TOP Midterm Lecture: Fromm (PDF)

T.O.P. Midterm Lecture Chapter 6: Fromm | Humanistic Psychoanalysis Samantha Kim A. de Vera, RPm, RGC 1 Contents I. Overview of Humanistic Psychoanalysis II. Biography of Erich Fromm III. Fromm’s Basic Assumptions IV. Human Needs...

T.O.P. Midterm Lecture Chapter 6: Fromm | Humanistic Psychoanalysis Samantha Kim A. de Vera, RPm, RGC 1 Contents I. Overview of Humanistic Psychoanalysis II. Biography of Erich Fromm III. Fromm’s Basic Assumptions IV. Human Needs V. The Burden of Freedom VI. Character Orientations VII. Personality Disorders VIII. Psychotherapy IX. Related Research X. Critique of Adler XI. Concept of Humanity 2 I. Overview of Humanistic Psychoanalysis The lack of animal instincts and presence of rational thought makes humans the freaks of the universe. Self-awareness contributes to feelings of loneliness, isolation, and homelessness. To escape from these feelings, people strive to become reunited with nature and with their fellow human beings. Humanistic psychoanalysis assumes that humanity’s separation from the natural world has produced feelings of loneliness and isolation, a condition called basic anxiety. His humanistic psychoanalysis looks at people from a historical and cultural perspective rather than a strictly psychological one. 3 II. Biography of Erich Fromm Fromm was born on March 23, 1900, in Frankfurt, Germany, the only child of middle-class Orthodox Jewish parents. Hornstein (2000) listed a number of opposing traits that have been used to describe his personality. According to this account, Fromm was authoritarian, gentle, pretentious, arrogant, pious, autocratic, shy, sincere, phony, and brilliant. Landis and Tauber (1971) listed five important influences on Fromm’s thinking: (1) the teachings of the humanistic rabbis; (2) the revolutionary spirit of Karl Marx; (3) the equally revolutionary ideas of Sigmund Freud; (4) the rationality of Zen Buddhism as espoused by D. T. Suzuki; and (5) the writings of Johann Jakob Bachofen (1815– 1887) on matriarchal societies 4 III. Fromm’s Basic Assumptions People have no powerful instincts to adapt to a changing world; instead, they have acquired the facility to reason — a condition Fromm called the human dilemma. 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. The human ability to reason, therefore, is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it permits people to survive, but on the other, it forces them to attempt to solve basic insoluble dichotomies. Fromm referred to these as “existential dichotomies” because they are rooted in people’s very existence. The first and most fundamental dichotomy is that between life and death. A second existential dichotomy is that humans are capable of conceptualizing the goal of complete self-realization, but we also are aware that life is too short to reach that goal. The third existential dichotomy is that people are ultimately alone, yet we cannot tolerate isolation. 5 IV. Human Needs 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 Fromm (1955) contended that one important difference between mentally healthy individuals and neurotic or insane ones is that healthy people find answers to their existence—answers that more completely correspond to their total human needs. Relatedness Transcendence Rootedness A Sense of Identity Frame of Orientation 6 IV. Human Needs The Five (5) Human Needs Relatedness. The drive for union with another person or other persons. Fromm postulated three basic ways in which a person may relate to the world: (1) submission, (2) power, and (3) love. When a submissive person and a domineering person find each other, they frequently establish a symbiotic relationship, one that is satisfying to both partners. 7 IV. Human Needs The Five (5) Human Needs Transcendence. The urge to rise above a passive and accidental existence and into “the realm of purposefulness and freedom” Fromm (1973) argued that humans are the only species to use malignant aggression: that is, to kill for reasons other than survival. Rootedness. The need to establish roots or to feel at home again in the world. Rootedness, too, can be sought in either productive or nonproductive strategies. With the productive strategy, people are weaned from the orbit of their mother and become fully born; that is, they actively and creatively relate to the world and become whole or integrated. Fixation. A tenacious reluctance to move beyond the protective security provided by one’s mother. 8 IV. Human Needs The Five (5) Human Needs Sense of Identity. The capacity to be aware of ourselves as a separate entity. Fromm (1981) believed that primitive people identified more closely with their clan and did not see themselves as individuals existing apart from their group. Frame of Orientation. Being split off from nature, humans need a road map, a frame of orientation, to make their way through the world. A frame of orientation enables people to organize the various stimuli that impinge on them. 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 to put these events into some sort of framework in order to make sense of them. For example, an American with a shaky frame of orientation and a poor understanding of history may attempt to understand the events of September 11, 2001, by blaming them on “evil” or “bad” people. 9 V. The Burden of Freedom The central thesis of Fromm’s writings is that humans have been torn from nature, yet they remain part of the natural world, subject to the same physical limitations as other animals. As the only animal possessing self-awareness, imagination, and reason, humans are “the freak[s] of the universe” Reason is both a curse and a blessing. As children become more independent of their mothers, they gain more freedom to express their individuality, to move around unsupervised, to choose their friends, clothes, and so on. At the same time, they experience the burden of freedom; that is, they are free from 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 feeling of being alone in the world. 10 V. The Burden of Freedom Mechanisms of Escape Fromm’s mechanisms of escape are the driving forces in normal people, both individually and collectively. Authoritarianism Destructiveness Conformity 11 V. The Burden of Freedom Mechanisms of Escape Authoritarianism. The “tendency to give up the independence of one’s own individual self and to fuse one’s self with somebody or something outside oneself, in order to acquire the strength which the individual is lacking” Two forms: Masochism results from basic feelings of powerlessness, weakness, and inferiority and is aimed at joining the self to a more powerful person or institution. Sadism is aimed at reducing basic anxiety through achieving unity with another person or persons. The first is the need to make others dependent on oneself and to gain power over those who are weak. The second is the compulsion to exploit others, to take advantage of them, and to use them for one’s benefit or pleasure. A third sadistic tendency is the desire to see others suffer, either physically or psychologically. 12 V. The Burden of Freedom Mechanisms of Escape Destructiveness. Rooted in the feelings of aloneness, isolation, and powerlessness. It does not depend on a continuous relationship with another person; rather, it seeks to do away with other people. Conformity. People who conform try to escape from a sense of aloneness and isolation by giving up their individuality and becoming whatever other people desire them to be. The more they conform, the more powerless they feel; the more powerless they feel, the more they must conform. 13 V. The Burden of Freedom Positive Freedom A person “can be free and not alone, critical and yet not filled with doubts, independent and yet an integral part of mankind” People can attain this kind of freedom, called positive freedom, by a spontaneous and full expression of both their rational and their emotional potentialities. Fromm (1941) held that love and work are the twin components of positive freedom. Through active love and work, humans unite with one another and with the world without sacrificing their integrity. 14 VI. Character Orientations A person’s relatively permanent way of relating to people and things. 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.” Character. “The relatively permanent system of all noninstinctual strivings through which man relates himself to the human and natural world.” 15 VI. Character Orientations 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 16 VI. Character Orientations Non-Productive Orientations Strategies that fail to move people closer to positive freedom and self-realization. Receiving things passively, Receptive Exploiting or taking things through force, Exploiting Hoarding objects, and Hoarding Marketing or exchanging things. Marketing 17 VI. Character Orientations Non-Productive Orientations Receptive. The source of all good lies outside themselves and that the only way they can relate to the world is to receive things, including love, knowledge, and material possessions. Exploitative. The source of all good is outside themselves. They aggressively take what they desire rather than passively receive it. 18 VI. Character Orientations Non-Productive Orientations Hoarding. Seek to save that which they have already obtained. They hold everything inside and do not let go of anything. Marketing. An outgrowth of modern commerce in which trade is no longer personal but carried out by large, faceless corporations. 19 VI. Character Orientations The Productive Orientations The single productive orientation has three dimensions — working, loving, and reasoning. Healthy people value work not as an end in itself, but as a means of creative self-expression. Productive love is characterized by the four qualities of love: Care, Responsibility, Respect, and Knowledge. 20 VI. Character Orientations The Productive Orientations Healthy people possess biophilia: that is, a passionate love of life and all that is alive. Productive thinking, which cannot be separated from productive work and love, is motivated by a concerned interest in another person or object. Fromm (1947) believed that healthy people rely on some combination of all five character orientations. 21  VII. 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: 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. Malignant Narcissism. An interest in one’s own body. Hypochondriasis. An obsessive attention to one’s health. Moral Hypochondriasis. A preoccupation with guilt about previous transgressions. Incestuous Symbiosis. An extreme dependence on the mother or mother surrogate. An exaggerated form of the more common and more benign mother fixation. Syndrome of decay. Some pathologic individuals possess all three personality disorders. Syndrome of growth. Made up of the opposite qualities: namely, biophilia, love, and positive freedom. 22  VIII. Psychotherapy Fromm was much more concerned with the interpersonal aspects of a therapeutic encounter. He believed that the aim of therapy is for patients to come to know themselves. Fromm believed that patients come to therapy seeking satisfaction of their basic human needs—relatedness, transcendence, rootedness, a sense of identity, and a frame of orientation. Fromm (1963) believed that therapists should not try to be too scientific in understanding a patient. Only with the attitude of relatedness can another person be truly understood. 23  IX. Fromm’s Methods of Investigation Fromm's personality theory rests on data he gathered from a variety of sources, including psychotherapy, cultural anthropology, and psychohistory. Social Character in a Mexican Village Fromm and his associates spent several years investigating social character in a isolated farming village in Mexico and found evidence of all the character orientations except the marketing one. A Psychohistorical Study of Hitler Fromm applied the techniques of psychohistory to the study of several historical people, including Adolf Hitler-the person Fromm regarded as the world's most conspicuous example of someone with the syndrome of decay, that is, necrophilia, malignant narcissism, and incestuous symbiosis. 24  X. Related Research Fromm's theory ranks near the bottom of personality theories with regard to stimulating research. Recently, Shaun Saunders and Don Munro have developed the Saunders Consumer Orientation Index (SCOI) to measure Fromm's marketing character. To date, much of their work has consisted in establishing the validity of this instrument. In general, Saunders has found that people with a strong consumer orientation tend to place low value on freedom, inner harmony, equality, self-respect, and community. 25  XI. Critique of Fromm The strength of Fromm's theory is his lucid writings on a broad range of human issues. As a scientific theory, however, Fromm's theory rates very low on its ability to generate research and to lend itself to falsification; it rates low on usefulness to the practitioner, internal consistency, and parsimony. Because it is quite broad in scope, Fromm's theory rates high on organizing existing knowledge. 26  XII. Concept of Humanity On the dimension of free choice versus determinism, Fromm took a middle position, insisting that this issue cannot be applied to the entire species. In general, Fromm was both pessimistic and optimistic. On the dimension of causality versus teleology, Fromm tended to slightly favor teleology. Fromm took a middle stance regarding conscious versus unconscious motivation, placing slightly more emphasis on conscious motivation and contending that one of the uniquely human traits is self-awareness. On the issue of social influences versus biological ones, Fromm placed somewhat more importance on the impact of history, culture, and society than on biology. Finally, whereas Fromm placed moderate emphasis on similarities among 27 people, he also allowed room for some individuality. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING! :) ANY QUESTIONS? 28