in the white mainstream society. >God Help the Child< is Morrison’s 11th novel which officially came out to public in 2015. Contrary to her previous works that are based on the American histories, >God Help the Child< is her first novel that is set in contemporary American life in the 1990s. Main characters of the novel are Bride, Sweetness and Booker. The novel mainly reveals the various injuries and crises encountered by different characters in society, and reveals the complex relationship between family, couples, and friends. The society is developing rapidly nowadays, whereas, people can’t feel the existence of love and the value of self-existence, only to find themselves deeply shrouded in the cage of loneliness. As a result, people are eager to find a way to re-establish connections with others and to rediscover the meaning of life. Social theorist and psychoanalyst Fromm once lamented the fact of people’s spiritual crises and the collapse of traditional values. In response to this phenomenon, by making love the core of his study, Fromm puts forward his love theory to help human beings get rid of the plight of loneliness. In Fromm’s eyes, love is the only answer to solve human beings’ existential problems. Combined with Fromm’s theory of love, this thesis intends to analyze Bride’s predicament of loneliness in >God Help the Child<, and how she successfully escapes from loneliness by connecting love with other people.– This thesis consists of five parts. The first part is the introduction to Toni Morrison, >God Help the Child<, Fromm and his theory of love. In the second part, combined with Fromm’s theory of motherly love, erotic Love and brotherly love, this thesis points out Bride’s dilemma of loneliness by analyzing Bride’s relationship with her mother, her ex-boyfriends, and her friends. The third and the fourth parts deeply analyze the reasons that have engendered Bride’s plight of loneliness by thoroughly demonstrating the social as well as Bride’s personal causes. The fifth part demonstrates how Bride succeeds in getting rid of the shackles of loneliness and successfully regaining the value of her self-existence and the meaning of life by nurturing love to other people. The last part is the conclusion part, which points out that in the contemporary society where spiritual crises are widespread, only by proactively looking for effective solutions and establishing healthy love connections with other people, can human beings eliminate loneliness and regain the meaning of life. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 4/2023]
This paper takes Erich Fromm’s exposition on faith crisis as the research object, and places the background of worldwide faith crisis as the entry point, trying to discuss the negative effect of faith crisis. As a psychologist and psychoanalyst, Fromm studied the formation and development of the belief crisis theory from the perspective of >human<, fully explained the theoretical core of Fromm’s faith crisis theory, and conducted a dialectical analysis and discussion of Fromm’s faith crisis theory.– First of all, the article analyzes the formation background of Fromm’s faith crisis theory and introduces the historical background and current status of development from a historical macro perspective and a micro personal perspective, by analyzing the changes in Fromm’s personal faith patterns, we can have a holistic overview of his faith crisis theory. Fromm’s faith crisis theory inherited and developed Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis and Karl Heinrich Marx’s theory, especially inherited Freud’s character theory, and then it created social character theory, and provided research for the crisis of faith. The connection between Fromm’s faith crisis theory, Marx’s alienation theory, and historical materialism theory lay a solid basis of this paper.– The second is to sort out the content of Fromm’s faith crisis theory and analyze the concepts related to faith, including the definition of faith, religion, and faith crisis. By analyzing the subject of faith crisis, Fromm carefully sorted out Fromm’s exposition of >the birth of man<, reflecting Fromm’s principle of paying attention to the subject status of man. By analyzing the social character structure and spiritual structure in Fromm’s faith crisis theory, it is found that the theory of human spiritual structure and character structure is not only a standard for dividing faith types, but also an important basis for solving the crisis of human faith.– Thirdly, it makes a dialectical evaluation of Fromm’s faith crisis theory. On the one hand, it explains the rationality of inheriting and applying Marxist theory in Fromm’s faith crisis theory, On the other hand, it explains the limitations of the theory.– Finally, it discusses the practical enlightenment of Fromm’s faith crisis theory, and mainly explains how to play the role of social personality theory in the process of cultivation and shaping of creative personality as well as rational faith. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 4/2023]
Love plays an important role in people’s daily life. Sufficient research on the theme of >love< is helpful to promote the harmonious and friendly interpersonal relationship and the improvement of social civilization. Erich Fromm as a western Marxist, after the objective analysis and observation of the capitalist society, He thinks that with the development of capitalist society, love has become a relatively rare phenomenon. Its expression is the phenomenon of dissimilation and decay of love. Fromm systematically expounded his theory of love through a series of works such as the art of love. The formation of Fromm’s thought has profound social background and theoretical source. The two world wars, the mechanization tendency of social life and other problems caused by capitalist society had a profound influence on the formation of Fromm’s theory. The theories of Marx and Freud constitute the ideological source of Fromm’s theory of love. The capitalist social environment also has a profound negative impact on relationships and love.– Based on this, Fromm explains his theory of love in detail from four aspects: the source, elements, form and how to obtain love, and points out various manifestations and problems of the alienation of love in capitalist society. Fromm’s theory of love, it can provide theoretical reference for helping people to set up correct ideas and promote harmonious and friendly interpersonal relationship and social development, but Fromm was a psychoanalytic psychologist and a Freudian Marxist, his exposition of the theory of love focuses on the aspects of psychological analysis and social culture. To some extent, it ignores the influence and restriction of objective practice, social life development level on people’s psychological consciousness and the relationship between people’s emotion-love. He advocated social reform and psychological revolution to solve the problems in capitalist society, without seeing that its essence is the reflection and expression of the inherent contradictions of a capitalist society. This is the limitation of his theory of love. The harmonious development of the society needs the harmonious and friendly interpersonal relationship and the promotion of family affection and friendship. Today, we are advancing the socialist modernization drive, Fromm’s theory of love has some reference significance in this respect. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 4/2023]
There are important studies that have directly focused on how, in times of conflict, it is possible for previously law abiding people to commit the most atrocious acts of cruelty and violence. The work of Erich Fromm (>Escape from Freedom<), Hannah Arendt (>Eichmann in Jerusalem<), Zygmunt Bauman (>Modernity and the Holocaust<) and Ernest Becker (>Escape from Evil<) have all contemplated the driving force of aggression and mass violence to further our understanding of how people are capable of engaging in extreme forms of cruelty and violence. This paper specifically addresses these issues by focusing on C. P. Taylor’s play >Good<. This provocative play examines how a seemingly >good< and intelligent university professor can gradually become caught up in the workings of the Third Reich. Taylor highlights the importance of appreciating how people can be steadily incorporated into an ideologically destructive system. I argue that the theatre is a powerful medium to explore these complex issues. The audience of >Good< find themselves confronted with the following question – >What would you have done?<
The current era is often referred to as the era of big data. The development of information technology makes almost everything related to data. Different fields have different data. Everyone is generating data, and everyone lives in the data. While people enjoy the convenience of life brought by big data, the spiritual confusion has not been resolved. This article analyzes and thinks about Fromm’s human thoughts, and takes this as his starting point to reflect on the spiritual dilemma of people in the era of big data.– This article first gives a brief overview of the current research situation of Fromm’s human thoughts at home and abroad, and puts forward his own research goals. The first chapter makes a brief analysis on the background and sources of Fromm’s humanistic thought. The second and third chapters make a concrete analysis of Fromm’s anthropological thoughts: the second chapter focuses on the analysis of Fromm’s theories about human existence, and the third chapter focuses on his theory of social personality and social unconsciousness A brief explanation, and pointed out that these his theories are still applicable to the analysis of the social character and unconsciousness of people in the era of big data. Chapter 4 mainly clarifies the basic concepts of big data, and the reason why Fromm’s ideas are still valuable in today’s big data era. During these forty years, the major contradictions in Western society have not fundamentally changed, the living conditions of people have not improved much, and their capabilities have not been fundamentally exerted.– Combining this reality, this article takes Fromm’s humanistic thoughts as the starting point, deeply analyzes the morbid human phenomenon in the current era, and analyzes the mental dilemma of people in the era of big data from four aspects of catering to data, interfering with data, relying on data and possessing data. These pathological phenomena are also the contemporary portrayal of Fromm's ideas about the dichotomy and unproductive society of human existence 40 years ago. Similarly, his solution has similarities with Marx’s plan, and it has some reference significance. Based on this understanding, the author affirmed that Fromm’s anthropological thinking still has its significance in this era of big data. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 4/2023]
This paper was inspired by the documentary >The Act of Killing<, directed by an American-born, British filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer and released in 2012. Provoked and appalled by what is described as one of the worst mass murders in the 20th century, the movie director focuses not so much on the crime itself but the perpetrators of the crimes and the ensuing consequences. A part from the need to bring to open and discuss this part of Indonesian history, as well as the consequences of the communist and subsequent anti-communist political rules, this paper deals, on the one hand, with the question and the essence of human nature capable of such monstrosity and on the other, with the role that art must take in understanding and healing of the open wounds in any nation’s history as well as individual perpetrators of the crimes. For this purpose, the ideological framework of Erich Fromm as given in his study >Anatomy of Human Destructiveness< and also philosophical ideas of Hanna Arendt, specifically concerning the nature of evil itself were used as theoretical framework.
The purpose of this study was to analyze problems related to the mechanism whereby students can accept corporal punishment during extracurricular sports activities with reference to the books Escape from Freedom and Man for Himself that were central to Erich Frommʼs authority theory. Specifically, the author focused on the concepts of >authoritarian character<, >authoritarian ethics< and >authoritarian conscience< Fromm pointed out that anxiety prompted Germanyʼs citizens to give up their freedom in order to obey authoritarian powers such as Hitler and the Nazis. Students taking part in extracurricular sports activities were considered from the viewpoint of Frommʼs authority theory. It was revealed that students comply with a leaderʼs authority in order to relieve anxiety, and have positive thoughts about corporal punishment. Furthermore, it was found that such acceptance of corporal punishment succeeded in eliminating conspicuous suffering, but not in removing any underlying conflicts. Fromm pointed that fear of anxiety was relieved by spontaneous activity. To achieve spontaneous activity by students, it was suggested that some form of measure that does not create the type of partnership that occurred between Germanyʼs citizens and Hitler would be desirable for any relationship between the leader of extracurricular sports activities and the students.
This paper argues that identity which is the locus of emotional and social phenomena of an individual becomes problematic particularly in postmodern society. Postmodern society calls for a socio-cultural and epistemological revolution which permeates the very core of our social existence. Coupled with the immensity and massive effects of the market industry, postmodern culture affects our lives through the dissolutions of boundaries, geographies, and our ethnicities so that our sense of personal and social identity is left into perpetual disintegration, struggles and contradictions. The so-called >inner< and >outer< community which we once cherished inevitably dissolved into the arena of the market industry. Consequently, the sense of >I-am< which Fromm considers as an existential human need already deeply roots itself towards commodity fixations rather than in our group or in our ethnic communal relationships. It is in these contexts that this paper contends a necessity to redeem identity not only as a psychological base but more of an existential human need. Further, this paper maintains that Fromm’s notion of relatedness and rootedness are necessary elements in identity formation since they serve as the existential psychic cores that lead towards being truly at home amidst a fragmented social world.
This article focuses on the role that the notion of temporality can and should play in the tradition of Critical Theory. Following an overview of the critical analyses of time found in the works of Marx, Lukács, Weber, Adorno, Fromm, and Marcuse, the article analyzes Hartmut Rosa’s critique of social acceleration and argues that this critique lacks a firm normative basis. This basis is required, however, for one to claim why certain processes of social acceleration are wrong. It is shown that Rosa’s analyses of acceleration contain two suggestions for such a basis: autonomy understood as a narrative identity, and autonomy as defended by Honneth’s theory of recognition. After an exploration of both suggestions, in which the ideas of MacIntyre and Ricoeur are briefly discussed as well, it is argued that a combination of both may result in a specific, normative understanding of reification, which is defended against Honneth’s definition of this concept. Based on an interpretation of passages in Horkheimer and Adorno’s >Dialectic of Enlightenment< and Adorno’s notion of >working through the past<, the article claims that reification should be understood as a forgetting of the narratives that have shaped the self and the social structures under which this self is formed, and therefore as the inability to recognize the temporal dimensions of the autonomous self.
This paper provides a historical overview of the reception of the superego concept in sociology and psychoanalytic social psychology. Central to the discussion are the ways in which classical and contemporary approaches (e.g. Parsons, Elias, Bourdieu) have responded to Freud’s theories concerning the genesis of the superego and its changes in the course of psychic development, to his suppositions concerning anthropology and psychopathology, and to later psychoanalytic extensions of the concept (e.g. Klein, Erikson and Loewald). With reference to Freud’s works of cultural critique, special emphasis is given to conceptions of the superego in studies on authoritarianism, adaptation and morality, notably by the Frankfurt School (Fromm, Horkheimer, Adorno). The authors also discuss the historical changes undergone by the superego concept and examine by way of examples the benefits of concept for achieving a clearer understanding of recent societal trends associated with contemporary phenomena such as digitization and optimization.
The article explains the importance of forming identity for the psychological and spiritual development of an individual. The author notes that the role of folk culture in the formation of national identity in modern society has diminished, and it analyzes the socio-psychological conditions in which the specific role of folk culture can be restored: modern economic and socio-cultural activities of new cultural functions; acquisition by assimilation by species; creation of favorable environment, including information environment; unifying the community around the main objectives of the educational process; to look for new educational practices and to consider cultural and historical psychology. Indeed, >one of the worst forms of psychological suffering is boredom, not knowing what to do with yourself and your life<, concluded Fromm. The consequences of the state not formed by individuals or the loss of identity become a crisis of national identity, which is a prerequisite for the loss of national sovereignty (national self-consciousness). Problem researchers tell us that the >living< of our native culture, the deep emotional connection with it, and the understanding of the meanings of it, are made by the individual, the customs, values, special forms of cultural, historical, social and spiritual life of the motherland. Book publishing centers, Russian culture of all nations, etc. Their self-awareness in difficult financial conditions made people think not only about survival, but also to adopt a language and culture that was alien to them.
The subject of the analysis is the category of the inclusion as a process that does not only apply to people with special developmental or life needs, but also to social sciences, which as a result of the positivist research paradigm have divided and separated from each other. Meanwhile, human upbringing requires the inclusion of biophilic orientation towards life in all social sciences, whose achievements should be considered and applied to improve educational processes. The Author borrows inspiration from the typology of human attitudes of Erich Fromm, because it makes readers aware of the negative effects of necrophilia in interpersonal relationships. The Author analyses Fromm’s approach against the background of selected ideas of Polish pedagogical views.
Erich Fromm was an internationally renowned social psychologist and philosopher of the twentieth century. In order to analyze the social phenomenon of capitalism, he spent his life trying to combine Marxism with Freudian Psychoanalysis. Fromm hopes to find the master key to realize the spiritual freedom and perfect life of human beings by repeatedly questioning the various realistic dilemmas, conflicts and cultural crises of human existence in the western society. Starting from the realistic dilemma faced by the capitalist society, he introduced Freud’s psychoanalysis theory to the micro level of alienation, formed the theory of alienation with its own characteristics, and enriched the connotation of Marx’s alienation thought. Marx has pointed out clearly that the alienation of real life and the alienation of consciousness constitute two representative areas of alienation in human life. Starting from the most basic practical activity-labor, Marx develops his theory of alienation and discusses the alienation of the external world or real life. Fromm, on the other hand, made a supplementary study on alienation from the perspective of internal concept or subjective consciousness. And through the comprehensive analysis and criticism of the capitalist society, put forward the psychological revolution theory and social reform plan to save the human being and establish a sound society. In modern society, with the continuous development of economy, science and technology, people’s ultimate goal of social development is to better meet their own needs for development, and people’s awareness of increasingly prominent social subject status has been constantly enhanced. But at the same time, human existence also faces many new problems. How to effectively solve the dilemma of human development has become the primary task of contemporary society. Fromm’s theory of alienation actively focuses on the living conditions of human beings, attaches importance to the self-realization and creative development of human beings, and tries to find a way for the sound development of human beings.– Therefore, the study of Fromm’s theory of alienation is undoubtedly of reference significance to solve the survival crisis of modern people. Based on the comprehensive analysis and interpretation of Fromm’s dissimilation theory, this paper, on the basis of clarifying its theoretical connotation, captures its theoretical characteristics and makes a scientific analysis of its achievements and shortcomings. Finally, combining with the background of globalization and the reality of the whole social development, it points out the contemporary value of its theory, especially the practical significance to the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 4/2023]
Mrs. Elizabeth Gaskell is considered to be one of the most influential British female writers in the 19th century, whose works are famous for reflecting the labor conflicts between the bourgeoisie and the working class, such as >Mary Barton<, >North and South<, >Ruth<, and so on. Mrs. Gaskell published her first novel >Mary Barton< in 1848. Taking the British Chartist Movement and the worker's strike as its background, the novel which has high realistic value profoundly describes the real social life and ideological situation of the workers in Manchester under the oppression of capitalists. In the 19th century, in terms of the English literature which reflects the daily life of the working class vividly and carefully, the achievements of this novel are incomparable with any other works. In recent years, with the rise of western feminism and the emergence of some criticisms of literary and cultural which focus on the social historical background, the classic novel >Mary Barton< has aroused people‘s interests and attentions again. Taking Mrs. Gaskell‘s >Mary Barton< as the research object, on the basis of Fromm‘s alienation theory, this thesis explains the theme of alienation in the novel.– The thesis consists of three parts including introduction, main body, and conclusion. The introduction part mainly presents the life of Mrs. Gaskell, the principal content of >Mary Barton<, as well as the literature review and thesis statement. The main body of this thesis is composed of five chapters. The first chapter mainly introduces the origin and development of alienation theory, especially the main contents of Fromm‘s alienation theory, including man‘s self-alienation, the alienation between man and man, and the alienation between man and nature. The second chapter analyzes the self-alienation of the characters in the novel, mostly including Mary‘s absurd view of love, John‘s twisted character, and Old Carson‘s vulgar view of interest, etc, which reveal the far-reaching impact of self-alienation on the characters, and ultimately lead to the tragic endings of these characters. The third chapter discusses the alienation between man and man from the aspects of family and work relations in the novel. The fourth chapter expounds the alienation between man and nature, that is, the opposite relationships between man and nature in the novel. On the one hand, the two metropolises of Manchester and London are gradually declining due to human activities. On the other hand, the disease outbreaks and the depletion of natural resources also have an indelible impact on people‘s lives. The fifth chapter explains the main reasons of the alienation in >Mary Barton<, which are the influence of the Chartist Movement, the rule of class consciousness and rights consciousness, the prevalence of egoism and the spread of Anthropocentrism. The conclusion part makes the summary of this thesis and briefly introduces the significance. Based on the analysis of the specific alienated images of characters in the novel, this thesis discusses the essence of alienation of human nature and estrangement of interpersonal relationship in capitalist society described by Mrs. Gaskell, and sparks thoughts about the nature of human, the relationships between man and nature and the relationships between people in contemporary society, which will further strengthen the confidence in building a healthy and harmonious society. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 4/2023]
This paper sets out to examine in a comparative framework Pitirim A. Sorokin and Erich Fromm's conceptions of love. The core argument is s in the complementarity between self-love and altruistic love. In conclude, altruistic love and self-love are not contradictory to each other. Those who don't love themselves cannot love others, nevertheless, those who ignore others cannot love themselves. What I try to show in this thesis is to clarify this fact.
This paper sets out to examine in a comparative framework Pitirim A. Sorokin and Erich Fromm's conceptions of love. The core argument is s in the complementarity between self-love and altruistic love. In conclude, altruistic love and self-love are not contradictory to each other. Those who don't love themselves cannot love others, nevertheless, those who ignore others cannot love themselves. What I try to show in this thesis is to clarify this fact.
Introduction
(2020)
>Jewish Exiles’ Psychological Interpretations of Nazism< examines works of four German-Jewish scholars who, in their places of exile, sought to probe the pathology of the Nazi mind: Wilhelm Reich’s >The Mass Psychology of Fascism< (1933), Erich Fromm’s >Escape from Freedom< (1941), Siegfried Kracauer’s >From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film< (1947), and Erich Neumann’s >Depth Psychology and a New Ethic< (1949). While scholars have examined these authors’ individual legacies, no comparative analysis of their shared concerns has yet been undertaken, nor have the content and form of their psychological inquiry into Nazism been seriously and systematically analyzed. Yet, the sense of urgency in their works calls for attention. They all took up their pens to counter Nazi barbarism, believing, like the English jurist and Judge Sir William Blackstone, that >scribere est agree< (to write is to act).
>The Mass Psychology of Fascism< (1933) was the first psychological inquiry into Fascism. In this work the psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957) explores how Fascists came into power, and explain their rise as a symptom of sexual repression. It was followed by other psychological interpretations of Nazism by Jewish exiles from the Third Reich, from Erich Fromm’s >Escape from Freedom< (1942), to Siegfried Kracauer’s >From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film< (1947), and Erich Neumann’s >Depth Psychology and a New Ethic< (1949).
Erich Fromm was a German social psychologist and psychoanalyst who was associated with the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. He was known for developing the concept that freedom was a fundamental part of human nature and for challenging the theories of Sigmund Freud. In his works he presented the view that understanding of basic human needs is essential to the understanding of society and mankind. In >Escape from Freedom< Fromm explores humanity’s shifting relationship with freedom, with particular regard to the personal consequences of its absence.