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.
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.
O presente artigo aborda a concepção de amor de Erich Fromm na sua relação com a fé. O ato de amar, segundo o autor em foco, deve ser considerado uma atividade produtiva e interna, que se fundamenta em um aprimoramento das potencialidades psíquicas e emocionais do sujeito. Além disso, de acordo com Fromm, para amar verdadeiramente, é necessária a fé, que é concebida como um traço de caráter, sendo, assim, passível de desenvolvimento. No que tange à metodologia, este estudo pretende empreender uma leitura analítica das obras A arte de amar, Análise do homem e A revolução da esperança, todas de autoria de Erich Fromm, além de recorrer a trabalhos de comentadores do psicanalista humanista. Como objetivo principal, este artigo pretende elucidar as contribuições do pensamento frommiano no que diz respeito à relação entre a fé e o ato de amar. Pretendemos mostrar que, de acordo com Fromm, para o domínio da arte de amar, é necessário que o sujeito aprimore o seu caráter em favor de uma orientação produtiva, ou seja, é preciso que o indivíduo rompa com o narcisismo por intermédio da fé racional, desenvolva a humildade de reconhecer suas próprias limitações e potencialidades, e utilize a razão como um instrumento que o permita visualizar a pessoa amada como de fato ela é, e não como gostaria que ela fosse.
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 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.
道德建设是人类精神文明的基础,是一个国家繁荣和兴旺的必由之路。著名的精神分析学家弗洛姆从精神分析方面,展开道德的论述。就人性善恶的问题,弗洛姆更加肯定人理性的能力,认为人们可以通过自己的良善来抑制内心的罪恶,最重要的是要给良善的发展空间,反之,如果人们的良善被遏制,那么他的破坏力就会被激发出来。他指出现代的人之所以困惑、社会之所以会出现各种各样的问题,是因为人类不能真正的认清自我,逃不出>二律背反<的困境,从而不能做一个真正有道德的人。弗洛姆把精神分析层面的东西应用到伦理学当中,对人的本性进行更深层次地剖析,让我们进一步理解和认识自己和人类的道德问题。让我们不要逃避,要努力做一个有道德的人,共同构建一个有道德的社会。
Resumo Neste artigo, procuro problematizar a crítica de Erich Fromm à cultura do capitalismo contemporâneo. Para tanto, faço uma releitura especialmente, mas não apenas, de uma de suas principais obras maduras, o livro Psicanálise da sociedade contemporânea (>The Sane Society<), no qual o autor sedimenta seu projeto analítico de uma >psicanálise humanista<. Na primeira parte o artigo reconstrói, através da ideia de >patologia da normalidade<, a crítica de Fromm aos fundamentos culturais do capitalismo contemporâneo. Na segunda parte, a reconstrução é levada adiante através dos conceitos de >caráter social<e >alienação<, de modo a compreender como o capitalismo tardio do século XX aprofunda, como nunca antes, uma cultura anti-humanista. Na conclusão, procuro argumentar como a obra de Fromm pode ser de grande valia para a compreensão dos problemas tanto individuais quanto coletivos da atualidade.
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.
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.
Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar de que forma o poder disciplinar atinge diretamente o corpo sexualizado do indivíduo e quais são as implicações desta realidade no mundo contemporâneo. Para isso, será utilizado como fundamentação teórica Erich Fromm, com o objetivo de analisar as implicações emocionais relacionadas ao desenvolvimento da sociedade capitalista e principalmente, os livros de Foucault: >Vigiar e Punir< (1999) e >História da sexualidade: a vontade de saber< (1977). Por meio deste estudo, pôde-se perceber que a demasiada preocupação com o corpo presente na sociedade contemporânea denota o imperativo do corpo sexualizado, resultado do exercício no domínio e controle efetuados pela sociedade sobre o indivíduo. Isso não ocorre em consequência de um poder centralizado, mas sim por um controle exercido de forma periférica, no qual a própria sociedade estrutura padrões de condutas assumidas pelos sujeitos que lhe constituem.
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.
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.