Fromm: Humanistic  “Human Dilemma” – humans have

acquired the ability to reason about

Psychoanalysis
their isolated conditions.
Biography of Fromm  Two fundamental dichotomies
- Life and Death
 Born in Frankfurt, Germany in - Complete self-realization and
1900. the fact that we cannot reach
 Only child of orthodox Jewish this goal because “life is too
parents. short.”
 Suicide of young woman troubled
him in his youth. Human Needs
 Influenced by writing of Freud and Emerged during the evolution of human
Marx in his adolescence. culture, growing out of their attempts to
 Received his PhD in sociology in find an answer to their existence and to
1920s. avoid becoming insane.
 Fromm began studying
psychoanalysis in 1925 and was Relatedness – Drive union with another
eventually analyzed by Hanns person or other person.
Sachs, a student of Freud.
 can be satisfied through
 Founded South German Institute
submission, domination, or love,
for Psychoanalysis in 1930.
but only love produces authentic
 In 1934, Fromm moved to the U.S
fulfillment
and began a psychoanalytic
 3 basic ways to relate to world:
practice in New York.
1. Submission
 His books gained him a worldwide
2. Power
reputation.
3. Love
 Died in Switzerland in 1980.
Transcendence
Overview of Humanistic
Psychoanalysis  Urge to rise above a passive and
accidental existence and into “the
 People have lost their connection realm of purposefulness and
with the nature and one another. freedom.”
 This separation from the natural  Can be sought through either
world has resulted in positive or negative approaches.
- Basic anxiety characterized by  Humans also use Malignant
loneliness and isolation. Aggression for reasons other than
- The cost of freedom has survival.
exceeded its benefits.  Malignant Aggression – a
dominant and powerful passion in
Fromm’s Basic Assumption some individuals and cultures, it is
not common to all humans. It
 Personality can only be
apparently was unknown to many
understood in the light of history.
prehistoric societies as well as
 Humans have been “torn away”
some contemporary “primitive”
from their prehistory union with the
societies.
nature.
  Can be satisfied by either  May be either irrational or rational,
destructiveness or creativeness, but only a rational philosophy can
but only the latter permits joy. serve as a basis for the growth of
total personality.
Rootedness
The Burden of Freedom
 Need to establish roots or to feel at
home again in the world.  People attempt to escape from
 Can seek through Fixation freedom in a variety of ways
 Fixation – a tenacious reluctance
to move beyond the protective Mechanisms of Escape
security provided by one’s mother.
- Authoritarianism - the “tendency
 Can be satisfied either by fixation
to give up the independence of
to the mother or by moving forward
one’s own individual self and to
into full birth and wholeness.
fuse one’s self with somebody or
Sense of Identity something outside oneself, in order
to acquire the strength which the
 Capacity for humans to be aware individual is lacking.” This need to
of themselves as a separate entity. unite with a powerful partner can
 Without a sense of identity, people take one of two forms—
could not retain their sanity, and masochism or sadism.
this threat provides a powerful - Destructiveness – rooted in the
motivation to do almost anything to feelings of aloneness, isolation,
acquire a sense of identity. and powerlessness.
 Can be based on adjustment to the Destructiveness does not depend
group, or it can be satisfied on a continuous relationship with
through creative movement toward another person; rather, it seeks to
individuality. do away with other people.
- Conformity - People who conform
Frame of Orientation try to escape from a sense of
aloneness and isolation by giving
 Being split off from nature, human
up their individuality and becoming
need a road map to make their
whatever other people desire them
way through the world.
to be. People can break this cycle
 Enables people to organize the of conformity and powerlessness
various stimuli that impinge on only by achieving self-realization or
them. positive freedom.
Summary of Human Needs Positive Freedom

 These needs have evolved from  Spontaneous and full expression

human’s existence as a separate of both rational and emotional
species. potentialities.
 Aimed at moving them toward a  Achieved when a person becomes
reunification with the natural world. reunified with others and with the
 Lack of satisfaction of any of these world.
needs is unbearable and may  Represents a successful solution
result in insanity. to the human dilemma of being
 part of the natural world and yet Personality Disorders
separate from it.
 Disturbed individuals are incapable
Character Orientations of love and fail to establish union
with other
 Relatively permanent ways of  Necrophilia – focus of attention is
relating to the world. death and entails a hatred of
The Nonproductive Orientation humanity.
 Malignant Narcissism – belief
- Receptive characters – feel that that everything one owns is of
the source of all good lies outside great value while anything
themselves and that the only way belonging to others is worthless.
they can relate to the world is to  Incestuous Symbiosis – extreme
receive things, including love, dependence on one’s mother to
knowledge, and material the extent that one’s personality is
possessions. blended with that of the host
- Exploitative characters – believe person. Exaggerated form of
that the source of all good is mother fixation.
outside themselves. They
aggressively take what they desire Psychotherapy
rather than passively receive it.
- Hoarding characters – seek to  Concerned with interpersonal
save that which they have already aspects of therapeutic encounter.
obtained. They hold everything  Aim of therapy is self-knowledge
inside and do not let go of for the patent.
anything. They keep money,  The therapist tried to help the
feelings, and thoughts to patient through shared
themselves. communication in which the
- Marketing characters – an therapist is simply human being.
outgrowth of modern commerce in  Goal of Fromm’s Psychotherapy:
which trade is no longer personal - Work toward satisfaction of
but carried out by large, faceless the basic human needs of
corporations. Consistent with the relatedness,
demands of modern commerce, transcendence,
marketing characters see rootedness, a sense of
themselves as commodities, with identity, and a frame of
their personal value dependent on orientation.
their exchange value, that is, their
ability to sell themselves. Methods of Investigation

The Productive Orientation  Social character in Mexican Village

- Study of social character in
 Three dimensions include working, an isolated farming village
loving, and reasoning. in Mexico.
 Psychologically healthy people - Found evidence of all
work toward positive freedom. character orientation
except the marketing one.
  A Psychohistorical Study of Hitler  Ability to work with schizophrenics
- Applied the techniques of won him a reputation as a “clinical
psychohistory to study wizard”
Hitler, the conspicuous  Moved to New York in 1930 to
example of someone with open a private practice, where he
the syndrome of decay. met Horney, Fromm, and others.
- Fromm traces and  Helped to establish Washington
describes Hitler’s school of psychiatry.
necrophilia, malignant  Died alone in Paris in 1949 at age
narcissism, and incestuous 56.
symbiosis.
Overview of Interpersonal Theory
Critique of Fromm
 Emphasizes importance of various
 High on organizing knowledge. developmental stages.
 Low on guiding action, internal  Healthy human development is a
consistency, and parsimony. function of one’s ability to establish
 Very low on generating research intimacy with another.
and falsifiability. - Anxiety may interfere with
this.
Concept of Humanity
Tensions
 Equal weight given to Unconscious
and Conscious, Free Choice and  Tension is a potentiality for action
Determinism, and Pessimism and that may or may not be
Optimism. experienced in awareness.
 Uniqueness emphasized over  Energy can exist either as tension
similarities (potentiality for action) or as
 Teleology over causality actions themselves (energy
 Social influences over biology trasformations).
 2 types of tensions: needs &
anxiety.

Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory Needs

Biography of Sullivan  Result in productive actions.

 Tensions brought on by biological
 Born in New York in 1892 imbalance between a person and
 Socially immature and isolated as the physiochemical environment,
a child but forms one close both inside and outside the
relationship with a boy 5 years organism.
older.  Episodic–once they are satisfied,
 Received his medical degree in they temporarily lose their power,
1917 but after a time, they are likely to
 Gained a position at St. Elizabeth’s recur.
Hospital in Washington, DC.  Most basic interpersonal needs is
Working with Schizophrenic tenderness.
Patients.
  Requires actions from at least 2 including the mouth, anus,
people. and genitals
 Can relate either to the general - Those related to tensions.
well-being of a person (general This second class is
needs) or to specific zones (zonal composed of 3 categories:
needs). the disjunctive
 Can be either physiological or (malevolence), the
interpersonal. isolating (lust), and the
conjunctive (intimacy &
Anxiety self-system).

 Nonproductive or disintegrative Malevolence

behaviors.
 Tensions that is disjunctive, diffuse  Disjunctive dynamism of evil and
and vague. hatred.
 All infants learn to be anxious  A feeling of living among one’s
through the empathic relationship enemies.
they have with their parents.  Originates around ages 2 to 3
 A complete absence of anxiety and years when children’s actions that
other tensions is called euphoria. earlier had brought about maternal
 Deleterious effect on adults. Chief tenderness are rebuffed, ignored,
disruptive force blocking the or met with anxiety and pain.
development of healthy  Malevolent actions take the form of
interpersonal relations. timidity, mischievousness, cruelty,
 Anxiety produces behaviors that: or other kinds of asocial or
1. Prevent people from antisocial behaviors.
learning from their mistakes
Intimacy
2. Keep pursuing a childish
with for security  Need for tenderness and involves
3. Generally ensure that a close interpersonal relationship
people will not learn from between 2 people of equal status.
their experiences.  Develops prior to puberty, during
 “The presence of anxiety is much preadolescence.
more worse that its absence.”  Usually exists between 2 children,
each of whom sees the other as a
Energy Tranformations
person of equal value.
 Transforms tensions into either  An integrating dynamism that
covert or overt behaviors and are tends to draw out loving reactions
aimed at satisfying needs and from the other person, decreasing
reducing anxiety. anxiety and loneliness.
 Helps us avoid anxiety and
Dynamisms loneliness, a rewarding experience
that most healthy people desire.
 Typical patterns that characterized
a person throughout a lifetime. Lust
 Dynamisms are of 2 major classes:
 Isolating tendency requiring no
- Those related to specific
other person for its satisfaction.
zones of the body,
  Especially powerful dynamism  3 basic personifications that
during adolescence, often leads to develop during infancy:
a reduction of self-esteem. 1. The Bad-Mother
 Often rebuffed by others, 2. The Good-Mother
increases anxiety and decreases 3. The Me
feeling of self-worth.
Bad-Mother, Good-Mother
 Often hinders an intimate
relationship, especially during early  Similar to Klein’s concept of the
adolescence when it is easily bad and good breast.
confused with sexual attraction.  Bad-mother personification
Self-System grows out of the infant’s
experiences with bad-nipple: that
 Consistent pattern of behaviors is, the nipple does not satisfy
that maintains people’s hunger needs.
interpersonal security by protecting  Not an accurate image of the “real”
them from anxiety. mother but merely the infant’s
 A conjunctive dynamism that vague personification of not being
arises out of the interpersonal properly fed.
situation.  Good-mother personification
 Develops at about ages 12 to 18 based on the tender and
months. cooperative behaviors of the
 Primary task is to protect people mothering one.
against anxiety.  One based on the infant’s
 Any interpersonal experiences that perception of an anxious,
they perceive as a contrary to their malevolent mother.
self-regard threatens their security.  Other based on a calm, tender
As a consequence, people attempt mother, combine to form a
to defend themselves against complex personification composed
interpersonal tensions by security on contrasting qualities projected
operations. onto the same person.
 2 important security operations:
Me Personification
- Dissociation – impulses,
desires, needs that a  Bad-me personification – from
person refuses to allow into experiences of punishment and
awareness. disapproval that infants receive fro,
- Selective Inattention – their mothering one.
refusal to see those things - Resulting anxiety is strong enough
that we do not wish to see. to teach infants that they are bad,
but not so severe as to cause the
Personifications
experience to be dissociated or
 The image that people acquire of selectively inattended.
themselves and others. - Shaped out of the interpersonal
 May be relatively accurate, or situation.
because they are colored by  Good-me personification –
people’s needs and anxieties, they experiences with reward and
may be grossly distorted. approval.
  Not-me personification – sudden result in observable action, for
severe anxiety may cause an example, sucking or crying.
infant to form this.  Beyond conscious recall.
- Either dissociate or selectively  Prototaxic experiences in adults
inattend experiences related to take the form of momentary
that anxiety. sensations, images, feelings,
- Also encountered by adults, moods, and impressions.
expressed in dreams,
schizophrenic episodes, and other Parataxic Level
dissociated reactions.
 Experiences that are prelogical
- Uncanny Emotions – may be
and result when illusory correlation
experienced in dreams or may
is assumed.
take the form of awe, horror,
 They can be communicated to
loathing, or a “chilly crawling”
others only in a distorted fashion.
sensation.
 Parataxic Distortion – an illogical
Eidetic Personifications belief that a cause-and-effect
relationship exists between two
 Unrealistic traits or imaginary events in close temporal proximity.
friends that many children invent in
order to protect their self-esteem. Syntaxic Level
 These imaginary friends may be as
 Experiences that are consensually
significant to a child’s development
validated and can be accurately
as real playmates.
communicated to others.
 Most adults see fictitious traits in
 Consensually validated
other people.
experiences are those on whose
 Can create conflict in interpersonal
meaning two or more persons
relations when people project onto
agree, for example, language,
others imaginary traits that are
words, and gestures.
remnants from previous
 First instance appears whenever a
relationships.
sound or gesture begins to have
 Hinder communication and prevent
the same meaning for parents as it
people from functioning on the
does for a child.
same level of cognition.
 Adult experience takes place on all
Levels of Cognition 3 levels.
 2 kinds of experience:
 Refers to ways of perceiving, 1. Tensions – or potentiality for
imagining, and conceiving. action, include needs and
 3 levels or modes of experiences: anxiety.
Prototaxic, Parataxic, and Syntaxic 2. Energy transformations –
involve the transformation of
Prototaxic Level potential energy into actual
energy (behavior) for the
 Earliest experiences that are
purpose of satisfying needs or
impossible to put into words or to
reducing anxiety.
communicate to others.
 A neonate feels hunger and pain,
and these prototaxic experiences
Stages of Development  Childhood as a period of rapid
acculturation.
 Thread of interpersonal relations  They learn two other important
runs throughout the stages. processes: dramatizations and
 Personality change can take place preoccupations.
at any time, most likely to occur  Dramatizations – attempts to act
during the transition from one like or sound like significant
stage to the next. authority figures, especially mother
and father.
Infancy
 Preoccupations – strategies for
 Birth to 2 y/o avoiding anxiety and fear-
 Infant’s primary interpersonal provoking situations by remaining
relationship is with the mother. occupied with an activity that has
 Emphatic linkage between mother earlier proved useful or rewarding.
and infant leads inexorably to the  Malevolent attitude reaches a peak
development of anxiety for the during the preschool years, giving
baby. some children an intense feeling of
 Apathy and somnolent living in a hostile or enemy
detachment allows the infant to country.
fall asleep despite the hunger. Juvenile Era
 Autistic language - private
language that makes little or no  Ages 6 to 8 ½
sense to other people.  Characterized by a need for peers
 Early communication takes place and playmates, and ends when
in the form of facial expressions one finds a chum.
and the sounding of various  Children should learn the skill
phonemes. (compete, compromise, and
 Both are learned through imitation, cooperate) at this stage that will
and eventually gestures and enable them to move through the
speech have the same meaning later stage of development.
for the infants as they do for other  Compromise – a way to win or
people. attain a desired goal of the group.
 This communication marks the  Cooperate – includes all those
beginning of syntaxic language processes necessary to get along
and the end of infancy. with others.
 Compete – to be able to challenge
Childhood
not only the self but to have
 Ages 2 to 6 healthy competition with others.
 Mother continues as primary Preadolescence
interpersonal relationship, although
children of this age often have an  Ages 8 ½ to 13
imaginary friend.  Characterized by intimacy with one
 This eidetic friend enables children (usually same sex) person.
to have a safe, secure relationship  Genesis of the capacity to love.
that produce little anxiety.  Intimacy and love become the
essence of friendships.
  Mistakes made during earlier Psychological Disorders
stages of development can be
overcome during preadolescence,  All psychological disorders have
but mistakes made during an interpersonal origin and must
preadolescence are difficult to be understood with reference to
surmount during later stages. social environment.
 Deficiencies found in psychiatric
Early Adolescence patients are found in every person
to a lesser degree.
 Ages 13 to 15
 Psychological difficulties are not
 Genital interest erupts and lustful
unique, but come from same
relationships appear.
interpersonal difficulties we all
 Intimacy and lust exist as parallel
face.
but separate needs.
 2 broad classes of schizophrenia:
 Intimacy, lust, and security often
- Organic – include all those
collide with one another, bringing
symptoms that originate from
stress and conflict to the young
organic causes and are therefore
adolescent in at least 3 ways:
beyond the study of interpersonal
1. Lust interferes with security
psychiatry.
operations because genital
- Situational – include all
activity is frequently ingrained
schizophrenic disorders grounded
with anxiety, guild, and
in situational factors.
embarrassment.
2. Intimacy also can threaten Psychotherapy
security, as young adolescents
seek intimate friendships with  Therapist is a participant observer
other gender adolescents. who establishes an interpersonal
3. Intimacy and lust are frequently relationship with the patient and
in conflict during early provides opportunity for syntaxic
adolescence. communication.
 Sullivanian therapist attempt to
Late Adolescence
help patients develop foresight
 Age 15 and up discover difficulties in interpersonal
 Intimacy and lust are experienced relations, and restore their ability to
participate in consensually
in the same person.
validated experiences.
 Completely determined by
interpersonal relations.
Critique of Sullivan
Adulthood
Sullivan’s Theory is:
 Successful completion of late
 Moderate on Organizing
adolescence culminates in
Knowledge, Guiding Action and
adulthood.
Internal Consistency.
 Marked by a stable love
 Low on Generating Research and
relationship.
Parsimony
 Mature adults are perceptive of
 Very low on Falsifiability
other people’s anxiety, needs, and
security.
Concept of Humanity

 Equal emphasis on Optimism and

Pessimism, Determinism and Free
Will and Teleology and Causality
 Unconscious over Conscious
 Social Influence over Biology
 Similarity over Uniqueness