Systems and Theories

1. Erich Fromm

2. Overview of Fromm’s Humanistic Psychoanalysis
Erich Fromm’s humanistic psychoanalysis looks at people from many
perspectives, including psychology, history, and anthropology. Although
Fromm was influenced by both Freud and Horney, his theory is much
broader than Horney’s and much more socially oriented than Freud’s.

3. Biography of Erich Fromm
Erich Fromm was born in Germany, in 1900, the only child of orthodox
Jewish parents. His humanistic philosophy grew out of an early reading
of the biblical prophets and an association with several Talmudic
scholars. A thoughtful young man, Fromm was also influenced by the
writings of Freud and Marx, as well as by socialist ideology.
In New York, where he also resumed his friendship with Karen Horney,
whom he had known in Germany. Much of his later years were spent in
Mexico and Switzerland,

4. Fromm’s Basic Assumptions
• Fromm assumed that human personality can only be understood in
the light of history. He believed that humans have been torn away
from their prehistoric union with nature and left with no powerful
instincts to adapt to a changing world. On the other hand, they have
acquired the ability to reason, which means they can think about
their isolated condition. Fromm called this situation the human
dilemma.

5. • Human Needs
• The Burden of Freedom
Need for freedom
Need for belongingness
• Character Orientations
• Personality Disorders

6. Human Needs
• According to Fromm, our human dilemma cannot be solved by satisfying our animal
needs. It can only be addressed by fulfilling our uniquely human needs, which would
move us toward a reunification with the natural world. Fromm also referred to these
distinctively human needs as existential needs.
• A. Relatedness
• Fromm called our desire for union with another person relatedness. We can relate to
others through (1) submission, (2) power, and (3) love. However, love, or the ability to
unite with another while retaining one’s own individuality and integrity, is the only
relatedness need that can solve our basic human dilemma.
• B. Transcendence
• Being thrown into the world without their consent, humans have the urge to rise
above their passive and accidental existence—to transcend their nature—by destroying
or creating people or things. Humans can destroy through malignant aggression, or
killing for reasons other than survival, but they can also create and care about their
creations.

7. • C. Rootedness
• By rootedness, Fromm meant the need to establish roots and to feel at home again
in the world. Like the other existential needs, rootedness can take either a productive or
a nonproductive mode. With the productive strategy, we grow beyond the security of our
mother and establish ties with the outside world. With the nonproductive strategy, we
become fixated and afraid to move beyond the security and safety of our mother or a
mother substitute.
• D. Sense of Identity
• The fourth human need is for a sense of identity, or our awareness of ourselves as a
separate person. The drive for a sense of identity is expressed nonproductively as
conformity to a group and productively as individuality.
• E. Frame of Orientation
• By frame of orientation, Fromm meant a road map or consistent philosophy by which
we find our way through the world. This need is expressed nonproductively as a striving
for irrational goals and productively as movement toward rational goals.

8. The Burden of Freedom
As the only animal possessing self-awareness, humans are the freaks
of the universe. Historically, as people gained more political freedom,
they began to experience more isolation from others and from the
world and to feel free from the security of a permanent place in the
world. As a result, freedom becomes a burden, and people
experience basic anxiety, or a feeling of being alone in the world.

9. A. Mechanisms of Escape
• To reduce the frightening sense of isolation and aloneness, people may adopt one of
three mechanisms of escape.
1. Authoritarianism
• The tendency to give up one’s independence and to unite with a powerful partner—
authoritarianism—can take the form of either masochism or sadism. Masochism stems
from feelings of powerlessness and can be disguised as love or loyalty. Sadism involves
attempts to achieve unity by exploiting or hurting others.
2. Destructiveness
• Feelings of isolation can also produce destructiveness, an escape mechanism that is
aimed at doing away with other people or things.
3. Conformity
• A third mechanism of escape is conformity, or surrendering of one’s individuality in
order to meet the wishes of others.

10. B. Positive Freedom
• Positive freedom is the spontaneous activity of the whole,
integrated personality, which is achieved when a person becomes
reunified with others and with the world. It is the successful solution
to the human dilemma of being part of the natural world and yet
separate from it.

11. Character Orientations
• People relate to the world by acquiring and using things
(assimilation) and by relating to self and others (socialization), and
they can do so either non productively or productively.

12. A Nonproductive Orientations
Strategies that fail to move people closer to positive freedom and
self-realization are nonproductive.
B. The Productive Orientation
Psychologically healthy people work toward positive freedom through
productive work, love, and reasoning. Productive love necessitates a
passionate love of all life and is called biophilia.

13. Nonproductive Orientations
• 1. Receptive
People who rely on the receptive orientation believe that the source of all good lies outside themselves and
that the only way they can relate to the world is to receive things, including love, knowledge, and material
objects. Positive qualities include loyalty and trust; negative ones are passivity and submissiveness.
• 2. Exploitative
People with an exploitative orientation also believe that the source of good lies outside themselves, but they
aggressively take what they want rather than passively receiving it. Positive qualities of exploitative people
include pride and self-confidence; negative ones are arrogance and conceit.
• 3. Hoarding
Hoarding characters try to save what they have already obtained, including their opinions, feelings, and
material possessions. Positive qualities include loyalty, negative ones are obsessiveness and possessiveness.
• 4. Marketing
People with a marketing orientation see themselves as commodities and value themselves against the criteria
of their ability to sell themselves. They have fewer positive qualities than other orientations because they are
essentially empty. However, they can be open-minded and adaptable.

14. Personality Disorders
• Unhealthy people are characterized by their inability to work, think,
and, especially, to love productively. Fromm recognized three major
personality disorders: necrophilia, malignant narcissism, and
incestuous symbiosis.

15. • A. Necrophilia
• In Fromm’s framework, necrophilia is the love of death and the hatred
of all humanity. Necrophilious people do not simply behave in a destructive
manner; their destructiveness is a reflection of a basic character.
• B. Malignant Narcissism
• Malignant narcissism is so powerful that it convinces people that
everything belonging to them is of great value and anything belonging to
others is worthless. Narcissistic people often suffer from moral
hypochondrias, or preoccupation with excessive guilt.
• C. Incestuous Symbiosis
• Incestuous symbiosis is an extreme dependence on one’s mother or
mother surrogate to the extent that one’s personality is blended with that
of the host person. Fromm believed that a few people, such as Hitler,
possessed all three of these disorders, a condition called the syndrome of
decay.