FROMM: HUMANISTIC PSYCHOANALYSIS
PSYCH 303 – THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
ERICH FROMM: HUMANISTIC PSYCHOANALYSIS
TOPIC OUTLINE
1 Overview of Humanistic Psychoanalysis
2 Biography of Erich Fromm
3 Fromm’s Basic Assumptions
4 Human Needs
5 The Burden of Freedom
6 Character Orientations
7 Personality Disorders
8 Pychotherapy
9 Critique of Fromm
10 Concept of Humanity
OVERVIEW OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOANALYSIS
 Modern-day people have been torn away from their
prehistoric union with nature and also with one
another, yet they have the power of reasoning,
foresight, and imagination.
- 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
 His theory emphasizes the influence of sociobiological
factors, history, economics and class structure
 Humanistic Psychoanalysis – humanity’s separation
from the natural world has produced feelings of
loneliness and isolation (Basic Anxiety)
o Evolutionary view of humanity
- The combination of weak instincts and a highly
developed brain makes humans distinct from
all other animals
- Capitalism has contributed to the growth of
leisure time and personal freedom
- Has resulted in feelings of anxiety, isolation
and powerlessness
 This feeling of isolation has left people to engage in
two alternatives
1) Escape from freedom into interpersonal
dependencies
2) To move to self-realization through productive
love and work
BIOGRAPHY OF ERICH FROMM
 Fromm was born on March 23, 1900, in Frankfurt,
Germany, the only child of middle-class Orthodox
Jewish parents
 As a boy, Erich studied the Old Testament with several
prominent scholars
 Fromm’s humanistic psychology can be traced to the
reading of these prophets, “with their vision of
universal peace and harmony, and their teachings that
there are ethical aspects to history
 Fromm’s early childhood was less than ideal. He
recalled that he had “very neurotic parents” and that
he was “probably a rather unbearably neurotic child”
 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
 His questions about that girl of committed suicide
eventually led to an interest in Sigmund Freud and
psychoanalysis
 Adolescence: Fromm was deeply moved by the writings
of Freud and Karl Marx, but he was also stimulated by
differences between the two
 “I wanted to understand the laws that govern the life
of the individual man, and the laws of society”
 Fromm married Frieda Reichmann, his analyst, who
was more than 10 years his senior
 Reichmann was clearly a mother figure to Fromm and
that she even resembled his mother
 In both Chicago and New York, Fromm renewed his
acquaintance with Karen Horney, whom he had known
casually at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute. Horney,
who was 15 years older than Fromm, eventually
became a strong mother figure and mentor to him
 Although he and Horney had been lovers, by 1943
dissension within the association had made them rivals
 In 1944, Fromm married Henny Gurland, a woman two
years younger than Fromm and whose interest in
religion and mystical thought furthered Fromm’s own
inclinations toward Zen Buddhism
FROMM’S BASIC ASSUMPTIONS
 Individual personality can be understood only in the light
of human history. “The discussion of the human situation
must precede that of personality, [and] psychology must
be based on an anthropologic-philosophical concept of
human existence”
 Humans have been “torn away” from their prehistoric
union with nature. They have no powerful instincts to
adapt to a changing world; but 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
 Humans are able to reason (both a blessing and a curse).
This allows us to survive but it also forces us to attempt to
solve “existential otomies”
 We can’t do away these; we can only react to them
 1st and most fundamental existential dichotomy is that
between life and death
 2nd is that humans are capable of conceptualizing the goal
of complete self-realization; but aware that life is too short
to reach that goal
 3rd is that people are ultimately alone, yet we cannot
tolerate isolation
HUMAN NEEDS
 As animals, humans are motivated by such
physiological needs as hunger, sex, and safety;
but only distinct human needs/existential needs
can move people toward a reunion with the
natural world
 Healthy individuals are better able to find ways
of reuniting to the world by productively solving
the human needs, neurotics or insane are not
RELATEDNESS  The drive for union with another
person or other persons
 Can be pursued productively or
nonproductively
3 basic ways in which a person
may relate to the world:
1. A person can submit to
another, to a group, or to an
institution in order to
become one with the world
2. The person experiences his
identity in connection with
the power to which he has
submitted
3. Submissive people search
for a relationship with
domineering partners
 Power - seekers welcome
relationship with submissive
partners
 Submissive + Domineering =
Symbiotic Relationship
 Satisfying but it blocks
psychological health
 Satisfying their craving for
closeness, yet suffering from
the lack of inner strength
and self-reliance which
would require freedom and
independence
 Drawn to one another not by
love but by a desperate need
for relatedness… need that
can never be satisfied by
such relationship
 Underlying the union are
unconscious feelings of
hostility. People in symbiotic
relationships blame their
partners for not being able
to completely satisfy their
needs
 Love is the “union with
somebody, or something outside
oneself under the condition of
retaining the separateness and
integrity of one’s own self”
 It is the only route to uniting
with the world and achieving
individuality and integrity
 Involves sharing and
communion with another,
yet it allows a person the
freedom to be unique and
separate
 In love, two people become
one yet remain two; it
satisfies the need for
relatedness
 1
Care, 2
responsibility,
3
respect, and 4knowledge as
four basic elements
common to all forms of
genuine love
TRANSCENDENCE  The urge to rise above a
passive and accidental
existence and into “the realm
of purposefulness and
freedom”
 Can be pursued positively or
negatively
 Humans are thrown into the
world without their consent
or will and then removed
from it—again without their
consent or will. But unlike
animals, human beings are
driven by the need for
transcendence
  People can transcend their
passive nature by either
creating life or by destroying
it
 Only humans, unlike animals,
are aware of themselves as
creators
 To create means to be active
and to care about that which
we create. But we can also
transcend life by destroying it
and thus rising above our
slain victims.
 Only humans are able to use
malignant aggression (to kill
for reasons other than
survival).
 Although malignant
aggression is a dominant and
powerful passion in some
individuals and cultures, it is
not common to all humans
ROOTEDNESS  The need to establish roots or
to feel at home again in the
world
 Can be sought productively
or nonproductively
 As human evolve they lost
their home in natural world
and they have the capacity
for thought to realize that
they have without
home/roots. The consequent
feelings of isolation and
helplessness became
unbearable
 With the productive strategy,
people are weaned from the
orbit of their mother and
become fully born. They
actively and creatively relate
to the world. With sense of
belongingness and
rootedness
 Nonproductive strategy of
seeking for rootedness—
fixation—a tenacious
reluctance to move beyond
the protective security
provided by one’s mother
 Have a deep craving to be
mothered, nursed, and
protected by a motherly
figure; externally dependent
ones, who are frightened and
insecure when motherly
protection is withdrawn
 Rootedness can also be seen
phylogenetically in the
evolution of the human
species. Fromm agreed with
Freud that incestuous desires
are universal, but he
disagreed with Freud’s belief
that they are essentially
sexual
 To Fromm, incestuous
feelings are based in “the
deep-seated craving to
remain in, or to return to, the
all-enveloping womb, or to
the all-nourishing breasts.”
 Fromm was influenced by
Johann Jakob Bachofen’s
ideas on early matriarchal
societies—mother was the
central figure in these
ancient social groups. It was
she who provided roots
 Oedipus complex—a desire
to return to mother’s womb
or breast
SENSE OF  The capacity to be aware of
IDENTITY ourselves as a separate entity
 Because we have been torn
away from nature, we need
to form a concept of our self,
to be able to say, “I am I,” or
“I am the subject of my
actions”
 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.
 Neurotics try to attach
themselves to powerful
people or to social or political
institutions. Healthy people
have less need to conform to
the herd, less need to give up
 their sense of self just to fit in
to the society
FRAME OF  Being split off from nature,
ORIENTATION humans need a road map, a
frame of orientation, to make
their way through the world.
Without it, humans would be
“confused and unable to act
purposefully and
consistently”
 People with solid frame of
orientation can make sense
of the events and
phenomena
 But those who lack a reliable
frame of orientation will
strive to put these events
into some sort of framework
in order to make sense of
them
 People will do nearly
anything to acquire and
retain a frame of orientation,
even to the extreme of
following irrational or bizarre
philosophies such as those
espoused by fanatical
political and religious leaders
 A road map without a goal or
destination is worthless
 To keep from going insane,
however, they need a final
goal or “object of devotion.”
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 their
lives.
THE BURDEN OF FREEDOM
 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 freaks of the universe
 Reason is both a curse and a blessing. It is responsible
for feelings of isolation and loneliness, but it is also
enables humans to become reunited with the world.
 Historically, as people gained more and more
economic and political freedom, they came to feel
increasingly more isolated
 As they gain freedom to move socially and
geographically, they found that they’re no longer tied
to one geographic region, or one social order. They
became separated from their roots and isolated from
one another
 This burden of freedom results in basic anxiety, the
feeling of being alone in the world
MECHANISM OF ESCAPE
 Because basic anxiety produces a frightening sense
of isolation and aloneness, people attempt to flee
from freedom through a variety of escape
mechanisms
 Unlike Horney’s neurotic trends, Fromm’s
mechanisms of escape are the driving forces in
normal people, both individually and collectively
1. AUTHORITARIANISM  “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”
This need to unite with a
powerful partner can take
one of 2 forms:
 Masochism results from
basic feelings of
powerlessness,
weakness, and
inferiority
  Often are disguised as
love or loyalty, but
unlike love and loyalty,
they can never
contribute positively to
independence and
authenticity
 Sadism is more
neurotic and more
socially harmful
 Like masochism,
sadism is aimed at
reducing basic anxiety
through achieving
unity with another
person or persons
3 kinds of sadistic
tendencies:
 First is the need to make
others dependent on
oneself and to gain power
over those who are weak.
 Second is the compulsion to
exploit others, to take
advantage of them, and to
use them for one’s benefit
or pleasure.
 Third is the desire to see
others suffer, either
physically or
psychologically
2. DESTRUCTIVENESS  Like authoritarianism,
destructiveness is rooted in
the feelings of aloneness,
isolation, and
powerlessness. But it does
not depend on a continuous
relationship with another
person; rather, it seeks to
do away with other people
 By destroying people and
objects, a person or a nation
attempts to restore lost
feelings of power
3. 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.
 They seldom express their
own opinion, cling to
expected standards of
behaviour
 The more they conform, the
more powerless they feel…
the more they must
conform. People can break
this cycle of conformity and
powerlessness only by
achieving self-realization or
positive 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
 Positive freedom represents a successful solution to
the human dilemma of being part of the natural world
and yet separate from it
 Through positive freedom and spontaneous activity,
people overcome the terror of aloneness, achieve
union with the world, and maintain individuality
 Love and work are the twin components of positive
freedom
CHARACTER ORIENTATIONS
 Personality is reflected in one’s character orientation, that
is, 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
 Character, defined as “the relatively permanent system of
all noninstinctual strivings through which man relates
himself to the human and natural world”
 Character is a substitute for lack of instincts. Instead of
acting according to their instincts, people act according to
their character.
 By acting according to their character traits, humans can
behave both efficiently and consistently
 People relate to the world in two ways—by acquiring and
using things (assimilation) and by relating to self and
others (socialization).
 People can relate to things and to people either
nonproductively or productively
Nonproductive Orientations
 Strategies that fail to move people closer to positive
freedom and self-realization
 People can acquire things through any one of four
nonproductive orientations:
Receptive  Feel that the source of all good lies
Character outside themselves and that the only
way they can relate to the world is to
receive things, including love,
knowledge, and material possessions
 Negative qualities include passivity,
submissiveness, and lack of self-
confidence.
 Positive traits are loyalty, acceptance,
and trust
Exploitative  Believe that the source of all good is
Character outside themselves
 They aggressively take what they desire
rather than passively receive it
 Negative sides are egocentric,
conceited, arrogant, and seducing
 Positive side, impulsive, proud,
charming, and self-confident
Hoarding  Rather than valuing things outside
Character themselves, hoarding characters seek
to save that which they have already
obtained
 They hold everything inside and do not
let go of anything. They keep money,
feelings, and thoughts to themselves
 In a love relationship, they try to
possess the loved one and to preserve
the relationship rather than allowing it
to change and grow. They tend to live
in the past and are repelled by anything
new
 They are similar to Freud’s anal
characters in that they are excessively
orderly, stubborn, and miserly
 Negative include rigidity, sterility,
obstinacy, compulsivity, and lack of
creativity
 Positive, orderliness, cleanliness, and
punctuality
Marketing  Marketing characters see themselves
Character as commodities, with their personal
value dependent on their exchange
value, that is, their ability to sell
themselves
 Marketing, or exchanging, personalities
must see themselves as being in
constant demand; they must make
others believe that they are skillful and
salable
 They play many roles and are guided by
the motto
 “‘I am as you desire me’”
 Marketing people are without a past or
a future and have no permanent
principles or values
 They are basically empty vessels
waiting to be filled with whatever
characteristic is most marketable
 Negative traits are aimless,
opportunistic, inconsistent, and
wasteful
 Positive qualities include changeability,
open-mindedness, adaptability, and
generosity
Productive Orientation
 Working, Loving, Reasoning/thinking
 Because productive people work toward positive
freedom and a continuing realization of their potential,
they are the most healthy of all character types. Only
through productive activity can people solve the basic
human dilemma: that is, to unite with the world and
with others while retaining uniqueness and individuality
 Healthy people value 1work not as an end in itself, but
as a means of creative self-expression. They use work as
a means of producing life’s necessities
 Productive 2love is characterized by the four qualities of
love discussed earlier—care, responsibility, respect,
and knowledge. In addition, healthy people possess
Biophilia: that is, a passionate love of life and all that is
alive. Life of people, animals, plants, ideas, and cultures
 Biophilic individuals want to influence people through
love, reason, and example—not by force
 Productive 3thinking, which cannot be separated from
productive work and love, 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  The result is depression, worthlessness.
be… and they know themselves Although depression, intense guilt, and
hypochondriasis may appear to be
anything but self-glorification

PERSONALITY DISORDERS 3)  Extreme dependence on the mother or

 If healthy people are able to work, love, and think Incestuous mother surrogate
productively, then unhealthy personalities are marked by Symbiosis  An exaggerated form of the more
problems in these three areas, especially failure to love
common and more benign mother
productively (failed to establish union with others)
fixation
 Men with a mother fixation need a
3 SEVERE PERSONALITY DISORDER woman to care for them, and admire
(1)  Denote any attraction to death. People them; feel anxious and depressed when
Necrophilia naturally love life, but when social their needs are not fulfilled. This
conditions stunt biophilia, they may condition is relatively normal and does
adopt a necrophilic orientation. not greatly interfere with their daily life
 Necrophilic personalities hate  Their personalities are blended with the
humanity; racists, bullies; they love other person and their individual
destruction, terror, and torture; and identities are lost
they delight in destroying life  People living in incestuous symbiotic
 They do not simply behave in a relationships feel extremely anxious
destructive manner; rather, their and frightened if that relationship is
destructive behavior is a reflection of threatened. They believe that they
their basic character. cannot live without their mother
substitute. (The host can also be a
(2) Malignant  Healthy people manifest a benign form family, a business, a church, or a
Narcissism of narcissism—interest in their own nation.)
body. However, in its malignant form,  Some pathologic individuals possess all
narcissism impedes the perception of three personality disorders
reality so that everything belonging to  Such people formed what Fromm called
them is highly valued and everything the syndrome of decay (opposite of
belonging to others is devalued. syndrome of growth. Both are extreme
 Preoccupied with themselves forms of development. Most people
 Preoccupation with one’s body often have just average psychological health)
leads to hypochondriasis, or an
obsessive attention to one’s health.
Fromm also discussed moral
hypochondriasis or a preoccupation
with guilt about previous transgressions
 The same with Neurotic Claims. They
achieve security by holding on to the
distorted belief that their extraordinary
personal qualities give them superiority
over everyone else.
 “Everything I am and I have is wonderful
and I must do everything to prove it.”
 When efforts are criticized, they react
with anger and rage and take revenge.
If criticism is too overwhelming and
they can’t take revenge, they turn the
rage inward.
 PSYCHOTHERAPY
 He was once Freudian in his approach. He then evolved his
own system of therapy, which he called humanistic
psychoanalysis.
 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.
 Patients come to therapy seeking satisfaction of their basic
human needs. Therefore, therapy should be built on a
personal relationship between therapist and patient
 Therapist must relate “as one human being to another
with utter concentration and utter sincerity”
 In this spirit of relatedness, the patient will once again feel
at one with another person
 Fromm asked patients to reveal their dreams
Summary
 Client: seeking satisfaction of human needs
 Therapy Aim: Know themselves (self-knowledge)
 Relationship: Should then be person-to-person
o Should then not consider client as ill
 Experience: once again feel at one with another person
 Techniques: Reveal dreams
o Should not be too scientific, but with…
o Attitude of relatedness (Through relatedness client
can be truly understood)
CONCEPT OF HUMANITY
 Human beings, then, are the freaks of nature, the
only species ever to have evolved this combination
of minimal instinctive powers and maximal brain
development
 Lacking the capacity to act by the command of
instincts while possessing the capacity for self-
awareness, reason, and imagination . . . the human
species needed a frame of orientation and an object
of devotion in order to survive
 Survival has been paid for by the price of basic
anxiety
 People have been faced with the same fundamental
problem: how to escape from feelings of isolation
and find unity with nature and with other people.
 Both pessimistic and optimistic
 Middle free choice vs. determinism
 Slightly favored teleology than causality
 Middle but slightly favored conscious than
unconscious
 Social (culture, history) than biological
 Moderate emphasis on similarities (sharing the same
human needs) but also give room on uniqueness

CRITIQUE OF FROMM

1. Generate research – nearly steriled

2. Falsifiability – Finding of his theory can be explained
by other theories
3. Organize Knowledge –
4. Practice Guide to Action – others didn’t receive
much practical info
5. Internally consistent – Low
6. Parsimonious – Low