Refine
Language
- English (11)
Erich Fromm: Biography. Typoscript taken from Kellner’s website in the Internet, November 1997, 5 p.
(1997)
It is argued that although the classical critical theory of the Institute for Social Research criticizes the consumer society that is typical of advanced capitalism, new perspectives on commodities, needs, and consumption are necessary. The ideas of Herbert Marcuse, Erich FROMM, and others on this are reviewed, and are criticized for advocating an excessively global critique of commodities, needs, and consumption as uniformly alienating and manipulative. A theory is presented that distinguishes between true and false needs, useful and useless commodities, and life-enhancing and alienating consumption. It is suggested that critical theory should accommodate a diversity of consumer practices in evaluating consumption, and should provide more discriminating accounts of commodities and needs. Rational and progressive consumer practices are proposed, and the argument is advanced that critical Marxists should take consumer, environmental, and health movement struggles more seriously in developing critiques of contemporary capitalism and theories of social change.
An exploration of the influence on the US New Left of Raya Dunayevskaya's Marxism and Freedom ... from 1776 until Today (New York: Columbia U Press, 1988 1958), with its emphasis on the revolutionary humanism of the young Karl Marx and his Hegelian roots. Her Philosophy and Revolution: From Hegel to Sartre and from Marx to Mao (New York: Columbia U Press, 1989 1973) showed the linkage between actual revolutionary struggles and revolutionary philosophy. Her extensive correspondence with other theoretical mentors of the New Left-Herbert Marcuse and Erich FROMM-is especially important. Despite their sometimes sharp exchanges, Marcuse wrote the Preface to Marxism and Freedom and corresponded with Dunayevskaya on the effects of automation on the working class. FROMM's correspondence with Dunayevskaya reveals some of his many criticisms of Marcuse.
In this article, I discuss in detail how Erich Fromm’s categories can help de-scribe Trump’s character, or >temperament,< a word used to characterize a major flaw in Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign and his rule as President by the end of the first year. In >The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness< (1973), Fromm engages in a detailed analysis of the authoritarian character as sadistic, excessively narcissistic, malignantly aggressive, vengeably destructive, and necrophiliac, personality traits arguably applicable to Trump. In the following analysis, I will systematically deploy key Frommian socio-psychoanalytic categories to Trump and his followers to show how they can illuminate Trump and authoritarian populism.