Narisma, Jamir Brian G.

Theories of Personality
PY22 Chapter 7

A. Fromm's Assumption on Human

According to Fromm, humans have been separated from their prehistoric union with
nature, leaving them with no strong instincts to adapt to a changing world. However, due
to the ability of humans to reason, they can consider their isolated situation. It's known as
the human dilemma. People face this basic dilemma because they have been separated
from nature while still having the ability to perceive themselves as isolated entities.
Because they are founded in people's own existence, Fromm referred to these as
"existential dichotomies." Humans cannot eliminate existential dichotomies; they can
only respond to them in relation to their culture and particular personalities.

B. Fromm's 5 Human or Existential Needs

According to Fromm, there are 5 human needs. The first one is relatedness. It can take
form through submission, power, or love. Submissive persons prefer relationships with
dominant people, whilst power seekers accept submissive companions. When a
submissive and a dominant person meet, they usually form a symbiotic connection that is
satisfying to both individuals. Although such a symbiotic relationship may be
pleasurable, it stifles growth toward integrity and psychological wellness. According to
Fromm, love is the only route by which a person can become united with the world and,
at the same time, achieve individuality and integrity. He stated that love is “union with
somebody, or something outside oneself under the condition of retaining the
separateness and integrity of one’s own self ”. The second one is transcendence.
Humans are motivated by the desire for transcendence, which is defined as the desire to
move beyond a passive and accidental existence and into "the realm of purposefulness
and freedom." To create implies to be engaged and concerned with what we make. Third
is rootedness. It is the desire to establish roots or to feel at home in the world again.
Humans lost their place in the natural world when they emerged as a separate species. At
the same time, their ability to think enabled them to recognize that they lacked a home
and roots. The feelings of isolation and helplessness that resulted were intolerable. People
may also seek rootedness through the counterproductive approach of fixation—a
stubborn refusal to go beyond the protective security afforded by one's mother.
According to Fromm (1955, pp. 40–41), 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.” The fourth one is sense of identity. It is the ability to recognize ourselves as a
distinct entity. Because we have been separated from nature, we must develop a sense of
 self in order to be able to say, "I am I," or "I am the subject of my actions." It is the
awareness of us being different from others. According to Fromm (1981), primitive
people associated more strongly with their clan and did not regard themselves as
individuals separate from their community. People would lose their sanity if they did not
have a sense of identity, and this threat gives a great motive to try nearly everything to
achieve a sense of identity. Neurotics try to identify with powerful people or social or
political institutions. The last one is frame of orientation. A frame of orientation allows
people to organize the numerous stimuli that bombard them. People with a strong frame
of orientation can make sense of these events and phenomena, while others without a
stable frame of orientation will try to fit these happenings into some form of framework
in order to make sense of them. According to Fromm, humans would be "confused and
unable to act purposefully and consistently" in the absence of such a map.

C. Examples for each of the above Human Needs

An example of relatedness is when a person who loves others attends to their physical
and psychological needs, accepts them as they are, and resists the impulse to try to
change them. However, people can only respect others if they are aware of them.
Knowing others entails seeing them from their own eyes. Thus, in a loving connection,
care, duty, respect, and knowledge are all intertwined. Nonproductively expressed when a
person cannot handle relationships.
An example of transcendence is when a person a religious person talks to his/her god. It
is a transcendent experience. A connection to a different entity that is not evident or seen
in our world. Nonproductively expressed when violence is evident in the belief system.
An example of rootedness is when a person feels belonged. It happens when a person
establish bonds or ties with others that provide emotional security and serve to reduce the
isolation and insignificance like belonging to a group of friends. Nonproductively
expressed when a person develops fixation or a tenacious reluctance to move beyond the
protective security provided by one’s mother. The person is only dependent to others.
An example of sense of identity is when a person feels unique than others. An
awareness in which a person can identify his or her own individuality compared to other.
Nonproductively expressed when a person struggles to know with his/her own identity
An example of frame of orientation is when a person strong cognitive skills that can
able to achieve the goals he/she may have set. Nonproductively expressed is when a
person always decides for irrational or indecisive decisions.

D. Why Freedom is a Burden?

Based on history, as people achieved more economic and political independence, they
began to feel more alienated. People had minimal personal independence, for example,
during the Middle Ages. They were attached to social roles that gave security,
 dependability, and predictability. Then, when they gained more flexibility to travel
socially and geographically, they discovered that they were no longer bound by the
security of a fixed position in the world. They were no longer bound to a specific
geographical region, social order, or occupation. They were cut off from their roots and
were estranged from one another. As children get more freedom as they become more
independent of their moms, it allows them to express their uniqueness, wander around
alone, choose their friends and attire, and so on. Simultaneously, they bear the burden of
freedom; that is, they are liberated from the security of being one with the mother. This
burden of freedom causes basic anxiety, the feeling of being alone in the world, on
both a social and an individual level.

E. How to solve the Burden of Freedom?

People strive to flee from freedom through a variety of escape mechanisms because basic
anxiety provides a terrible sense of isolation and aloneness. The escape mechanisms are,
1st 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” Fromm (1941). 2 nd Destructiveness, the feelings
of aloneness, isolation, and powerlessness expressed through not depending on a
continuous relationship with another person; rather, it seeks to do away with other
people. 3rd Conformity, when a person is trying to escape from a sense of aloneness and
isolation by giving up their individuality and becoming whatever other people desire
them to be. 4th Positive Freedom, spontaneous and full expression of both their rational
and their emotional potentialities. 5 th Character Orientations, reflection of personality. A
permanent way of relating to people and things.