Pt.6 Erich Fromm

• Humanistic Psychoanalysis


  Erich Fromm's approach that is less concerned with the individual and more concerned with characteristics common to a culture
• Humanity's separation from the natural world

  • Produced feelings of loneliness and isolation, a condition called basic anxiety
• Basic existential needs

  • Relatedness (to others)
  • Transcendence (purpose)
  • Rootedness (to the world and nature)
  • Sense of Identity ("I am I")
  • Frame of orientation
• Relatedness


  As human beings, we are aware of our separateness from each other, and seek to overcome it. Love allows us to transcend our separateness without denying us our uniqueness.
• Rootedness


  We need to feel at home in the universe, even though, as human beings, we are somewhat alienated from the natural world. We need to discover our brotherhood (and sisterhood) with humanity.
• Sense of Identity


  This need is so powerful that we are sometimes driven to find it, for example by doing anything for signs of status, or by trying desperately to conform. We sometimes will even give up our lives in order to remain a part of our group.
• Frame of orientation


  We need to understand the world and our place in it. Our society -- and especially the religious aspects of our culture -- often attempts to provide us with this understanding. Things like our myths, our philosophies, and our sciences provide us with structure.
• As people have achieved more freedom

  They have become more lonely, insignificant and alienated from nature (less freedom = greater connectedness)
• Freedom


  The central characteristic of human nature, according to Fromm
• Psychic mechanisms for escaping the negative aspects of freedom

  • Authoritarianism
  • Destructiveness (Malignant Aggression)
  • Automation Conformity
• Authoritarianism


  The tendency to give up the independence of one's own individual self and to fuse one's self with someone or something outside oneself in order to acquire the strength which the individual is lacking. (Can take two forms: Masochism and Sadism)
• Destructiveness (Malignant Aggression)


  Does not depend on a continuous relationship with another but seeks to eliminate people or things from our lives. If it/they do not exist, I can't be hurt.
• Automation Conformity


  We give up our individuality to become whatever other people desire us to be. Temporarily find security but at the price of the self. The more we conform the more powerless we feel, the more powerless we feel the more we must conform.
• Symbiotic families


  Symbiosis is the relationship two organisms have who cannot live without each other. In a symbiotic family, some members of the family are "swallowed up" by other members, so that they do not fully develop personalities of their own.
• Withdrawing families


  Indifference, if not cold hatefulness
• Personality Types

  • Productive (healthy)
  • Nonproductive (unhealthy)
• Biophilous


  In love with life and are attracted to growth, creation, and construction. Try to influence others by love, reason, and example. Are concerned with the growth and development of self and others.
• Being


  Define self by what you are not by what you have. Self worth comes from within not from comparing self to others. Cooperate, love, and live productively with others.
• Receptive type


  Can only relate to the world from things outside of themselves. Expect to get whatever they want from others. Receivers not givers.
• Exploitative type


  Relate to the world outside of themselves. Aggressively take what they want from others. What is taken is of greater value than what is given freely to them.
• Hoarding type


  Security in hoarding and saving what they have already obtained. Compulsive orderliness about their possessions, thoughts and feelings. Build walls around themselves and let little out.
• Marketing type


  Our personality becomes a commodity to be sold. Superficial qualities such as smiling, being agreeable, laughing at the boss's jokes are more important than inner characteristics and abilities. Are without a past or future, and have no permanent principles or values.
• Having type


  Personal meaning comes from possessions. Centered on accumulating material wealth, status, and power as a means of finding fulfillment and security.
• Necrophilous type


  Attracted to death, corpses, decay, dirt, etc. Often hate humanity and are racists, warmongers, and bullies. Dwell in the past and are cold and aloof. Devoted to law and order.
• Malignant Narcissism


  Perception of reality is impeded so that everything belonging to the narcissist is highly valued while everything belonging to others is devalued.
• Incestuous Symbiosis


  Inseparable and often intertwined with a host person or thing losing their individual identities. Can be with a person, ideology, job, nation, etc. Feel extremely anxious or frightful if the symbiotic relationship is challenged. Distorts an individuals reasoning powers, destroys the capacity for authentic love, and prevents people from achieving independence and integrity.