ERICH FROMM: BIOGRAPHY, THEORIES, CONTRIBUTIONS, WORKS - PSYCHOLOGY - 2024

Erich Fromm (1900 - 1980) was a German-born American psychoanalyst famous for exploring the relationship between the human mind and the society in which we live. His main idea was that if we apply the principles of psychoanalysis to social problems, we could end up developing a healthy culture that fosters our strengths.

Erich Fromm obtained a doctorate from the University of Heidelberg in 1922, and later began training in psychoanalysis at the University of Munich and at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute. He studied directly under the tutelage of Sigmund Freud, but soon began to differ with him in some key areas of his theory.

Painting by Erich Fromm. Source: Arturo Espinosa / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)

While for Freud the only important thing was to understand biological impulses and their effect on our mind, Erich Fromm believed that social factors also had a very important weight, even determining the development of our personality. After his exile to the United States to avoid the Nazi regime in 1933, he definitely came into conflict with traditional psychoanalytic circles.

Throughout his life Erich Fromm developed numerous theories about the relationship between people and society and the one they live in, and published works such as The fear of freedom (1941), The rope society (1955) or The art of loving (1956). His theories and contributions continue to be of great importance today.

Biography

Early years

Erich Fromm was born on March 23, 1900 in Frankfurt, Germany, into a family of Orthodox Jews. As he would later say in his own testimonies, his parents were "highly neurotic," and because of this and the circumstances surrounding his early years he had a difficult and unhappy childhood.

When he was only 14 years old, Erich Fromm began to worry about current affairs in a forced way due to the outbreak of World War I. At this time he began to be interested in issues such as group behavior, and to try to answer his questions he read the works of authors such as Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud.

Once he was old enough, he began studying law at the University of Frankfurt, but after just two semesters he decided to change course and ended up graduating in sociology from the University of Heidelberg. In 1922 he obtained his doctorate under the tutelage of the famous psychologist Alfred Weber.

A couple of years later, in 1924, Erich Fromm decided to continue training and began studying psychoanalysis at the University of Frankfurt. Shortly after, he moved to Berlin to complete his training at the Institute of Psychoanalysis in the German capital. At this time he was still following the official doctrine of the discipline, although he was already beginning to disagree with some of Freud's ideas.

Two years later, in 1926, Fromm married Freida Reichmann, a woman 10 years older than him and who had previously been his therapist. The marriage did not last long, since after four years they ended up divorcing.

Professional life

Throughout his life, Erich Fromm had a very prolific career that ranged from teaching practice at different universities to publishing several books on his theories, going through the practice of psychotherapy privately. Much of his professional life was spent in America, after moving to the United States to avoid the Nazi regime.

After moving to the United States, Fromm began teaching at different universities in the country, including those in New York, Columbia, and Yale. However, his criticisms of Freud's theories soon earned him the enmity of psychoanalysts in the country, and in 1944 the New York Psychoanalytic Institute forbade him to continue supervising students.

Mexico

In that same year, Erich Fromm managed to become a US citizen, remarried, and moved to Mexico to try to improve the health of his wife, who suffered from a delicate condition. There he began to teach at the Autonomous University of Mexico, and after his wife's death in 1952 he founded the Mexican Institute of Psychoanalysis, where he continued to serve as director until 1976.

During the following years he continued teaching both in Mexico and in the United States, practiced private psychoanalysis and published several works on different topics, including some as varied as freedom, love or the influence of society. in the human mind.

Erich Fromm eventually moved to Muralto, Switzerland, in 1974. He remained there until his death in 1980.

Theories

Erich Fromm. Source: Müller-May / Rainer Funk

Erich Fromm's first really important work was his book Fear of Freedom (1941). In it you could already see the beginning of what would be the signs of his career: a great understanding of the relationship between society and the psychology of each individual, as well as a great criticism of the politics of his time and the search for answers about human nature.

In fact, this work is considered one of those that founded what would later be known as political psychology. His next book, Ethics and Society (1947), continued to expand the ideas of this early work. In both, Fromm's theory of human nature can be clearly seen, which for him was determined by both biology and society.

Humanistic philosophy

One of the most important points in Fromm's humanistic philosophy is his interpretation of the biblical story of Adam and Eve, and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. According to him, history would be a way of transmitting the existential anxiety that the first humans would have felt when they became aware of their role in nature.

According to Fromm, the discovery that humans are living beings largely separated from nature is a major source of shame and guilt. The solution to this problem according to the author is the development of some human capacities such as reason and love, understood in this case as something positive.

Ideas about love

The traditional psychoanalytic view viewed love as considerably negative, and based solely on the most basic instincts of human beings. Erich Fromm, however, had a totally different view of this emotion and considered it primarily positive.

In his famous book The Art of Loving (1956) Fromm defended the idea that love is actually an interpersonal creative capacity instead of being a simple emotion.

For this author, the experience of falling in love was actually a sign that they had not understood what romantic love really was, that it was made up of elements such as responsibility, respect, knowledge and care.

Freedom

Freedom was another of the central aspects of Erich Fromm's theory. For this psychoanalyst, humans can only take two positions regarding this aspect of our nature: accept our free will or flee from it.

In the event that we accept our freedom, we will have to face our own responsibility, but in the long term we will achieve a healthy mental state that will allow us to live a good life. On the contrary, Fromm believed that by escaping from our freedom we will end up suffering psychological conflicts due to our avoidance mechanisms.

In this sense, Erich Fromm described three different escape mechanisms:

- Automatic conformity, or changing oneself to fit what society expects of each individual. With this avoidance mechanism we lose our identity, but we shift the burden of our own choices onto society.

- Authoritarianism, or giving control of one's life to another. In this way, freedom of choice is lost, with all that this entails.

- Destructivity, or the attempt to end others and the world as a whole to avoid the existential horror that freedom entails.

In this short interview Fromm talks about some of his ideas:

Contributions

Social critic

Erich Fromm not only developed multiple sociological and psychoanalytic theories, but he was an important social critic and a very active person in the field of politics. He was known for being one of the defenders of the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School, and promoted all kinds of ideas very unusual in his time.

Contributions to Freudian psychoanalysis

The figure of Fromm was also extremely controversial in some areas especially for his criticism of the theories of Sigmund Freud, the creator of psychoanalysis and one of the most important figures of the time. Fromm pointed out some contradictions in the ideas of this psychoanalyst, which earned him the enmity of many scholars of this discipline.

However, at all times Fromm showed great respect for the figure of Freud, even saying that he had been one of the founders of modern thought along with Albert Einstein and Karl Marx.

Politic ideology

On the other hand, Erich Fromm was frontally against both capitalism and Soviet communism, and defended an ideology based on freedom and individual responsibility along with caring for others.

Plays

- The fear of freedom (1941).

- Ethics and society (1947).

- Psychoanalysis and religion (1950).

- The sane society (1955).

- The art of loving (1956).

References

1. "Biography of Social Psychologist Erich Fromm" in: VeryWell Mind. Retrieved on: April 24, 2020 from VeryWell Mind: verywellmind.com.
2. "Erich Fromm" in: Britannica. Retrieved on: April 24, 2020 from Britannica: britannica.com.
3. "Erich Fromm Biography" in: Good Therapy. Retrieved on: April 24, 2020 from Good Therapy: goodtherapy.org.
4. "Erich Fromm" in: Famous Psychologists. Retrieved on: April 24, 2020 from Famous Psychologists: famouspsychologists.org.
5. "Erich Fromm" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: April 24, 2020 from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.