Erich Fromm's Humanistic Psychoanalysis PDF

1|Page HUMANISTIC PSYCHOANALYSIS The Life of Erich Fromm Born in Frankfurt, Germany Only child of a deeply orthodox Jewish family. The moral and committed tone of his writings has a quality that has been described as reminisce...

1|Page HUMANISTIC PSYCHOANALYSIS The Life of Erich Fromm Born in Frankfurt, Germany Only child of a deeply orthodox Jewish family. The moral and committed tone of his writings has a quality that has been described as reminiscent of the Old Testament prophets. He described his early family life as tense and acknowledged that his parents were probably neurotic. He saw his father as moody and his mother as prone to depression. Also, he sees himself as “probably a rather unbearable neurotic child.” He grew up in two very distinct worlds, one the traditional Orthodox Jewish world, the other the modern capitalist world. This split existence created tensions that were nearly unendurable, but it generated in Fromm a lifelong tendency to see events from more than one perspective. During adolescence, Fromm was deeply moved by the writings of Freud and Karl Marx, but he was stimulated by differences between the two. He wanted to understand the laws that govern the life of the individual man, and the laws of society. After World War I, he became a socialist. He concentrated on his studies in psychology, philosophy, and sociology at the University of Heidelberg, where he received his PhD in sociology at either age 22 or 25. From 1925 until 1930, he studied psychoanalysis. Although he wasn’t able to meet Freud, most of his teachers were strict adherents of Freudian theory In 1926, he married Frieda Reichmann, his analyst, who was more than 10 years his senior. Their marriage was not a happy one and they got separated in 1930 but were not divorced until much later. In 1934, he immigrated to the United States and opened a private practice in New York City. In both Chicago and New York, Fromm renewed his acquaintance with Karen Horney who was 15 years older than him. In 1941, Fromm joined Horney in her Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis. Although they had been lovers, by 1943, dissension within the association had made them rivals. Compiled by: Ms. Laarni D. Muzones, MSPsy, RPsy PERTHE230 Theories of Personality 2|Page In 1944, he married Henny Gurland, a woman two years younger than him and whose interest in religion and mystical thought furthered Fromm’s own inclinations toward Zen Buddhism. Henny and Fromm moved to Mexico for a more favorable climate since his wife is suffering with rheumatoid arthritis. His wife died in the year 1952. While in Mexico, he met Annis Freeman, whom he married in 1953. In 1968, he suffered a serious heart attack and was forced to slow down his busy schedule. He died March 18, 1980, a few days short of his 80th birthday. Humanistic Psychoanalysis A personality theory that emphasizes the influence of sociobiological factors, history, economics, and class structure. It assumes that humanity’s separation from the natural world has produced feelings of loneliness and isolation, a condition called basic anxiety. When humans emerged as a separate species in animal evolution, they lost most of their animal instincts but gained an increase in brain development that permitted self-awareness, imagination, planning, and doubt. This makes man distinct from other animals. A more recent event in human history has been the rise of capitalism, which had positive and negative contributions. Leisure time and personal freedom (positive) Feelings of anxiety, isolation, and powerlessness (negative) The isolation wrought by capitalism has been unbearable, leaving people with two alternatives: To escape from freedom into interpersonal dependencies To move to self-realization through productive love and work. Basic Assumption Individual personality can be understood only in the light of human history. For Fromm, Psychology must be based on an anthropological philosophical concept of human existence. Fromm believed that humans, unlike other animals, have been “torn away” from their prehistoric union with nature. Compiled by: Ms. Laarni D. Muzones, MSPsy, RPsy PERTHE230 Theories of Personality 3|Page Humans have no powerful instincts but they have acquired the facility to reason – a condition Fromm called as HUMAN DILEMMA. Human Dilemma People experience this dilemma because they have become separate from nature and yet have the capacity to be aware of themselves as isolated beings. Reason permits people to survive however, it forces them to attempt to solve basic insoluble dichotomies which Fromm referred to as EXISTENTIAL DICHOTOMIES. Reason is both a blessing and a curse. Existential Dichotomies 1. Life and Death. Self-awareness and reason tell us that we will die, but we try to negate this dichotomy by postulating life after death. 2. Conceptualizing the goal of complete self-realization, but we also are aware that life is too short to reach that goal. 3. People are ultimately alone, yet we cannot tolerate isolation. Existential Needs These needs must be met in order for a person to develop fully. Our primary drive is toward the affirmation of life, but unless we can structure our lives in such a way that our basic needs are fulfilled constructively, we either die or become insane. According to Fromm, existential needs grow out of humans’ attempt to find an answer to their existence and to avoid becoming insane: A. Relatedness -The drive for union with another person or other persons. Basic ways to relate to the world: Submission - Becoming a part of somebody or something bigger than one’s self. Power - Power seekers welcome submissive partners thereby establishing a Symbiotic relationship. Symbiotic relationship means one that is satisfying to both partners. People in symbiotic relationships are drawn to one another not by love but a desperate need for relatedness, a need that can never be Compiled by: Ms. Laarni D. Muzones, MSPsy, RPsy PERTHE230 Theories of Personality 4|Page completely satisfied by such a partnership. There is unconscious feelings of hostility. Love - The only route in becoming united with the world and at the same time achieve individuality & integrity Fromm defined love as a “union with somebody, or something outside oneself under the condition of retaining the separateness and integrity of one’s own self”. Involves sharing and communion yet allowing freedom to be unique and separate. In love, two people become one yet remain two. The Art of Loving involves key elements: Someone who loves another person must CARE for that person and be willing to take care of him or her. Love also mean RESPONSIBILITY, that is, a willingness and ability to respond A person who loves others respond to their physical and psychological needs, RESPECT them for who they are, and avoids the temptation of trying to change them. But people can respect others only if they have the KNOWLEDGE of them. To know others means to see them from their own point of view. B. Transcendence - The urge to rise above a passive and accidental existence and into “the realm of purposefulness and freedom”. People can transcend their passive nature by either creating (productive) or destroying life (non-productive). C. Rootedness - The need to establish roots or to feel at home again the world. It can either be productive or nonproductive: Actively & creatively relate to the world and become whole or integrated. (productive) Fixation – a tenacious reluctance to move beyond the protective security provided by one’s mother. (nonproductive) Compiled by: Ms. Laarni D. Muzones, MSPsy, RPsy PERTHE230 Theories of Personality 5|Page D. Sense of Identity - The capacity to be aware of ourselves as separate entity. Without a sense of identity, people could not retain their sanity, and this threat provides a powerful motivation to do almost anything to acquire a sense of identity. E. Frame of Orientation - Enables people to organize the various stimuli that impinge on them. A consistent way of looking at things. People who possess a solid frame of reference can make sense of events and phenomena but those who lack a reliable frame of reference will nevertheless, strive to put events into some sort of framework in order to make sense of these events. Whereas neurotics have a road map without goal or his destination is worthless. The Burden of FREEDOM Freedom allows people to express individuality, to move around unsupervised, to choose our friends, clothes, and so on. At the same time, we experience the burden of freedom which results in basic anxiety, the feeling of being alone in the world. Compiled by: Ms. Laarni D. Muzones, MSPsy, RPsy PERTHE230 Theories of Personality 6|Page Fromm began with the thesis (1941) that freedom is a basic human condition that posits a “psychological problem.” As the human race has gained more freedom by transcending nature and other animals, people have increasingly experienced feelings of separation and isolation. Thus, the major theme of Fromm’s writings is his concept of loneliness. To be human is to be isolated and lonely, because one is distinct from nature and others. The condition of loneliness finds its ultimate expression in the problem of knowing that we are going to die. This knowledge leads to feelings of despair, for most of us find death incomprehensible and unjust –the ultimate expression of our loneliness. Two alternatives: (1) Humans can work with one another in a spirit of love to create a society that will optimally fulfill their needs, or (2) They can escape from the burden of freedom into new dependencies and submission. Such escape may alleviate feelings of isolation but it does not creatively meet the needs of humanity or lead to optimum personality development. Escape Mechanisms Escape mechanisms are attempts to flee from freedom. These are the driving forces in normal people both individually and collectively. Three common mechanisms of escape from freedom: authoritarianism, destructiveness, and automaton conformity. These mechanisms do not resolve the underlying problem of loneliness; they merely mask it. Authoritarianism offers escape from the problem of freedom through submitting to a new form of domination. o Individuals may permit others to dominate them or may seek to dominate and control the behavior of others. o The root of tendency comes from the inability to bear isolation of being an individual self and from an effort to find a solution through symbiosis, the union of one’s self with another person or with an outside power. o Common feature: The belief that one’s life is determined by forces outside one’s self, one’s interests, or one’s wishes, and that the only way to be happy is to submit to those forces. Compiled by: Ms. Laarni D. Muzones, MSPsy, RPsy PERTHE230 Theories of Personality 7|Page o This can take one of two forms: Masochism or Sadism Destructiveness offers escape from the problem of freedom through the elimination of others and/or the outside world. o Fromm believed that signs of destructiveness are pervasive in the world, although this escape mechanism is frequently rationalized or masked as love, duty, conscience, or patriotism. Automaton conformity where the individuals cease to be themselves and adopt a type of personality proffered by the culture in which they live. o Like a chameleon that changes its color to blend in with its surroundings, they become indistinguishable from the millions of other conforming automatons in their world. o Such individuals may no longer feel alone and anxious, but they pay a high price: “The loss of the self” The mechanisms of escape do not offer satisfactory solutions. They do not lead to happiness and positive freedom. By relating spontaneously to love and to work and by genuinely expressing our emotional, sensual, and intellectual abilities, however, we can become one again with other human beings, nature, and ourselves without foregoing the independence and integrity of our individual selves. Character Orientations A person’s relatively permanent way of relating to people and things. Fromm defined personality as “the totality of inherited and acquired psychic qualities which are characteristic of one individual and which make the individual unique”. The most important of the acquired qualities of personality is character –the relatively permanent system of all non-instinctual strivings through which man relates himself to the human and natural world. People can relate to things and to people either nonproductively or productively. Compiled by: Ms. Laarni D. Muzones, MSPsy, RPsy PERTHE230 Theories of Personality 8|Page Nonproductive Character Orientations Receptive Receptive personalities believe that the only way they can obtain something they want is to receive it from an outside source; they react passively, waiting to be loved. Exploitative Exploitative personalities take the things they want by force or cunning; they exploit others for their own ends. Hoarding Hoarding personalities hoard and save what they already have; they surround themselves with a wall and are miserly in their relations to others Marketing Marketing personalities experience themselves as commodities on the market; they may be described as opportunistic chameleons, changing their colors and values as they perceive the forces of the market to change. The Productive Person Productive personalities value themselves and others for who they are; they relate to the world by accurately perceiving it and by enriching it through their own creative powers. Productive character orientation has three dimensions: Product Work, Productive Love, and Productive Thinking o Productive Work -Healthy people value WORK not as an end in itself, but as a means of creative self-expression. They do not work to exploit others, to market themselves, to withdraw from others, or to accumulate needless material possessions. They work as a means of producing life’s necessities. o Productive Love - Characterizes by the four qualities of love: care, responsibility, respect, and knowledge. In addition, healthy people possess BIOPHILIA –a passionate love of life and all that is alive. ▪ Love of others and self-love are inseparable but that self-love must come first. ▪ All people have the capacity for productive love, but most do not achieve it because they cannot first love themselves. ▪ Productive, Biophilous people comprehend the world through love, which enables them to break down the walls that separate people. ▪ Productive love is an art as Fromm asserted. Compiled by: Ms. Laarni D. Muzones, MSPsy, RPsy PERTHE230 Theories of Personality 9|Page o Productive Thinking - Productive thinking is motivated by a concerned interest in another person or object. Healthy people see others as they are and not as they would wish them to be. They know themselves for who they are and have no need for self-delusion. Productive thinking cannot be separated from productive love and work. Personality Disorders Fromm held that psychologically disturbed people are incapable of love and have failed to establish union with others. Hence, personality disorders develops. Necrophilia –an alternative character orientation to biophilia. Necrophilics hate humanity; they are racists, warmongers, and bullies. Their entire lifestyle revolves around death, destruction, disease, and decay. Malignant 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 people possess what Horney called “neurotic claims” Incestuous Symbiosis –an extreme dependence on the mother or mother surrogate. People living in incestuous symbiotic relationships feel extremely anxious and frightened if that relationship is threatened. Their incestuous orientation distorts reasoning powers, destroys the capacity for authentic love, and prevents people from achieving independence and integrity. For Fromm, we can master its theory and practice only if we make love a matter of ultimate concern. Productive love is the true creative answer to human loneliness References: Feist J. et. al (2013). Theories of Personality 8th Edition. McGraw-Hill Education. Schultz & Schultz (2013). Theories of Personality 10th Edition. Cengage Learning Compiled by: Ms. Laarni D. Muzones, MSPsy, RPsy PERTHE230 Theories of Personality