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Exploramos la vida de Erich Fromm durante los años 30, su confrontación con el Nacional Socialismo y las experiencias de su familia en el Holocausto. Relevamos el impacto de este periodo en sus escritos, especialmente El Miedo a la Libertad (Escape from Freedom). La situación política del momento, en la cual el antisemitismo se hubo incrementado y las minorías estaban siendo perseguidas hace especialmente importante el examen de la experiencia y exilio de Fromm. El autor se apoya en la historia de su propia familia alemana y en el descubrimiento del pasado nacionalsocialista de su propio abuelo para examinar la importancia del análisis de Fromm de las tendencias autoritarias en Alemania a principios de la década del 30.
In light of the recent emphasis on social and cultural factors in psychoanalytic theory and practice, this article will elaborate earlier attempts to bridge psychoanalysis and the study of culture. I begin by considering the disciplinary tension between the fields of psychoanalysis and anthropology and the emergence of a >psychoanalytic anthropology,< which began in the 1920s and lasted through the 1950s. I then turn to the works of Harry Stack Sullivan and Erich Fromm, who developed an approach known as >cultural psychoanalysis.< I suggest that Sullivan and Fromm anticipate today’s sociocultural turn in psychoanalysis and that their work on culture and its role in psychological development and experience continues to be relevant. Rather than embracing a social or cultural determinism, Sullivan and Fromm focus on the interaction between culture and the person, thus creating an >integrationist< approach. Sullivan and Fromm develop a broad conception of culture that encompasses a critique of social and cultural norms and values. I suggest that this is particularly valuable because much current discussion of culture focuses chiefly on diversity and difference, thus overlooking the implicit social and cultural values at work in all human experience. I build on Sullivan and Fromm’s insights to illustrate the significance of early interpersonal psychoanalysis for the sociocultural turn in contemporary psychoanalytic theory and practice.
Erich Fromm’s life during the 1930s, his confrontation with Nazism and his family’s experience of the Holocaust is explored. The impact of this period on his writing, especially Escape from Freedom is considered. The current political situation, in which anti-Semitism has increased and minorities are persecuted makes the examination of Fromm’s experience of persecution and exile especially relevant. The author uses his own German family history and his discovery of his grandfather’s Nazi past to examine the importance of Fromm’s analysis of authoritarian tendencies in Germany in the early 1930s.
Psychoanalysis, religion, philosophy and the possibility for dialogue: Freud, Binswanger and Pfister
(2012)
This article considers the longstanding disciplinary tensions between psychoanalysis, religion, and philosophy. It argues for a cross-disciplinary understanding of human experience by examining the relationship of Sigmund Freud to his two Swiss colleagues, Ludwig Binswanger and Oskar Pfister. In contrast to Freud's avowed atheism and pronounced ambivalence on philosophy, Binswanger and Pfister both professed a strong religious sensibility and philosophical outlook. The article juxtaposes their theoretical divergences on religion and philosophy with personal interactions and correspondence. The relationship of Freud to Binswanger and Pfister is instructive for understanding the historical and contemporary interaction of psychoanalytic theory and practice with other disciplines and diverse viewpoints. The dialogical spirit that connects the three protagonists constitutes a critical engagement with learning and is essential to psychoanalysis today.
This essay explores the notion that we are all fundamentally shaped by history. I suggest that psychoanalysis needs to attend not just to the history of the patient, but also to the fact that the psychoanalyst and patient alike are affected by history and its traumas. Human experience cannot be separated from the historical and cultural contexts in which we live out our lives. The approach I am describing is not an endorsement of historical determinism, the notion that the past entirely makes us who we are today. It is, rather, a plea to know history so that we might respond to what it can teach us. In making this argument, I draw on the work of the historian and psychoanalyst by training, Thomas Kohut. His work helps us to avoid reductionist views of human experience, whether in the past or the present, and teaches us to use empathy to think and feel our way into the situation of the other person. This is particularly relevant in light of the ongoing prejudices and social injustices in contemporary society.
This essay addresses some of the challenges involved in accounting for history’s impact on psychological development. First, I consider how the personal beliefs and theoretical assumptions of psychoanalysts and historians can limit their understanding of other people, whether in the past or the present. Second, I examine the degree to which an individual’s perception and understanding is always a reflection of the collective cultural understanding in which that person lives. I apply these two observations to the discussion of how European Jewish psychoanalysts responded to the traumas of the Holocaust in the decades afterWorld War II. I suggest that individual responses were shaped by the absence of a collective discourse about the Holocaust during this time. When examining the past, I maintain that psychoanalysts and historians should be cautious, lest their current theories determine their understanding of the past.
Prólogo
(2011)
Psychoanalysis.
(2011)