Erich Fromm

• Who was Erich Fromm (1900-80)?


  German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist.
• Give some background detail on Erich Fromm:


  • He abandoned religion (having been a rabbi) to become an atheist, believing that religion was the source of most (or all) of the disharmony and strife on the planet.
  • Having escaped the Nazi threat by moving to America, he analysed the writings of Freud and judged them to contain fundamental inconsistency. He then announced Freud as a misogynist who could not get beyond the patriarchal ‘mould’ of his time. Nevertheless, Fromm believed that Freud was a profit of the modern era.
• What is Fromm’s view of an authoritarian conscience?


  • According to Fromm, guilt, shame, conscience and a sense of moral responsibility may ARISE OUT OF FEAR OF BEING REJECTED BY SOCIETY, simply because SOCIETY IS BASED ON OBEDIENCE TO RULES AND CONFORMITY TO NORMS.
• What did Fromm point out in ‘On Disobedience and Other Essays’?


  • ‘On Disobedience and Other Essays‘ -> Fromm pointed out that in MOST SOCIAL SYSTEMS, THE SUPREME VIRTUE IS OBEDIENCE, WHEREAS THE SUPREME SIN OF DISOBEDIENCE.
  • For most, when they feel guilty, they feel afraid because they think they have been disobedient.
  • They are not really troubled by a moral issue (although they think they are) - rather they are troubled because they have disobeyed a command. They have an AUTHORITARIAN CONSCIENCE.
• According to Fromm, how does our conscience arise out of fear?


  In other words, our conscience arises out of fear of being shunned and excluded from society because we have been disobedient. It would not be so much the inner voice of our own deepest nature or convictions, but hte internalised voice of a disapproving society. YOU CAN SEE THE INFLUENCE OF FREUD’S ACCOUNT OF THE CONSCIENCE HERE. There are times, however, when obedience to the authoritative conscience needs to be overridden.
• What is Fromm’s view of a humanistic conscience?


  • More positive outlook
  • THE HUMANISTIC CONSCIENCE HAS AN INTUITIVE KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT IS HUMAN AND INHUMAN: OF WHAT MAKES LIFE FLOURISH AND WHAT DESTROYS IT.
• Give a summary of Fromm’s view of conscience?


  • Fromm appears to suggest that even if we do have an innate sense of right and wrong, experienced as conscience, the actual forms that our pangs of conscience take are SHAPED BY OUR SOCIETY.
  • In other words, our existing religious, philosophical and social systems have given us an intuitive knowledge of the difference between the two forms of conscience. To reject the authoritarian form and embrace the humanistic form is to free ourselves From the feel of injust and violent authority and to realise instead our full potential as people.