Erich Fromm Sunwoo Park
May 24, 2015
Erich Fromm
Sunwoo Park
Who is Erich Fromm? March 23, 1900 –
March 18, 1980 Born in Frankfut,
Germany Social psychologist,
psychoanalyst, and humanistic philosopher
From religious family Had his career during
depression
Humanistic Philosophy
Adam and Eve’s exile Distinguish between
good and evil Separate from nature
= evolved into human beings
Conscious of morality and no longer united with the universe
Escape from Freedom
Escaping your separate identity
Central characteristic of human nature
Psychological conflicts
Escape from Freedom
Three Escape Mechanism Authoritarianism – To be
controlled by another Automaton conformity – Hiding
within an authoritarian hierarchy Destructiveness – Try to
eliminate others or the world as a whole
Families
Affects the type of the escapes from freedom
Two kinds of unproductive families Symbiotic Families Withdrawing Families
Families
Symbiotic Families “Swallowed up” by other members
Withdrawing Families Parents are very demanding of
their children (Rules are more important than people) (Cold version)
No real adult guidance
The Social Unconsciousness Our way of doing things is
the only way All the actions have all
become unconscious Best understood by
examining five personality types (orientations)
Five Orientations
All efforts at life The receptive orientation The exploitative orientation The hoarding orientation The marketing orientation The productive orientation
Five Orientations
The receptive orientation Expecting to get what they need
Peasant Freud’s oral passive Submissive and accepting Peasant
Five Orientations
The exploitative orientation Expecting to have to take what they need
Upper classes Freud’s oral aggressive Aggressive and conceited (-)Proud and captivating (+)
Five Orientations
The hoarding orientation Expecting to keep Bourgeoisie Possessions Freud’s anal retentive type Stubborn, stingy, and unimaginative
(-)Steadfast, economical, and practical (+)
Five Orientations
The marketing orientation Expecting to sell Sell myself, package myself, and
advertise myself Modern industrial society Freud’s vague phallic personality Opportunistic and childish (-)
Purposeful and social (+)
Five Orientations
The productive orientation Without a mask Without rejecting nature Yet no society Humanistic communitarian
socialism Altruism
The Having Mode
Focus on consuming, obtaining, and possessing
Receptive, Exploitative, Hoarding, and Marketing orientation
The Being Mode
Defined by your actions in this world
Live without a mask, experiencing life, and being yourself
Productive orientation
Orientation
Society Family Escape from
Freedom
Receptive Peasant societySymbiotic (passive)
Authoritarian (masochistic)
Exploitative
Aristocratic society
Symbiotic (active)
Authoritarian (sadistic)
Hoarding Bourgeois societyWithdrawing (puritanical)
Perfectionist to destructive
Marketing Modern societyWithdrawing
(infantile)Automaton conformist
ProductiveHumanistic
communitarian socialism
Loving and reasoning
Freedom and responsibility acknowledged and accepted
Biophilous & Necrophilous Biophilous
Life-loving Trying to cope with life Receptive, Exploitative, Hoarding,
Marketing, and Productive orientation Eros
Necrophilous The lovers of death To destroy Thenatos
Human Needs
Go far beyond the basic needs To find an answer to his
existence
Relatedness Transcendence Rootedness Sense of identity A frame of orientation
Relatedness
Aware of our separateness from each other and seek to overcome it
Relationships with others, care, respect, knowledge
Narcissism
Creativity
Desire to overcome being passive creatures
Creators Creativity, develop a loving
and interesting life. Can lead to destruction
Rootedness
Need to feel at home (safe environment)
Feeling of belonging Schizophrenia
Sense of Identity
Need to have a sense of identity, of unique individuality
Narcissism
A Frame of Orientation
Need to understand the world and our place in it
Our society attempts to provide attempts to provide us with this understanding.
Fromm’s Research
Freud = Sexual Observation method and
clinical practice Karen Horney, Karl Jung Marx = Social economic Cultural variations, history,
social conditions
Bibliography
http://www.answers.com/topic/erich-fromm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Fromm
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/fromm.html