▪ A second existential dichotomy is that humans are capable of

conceptualizing the goal of complete self-realization, but we also are

- Overview of Humanistic Psychoanalysis aware that life is too short to reach that goal.
- Biography of Erich Fromm ▪ The third existential dichotomy is that people are ultimately alone, yet
- Fromm’s Basic Assumptions we cannot tolerate isolation.
o Human Needs
HUMAN NEEDS
o Relatedness
o Transcendence - Only the distinctive human needs can move people toward a reunion with the natural
o Rootedness world.

o Sense of Identity - These existential needs have emerged during the evolution of human culture, growing
out of their attempts to find an answer to their existence and to avoid becoming insane.
o Frame of Orientation
- healthy individuals are better able to find ways of reuniting to the world by productively
o Summary of Human Needs solving the human needs of relatedness, transcendence, rootedness, a sense of identity,
- The Burden of Freedom and a frame of orientation.
o Mechanisms of Escape
RELATEDNESS
o Positive Freedom
- Character Orientations - the drive for union with another person or other persons.
o Nonproductive Orientations - The first human, or existential need.
o The Productive Orientation - three basic ways in which a person may relate to the world:
- Personality Disorders o (1) submission,
o Necrophilia ▪ person can submit to another, to a group, or to an institution in order to
become one with the world.
o Malignant Narcissism
▪ When a submissive person and a domineering person find each other,
o Incestuous Symbiosis they frequently establish a symbiotic relationship, one that is satisfying to
- Psychotherapy both partners.
- Fromm’s Methods of Investigation • People in symbiotic relationships blame their partners for not
o Social Character in a Mexican Village being able to completely satisfy their needs. They find themselves
o A Psychohistorical Study of Hitler seeking additional submission or power,
- Related Research o (2) power,
- Testing the Assumptions of Fromm’s Marketing Character o (3) love.
▪ love is the only route by which a person can become united with the
- Estrangement from Culture and Well-Being
world and, at the same time, achieve individuality and integrity.
- Authoritarianism and Fear ▪ He defined love as a “union with somebody, or something outside oneself
- Critique of Fromm under the condition of retaining the separateness and integrity of one’s
- Concept of Humanity own self:”
▪ Love involves sharing and communion with another, yet it allows a person
the freedom to be unique and separate.
HUMANISTIC PSYCHOANALYSIS ▪ Four basic Elements to all forms of genuine love (THE ART OF LOVING)
• Care
- a theory of personality that emphasizes the influence of sociobiological factors, history,
economics, and class structure.
• Responsibility

- His humanistic psychoanalysis assumes that humanity’s separation from the natural
• Respect
world has produced feelings of loneliness and isolation, a condition called basic anxiety. • Knowledge
- His humanistic psychoanalysis looks at people from a historical and cultural perspective TRANSCENDENCE
rather than a strictly psychological one. It is less concerned with the individual and more
concerned with those characteristics common to a culture. - human beings are driven by the need for transcendence
- defined as the urge to rise above a passive and accidental existence and into “the realm of
BIOGRAPHY OF ERICH FROMM purposefulness and freedom”
- B: March 23, 1900, Frankfurt, Germany. Only Child of middle-class orthodox - transcendence can be sought through either positive or negative approaches.

jewish family. o People can transcend their passive nature by either creating life or destroying it.
- Fromm (1973) argued that humans are the only species to use malignant aggression: that is, to
- F: Naphtali Fromm & M: Rose Krause Fromm. kill for reasons other than survival.
- Had a very neurotic parents (moody father, and a mother prone to o Although malignant aggression is a dominant and powerful passion in some individuals
depression). and cultures, it is not common to all humans.
- Married to Frieda Reichmann, resembles to her mother. o It apparently was unknown to many prehistoric societies as well as some contemporary
“primitive” societies.
- Karen Horney, strong mother figure to him.
- 1944, married again to Henny Gurland ROOTEDNESS
- 5 important influences on Fromm’s thinking:
- A third existential need is for rootedness, or the need to establish roots or to feel at home again
o (1) the teachings of the humanistic rabbis; in the world.
o (2) the revolutionary spirit of Karl Marx;
- Rootedness, too, can be sought in either productive or nonproductive strategies.
o (3) the equally revolutionary ideas of Sigmund Freud; o With the productive strategy, people are weaned from the orbit of their mother and
o (4) the rationality of Zen Buddhism as espoused by D. T. Suzuki; and become fully born; that is, they actively and creatively relate to the world and become
o (5) the writings of Johann Jakob Bachofen (1815–1887) on matriarchal societies. whole or integrated. This new tie to the natural world confers security and reestablishes
a sense of belongingness and rootedness.
FROMM’S BASIC ASSUMPTION
o However, people may also seek rootedness through the nonproductive strategy of
- Fromm’s most basic assumption is that individual personality can be understood only in fixation—a tenacious reluctance to move beyond the protective security provided by
light of human history. one’s mother. People who strive for rootedness through fixation are “afraid to take the
next step of birth, to be weaned from the mother’s breast.
o “The discussion of the human situation must precede that of personality, [and]
psychology must be based on an anthropologic-philosophical concept of human ▪ Fromm was influenced by Johann Jakob Bachofen’s (1861/1967) ideas on early
matriarchal societies.
existence”.
▪ Fromm’s (1997) strong preference for Bachofen’s mother-centered theory of
- They have no powerful instincts to adapt to a changing world; instead, they have
the Oedipal situation over Freud’s father-centered conception is consistent with
acquired the facility to reason—a condition Fromm called the human dilemma. his preference for older women.
o People experience this basic dilemma because they have become separate from
nature and yet have the capacity to be aware of themselves as isolated beings. SENSE OF IDENTITY
The human ability to reason, therefore, is both a blessing and a curse.
- the capacity to be aware of ourselves as a separate entity.
- On one hand, it permits people to survive, but on the other, it forces them to attempt
- Without a sense of identity, people could not retain their sanity, and this threat provides a
to solve basic insoluble dichotomies. Fromm referred to these as “existential
powerful motivation to do almost anything to acquire a sense of identity.
dichotomies” because they are rooted in people’s very existence.
o Humans cannot do away with these existential dichotomies; they can only react - Neurotics try to attach themselves to powerful people or to social or political institutions.

to these dichotomies relative to their culture and their individual personalities. - Healthy people, however, have less need to conform to the herd, less need to give up their sense
of self.
▪ `The first and most fundamental dichotomy is that between life and
o They do not have to surrender their freedom and individuality in order to fit into society
death.
because they possess an authentic sense of identity
 FRAME OF ORIENTATION - Positive freedom represents a successful solution to the human dilemma of being part of the
natural world and yet separate from it.
- Being split off from nature, humans need a road map, a frame of orientation, to make their way - Through positive freedom and spontaneous activity, people overcome the terror of aloneness,
through the world. achieve union with the world, and maintain individuality.
o Without such a map, humans would be “confused and unable to act purposefully and
- Twin components of positive freedom: Love and Work.
consistently”.
- A frame of orientation enables people to organize the various stimuli that impinge on them.
o People who possess a solid frame of orientation can make sense of these events and
phenomena, but those who lack a reliable frame of orientation will, nevertheless, strive CHARACTER ORIENTATION
to put these events into some sort of framework in order to make sense of them.
o road map without a goal or destination is worthless. Humans have the mental capacity - In Fromm’s theory, personality is reflected in one’s character orientation, that is, a person’s
relatively permanent way of relating to people and things.
to imagine many alternative paths to follow.
o To keep from going insane, however, they need a final goal or “object of devotion” - Fromm (1947) defined personality as “the totality of inherited and acquired psychic qualities
which are characteristic of one individual and which make the individual unique” (p. 50).
▪ this goal or object of devotion focuses people’s energies in a single direction,
enables us to transcend our isolated existence, and confers meaning to our lives
o The most important of the acquired qualities of personality is character, defined as
▪ “the relatively permanent system of all noninstinctual strivings through which
man relates himself to the human and natural world”.
- People relate to the world in two ways—by acquiring and using things (assimilation) and by
relating to self and others (socialization).
- In general terms, people can relate to things and to people either nonproductively or
productively.

NONPRODUCTIVE ORIENTATIONS
- People can acquire things through any one of four nonproductive orientations:
o (1) receiving things passively;
o (2) exploiting, or taking things through force;
o (3) hoarding objects; and
THE BURDEN OF FREEDOM o (4) marketing or exchanging things
- Historically, as people gained more and more economic and political freedom, they came to feel - Fromm used the term “nonproductive” to suggest strategies that fail to move people closer to
increasingly more isolated. positive freedom and self-realization.

- As children become more independent of their mothers, they gain more freedom to express - Nonproductive orientations are, however, not entirely negative; each has both a negative and a
their individuality, to move around unsupervised, to choose their friends, clothes, and so on. positive aspect
o At the same time, they experience the burden of freedom; that is, they are free from RECEPTIVE
the security of being one with the mother.
- On both a social and an individual level, this burden of freedom results in basic anxiety, the - Receptive characters feel that the source of all good lies outside themselves and that the only
feeling of being alone in the world. way they can relate to the world is to receive things, including love, knowledge, and material
possessions. T
MECHANISM OF ESCAPE - They are more concerned with receiving than with giving.
- Because basic anxiety produces a frightening sense of isolation and aloneness, people attempt o -The negative qualities of receptive people include passivity, submissiveness, and lack of
to flee from freedom through a variety of escape mechanisms. self-confidence.

- In Escape from Freedom, Fromm (1941) identified three primary mechanisms of escape—
o +Their positive traits are loyalty, acceptance, and trust.
authoritarianism, destructiveness, and conformity. EXPLOITATIVE
AUTHORITARIANISM - exploitative characters believe that the source of all good is outside themselves.
- Fromm (1941) defined authoritarianism as the “tendency to give up the independence of one’s - they aggressively take what they desire rather than passively receive it.
own individual self and to fuse one’s self with somebody or something outside oneself, in order - In their social relationships, they are likely to use cunning or force to take someone else’s spouse,
to acquire the strength which the individual is lacking” ideas, or property.
- This need to unite with a powerful partner can take one of two forms—masochism or sadism. - exploitative people prefer to steal or plagiarize rather than create.
o Masochism results from basic feelings of powerlessness, weakness, and inferiority and o -On the negative side, exploitative characters are egocentric, conceited, arrogant, and
is aimed at joining the self to a more powerful person or institution. seducing.
▪ Masochistic strivings often are disguised as love or loyalty, but unlike love and o +On the positive side, they are impulsive, proud, charming, and self-confident.
loyalty, they can never contribute positively to independence and authenticity.
o sadism is more neurotic and more socially harmful. HOARDING
▪ Sadism is aimed at reducing basic anxiety through achieving unity with another - hoarding characters seek to save that which they have already obtained.
person or persons.
- They hold everything inside and do not let go of anything.
▪ Fromm (1941) identified three kinds of sadistic tendencies, all more or less
- They keep money, feelings, and thoughts to themselves.
clustered together.
- They tend to live in the past and are repelled by anything new.
• The first is the need to make others dependent on oneself and to gain
o -Negative traits of the hoarding personality include rigidity, sterility, obstinacy,
power over those who are weak.
compulsivity, and lack of creativity;
• The second is the compulsion to exploit others, to take advantage of o +positive characteristics are orderliness, cleanliness, and punctuality.
them, and to use them for one’s benefit or pleasure.
• A third sadistic tendency is the desire to see others suffer, either MARKETING
physically or psychologically.
- The marketing character is an outgrowth of modern commerce in which trade is no longer
DESTRUCTIVENESS personal but carried out by large, faceless corporations.
- Marketing, or exchanging, personalities must see themselves as being in constant demand; they
- destructiveness is rooted in the feelings of aloneness, isolation, and powerlessness. must make others believe that they are skillful and salable.
- destructiveness does not depend on a continuous relationship with another person; rather, it - Marketing people are without a past or a future and have no permanent principles or values.
seeks to do away with other people. o _Negative traits of marketing characters are aimlessness, opportunism, inconsistency,
and wastefulness.
CONFORMITY
o +Some of their positive qualities include changeability, open mindedness, adaptability,
- People who conform try to escape from a sense of aloneness and isolation by giving up their and generosity.
individuality and becoming whatever other people desire them to be.
o Thus, they become like robots, reacting predictably and mechanically to the whims of PRODUCTIVE ORIENTATION
others. - The single productive orientation has three dimensions—
o They seldom express their own opinion, cling to expected standards of behavior, and o working,
often appear stiff and automated
o loving, and
- The more they conform, the more powerless they feel; the more powerless they feel, the more o reasoning.
they must conform.
- Healthy people value work not as an end in itself, but as a means of creative self-expression.
o People can break this cycle of conformity and powerlessness only by achieving self-
realization or positive freedom. - Productive love is characterized by the four qualities of love discussed earlier—
o care,
o responsibility,
o respect, and
POSITIVE FREEDOM o knowledge.
- People can attain this kind of freedom, called positive freedom, by a spontaneous and full - In addition to these four characteristics, healthy people possess biophilia: that is, a passionate
expression of both their rational and their emotional potentialities. love of life and all that is alive.
- Fromm believed that love of others and self-love are inseparable but that self-love must come
first.
 - Productive thinking, which cannot be separated from productive work and love, is motivated by
a concerned interest in another person or object.

PERSONALITY DISORDERS
- Fromm (1981) held that psychologically disturbed people are incapable of love and have failed
to establish union with others. He discussed three severe personality disorders—
o necrophilia,
o malignant narcissism, and
o incestuous symbiosis.
NECROPHILIA
- The term “necrophilia” means love of death and usually refers to a sexual perversion in which a
person desires sexual contact with a corpse.
o However, Fromm (1964, 1973) used necrophilia in a more generalized sense to denote
any attraction to death.
- Necrophilia is an alternative character orientation to biophilia. People naturally love life, but
when social conditions stunt biophilia, they may adopt a necrophilic orientation.
- Necrophilous people do not simply behave in a destructive manner; rather, their destructive
behavior is a reflection of their basic character.

MALIGNANT NARCISSISM
- Healthy people manifest a benign form of narcissism, that is, an interest in their own body.
- However, in its malignant form, narcissism impedes the perception of reality so that everything
belonging to a narcissistic person is highly valued and everything belonging to another is
devalued.
- Narcissistic individuals are preoccupied with themselves, but this concern is not limited to
admiring themselves in a mirror. Preoccupation with one’s body often leads to hypochondriasis,
or an obsessive attention to one’s health. Fromm (1964) also discussed moral hypochondriasis,
or a preoccupation with guilt about previous transgressions.

INCESTUOUS SYMBIOSIS
- incestuous symbiosis, or an extreme dependence on the mother or mother surrogate.
- Incestuous symbiosis is an exaggerated form of the more common and more benign mother
fixation.
- With incestuous symbiosis, however, people are inseparable from the host person; their
personalities are blended with the other person and their individual identities are lost.
- Incestuous symbiosis originates in infancy as a natural attachment to the mothering one.
- People living in incestuous symbiotic relationships feel extremely anxious and frightened if that
relationship is threatened.

*SYNDROME OF DECAY: necrophilia, malignant narcissism, and incestuous

symbiosis.
*SYNDROME OF GROWTH: biophilia, love, and positive freedom.