Biography:
Erich Fromm synthesized Marxism, Freud, and Weber in his many books on fascism, authoritarianism, and social character. He was a best-selling author and popularizer of psychoanalytically informed thought. Born in Frankfurt and educated by Jewish teachers, he received a Ph.D. in sociology from Heidelberg. He then edited a Jewish newspaper and began several analyses, one with Frieda Fromm-Reichmann whom he later married. Fromm trained at the Berlin Institute and, with others, founded the Frankfurt Psychoanalytic Institute. He was later to help found the William Alanson White Institute.
Although seen as a critic of Freud, Fromm’s work is not easily categorized and is perhaps best viewed as an extension of Freud into the social sphere. Fromm did, however, believe that strivings are not the outcome of instincts but of psychic needs, which society teaches through the family. Fromm’s is a theory of human interrelatedness, often associated with the interpersonal theory of Harry Stack Sullivan.
Coming to the United States in 1933, he was first associated with Karen Horney. Splitting with Horney, Fromm’s career is primarily connected to the White Institute and a Mexican institute that he founded. Among his many books are: Escape From Freedom (1941) about authoritarianism, Man for Himself (1947), The Forgotten Language (1951) about dreams, fairytales and myths, The Sane Society (1955), The Art of Loving (1956), Sigmund Freud’s Mission: An Analysis of His Personality and Influence (1959), and The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1978). There is an important study by Daniel Burston, The Legacy of Erich Fromm (1991).
Primary source material (in English):
- Escape from Freedom (US), The Fear of Freedom (UK) (1941)
- Man for himself, an inquiry into the psychology of ethics (1947)
- Psychoanalysis and Religion (1950)
- Forgotten language; an introduction to the understanding of dreams, fairy tales, and myths (1951)
- The Sane Society (1955)
- The Art of Loving (1956)
- Sigmund Freud's mission; an analysis of his personality and influence (1959)
- Psychoanalysis and Zen Buddhism (1960)
- May Man Prevail? An inquiry into the facts and fictions of foreign policy (1961)
- Marx's Concept of Man (1961)
- Beyond the Chains of Illusion: my encounter with Marx and Freud (1962)
- The Dogma of Christ and Other Essays on Religion, Psychology and Culture (1963)
- The Heart of Man, its genius for good and evil (1964)
- Socialist Humanism (1965)
- You Shall Be as Gods: a radical interpretation of the Old Testament and its tradition (1966)
- The Revolution of Hope, toward a humanized technology (1968)
- The Nature of Man (1968)
- The Crisis of Psychoanalysis (1970)
- Social character in a Mexican village; a sociopsychoanalytic study (Fromm & Maccoby) (1970)
- The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973)
- To Have or to Be? (1976)
- Greatness and Limitation of Freud's Thought (1979)
- On Disobedience and other essays (1984)
- The Art of Being (1993)
- The Art of Listening (1994)
- On Being Human (1997)