fromm: humanistic psychoanalysis

OVERVIEW (desperate need for relatedness NOT love; blame

 Assumes humanity’s separation from natural world produces partners for not satisfying their needs, seek
basic anxiety – feelings of loneliness and isolation additional submission/power; dependent on
 View of people is historical and cultural, culture > individual partners)
 Humans are different because we have weak instincts + highly
developed brain o Love
 Isolation due to capitalism leaves people w/ 2 alternatives:  Only route by w/c person can become united w/
o Escape from freedom into interpersonal dependencies the world; sharing and communion w/ another,
o Move to self-realization through productive love and allows person freedom to be unique and separate
work  Care for person, responsibility, willingness to
 Psychohistory/Psychobiography – examined historical docs to respond to their physical, psychological needs,
paint psychological portrait of a prominent person respect others only if they have knowledge of
 In therapy, concerned w/ therapeutic relationship, not too them (know others means to see them from their
scientific, don’t view patient as illness, asked patients to reveal point of view)
dreams (universal language humans developed) TRANSCENDENCE (Destructiveness ---- Creativeness)
___________________________________________________________________________  Urge to rise above passive, accidental existence; people can
BASIC ASSUMPTIONS transcend passive nature by creating life or destroying it
 Individual personality can be understood through human history  Humans can be creative: art, religion, ideas, laws, love
 People have acquired human dilemma – acquired the facility to  To create is to be active and to care about that w/c we create but
reason we also transcend life by destroying it
 Existential dichotomies  Malignant aggression – humans are only capable of this; kill for
o Life and death: reason tell us we will die but we negate reasons other than survival
this dichotomy by saying there is life after death
o We are capable of conceptualizing goal of complete self- ROOTEDNESS (Fixation ---- Wholeness)
realization but we also know life is too short to reach that  Need to establish roots or feel at home again in the world
goal o Productive
o We are alone but we cannot tolerate isolation: aware we  Actively, creatively relate to the world and become
are separate individuals but also we believe our happiness whole/integrated; tie to natural world confers
depends on uniting with another human being security, reestablishes sense of belongingness and
___________________________________________________________________________ rootedness
HUMAN NEEDS / EXISTENTIAL NEEDS o Nonproductive
 Move people toward reunion w/ the natural world  Fixation – reluctance to move beyond protective
 Healthy individuals productively solve the ff. human needs security provided by mother; afraid to take the
 Lack of satisfaction in any needs = insanity next step, crave to be mothered, nursed,
protected by motherly figure
RELATEDNESS (Submission/domination ---- Love)
 Drive for union w/ another person or other persons SENSE OF IDENTITY (Adjustment to group ---- Individuality)
o Submission  Capacity to be aware of ourselves as separate identity; we’ve
 submit to another, group, institution to become been torn away from nature, we need to form concept of self (“I
one w/ the world; search for relationship w/ am I”)
domineering people  w/o this, people could not retain sanity
o Power  Neurotics – attach self to powerful people, social, political
 Welcome submissive partners; submissive + institutions
domineering = symbiotic relationship
 fromm: humanistic psychoanalysis

 Healthy people – less need to conform, less need to give up sense

of self; don’t surrender freedom and individuality to fit into society Positive Freedom
 Part of natural world but separate from it; overcome aloneness,
achieve union w/ the world, maintain individuality
FRAME OF ORIENTATION (Irrational goals ---- Rational goals)  Spontaneous activity – small children, artists who have little
 Roadmap to make our way through the world tendency to confirm; act according to basic natures and not
 People will do anything to retain this even going into irrational according to rules
philosophies espoused by fanatical political and religious leaders  Love + work are its twin components
 To keep from going insane, there must be final goal aka object ___________________________________________________________________________
of devotion – focuses energies into single direction CHARACTER ORIENTATIONS
___________________________________________________________________________  Personality is reflected in this; relatively permanent way of
BURDEN OF FREEDOM relating to people and things
 Freedom = free from security of a fixed position in the world  Character – most important acquired qualities of personality
 Burden of freedom  basic anxiety (feeling of being alone in the
world) NONPRODUCTIVE ORIENTATIONS
*Personality is a combination of several orientations, one orientation is
Mechanisms of Escape from FREEDOM dominant
*unlike Horney, these are driving forces in normal people not neurotic  RECEPTIVE
ones o Feel that source of good lies outside of self
 AUTHORITARIANISM o Receive things, love, knowledge, possessions; concerned
o Give up independence to fuse self w/ somebody w/ receiving than giving, want others to shower them w/
o Masochism – powerlessness, weakness, inferiority, to join love, ideas, gifts
self to more powerful person/institution; disguised as o Negative: passive, submissive, lack self-confidence
love/loyalty o Positive: loyalty, acceptance, trust
o Sadism  EXPLOITATIVE
 need to make others dependent on oneself, gain o Also believe source of good is outside of self
power over the weak o Aggressively take what they want; cunning force to take
 compulsion to exploit others, take advantage and someone else’s spouse, ideas, property
use them for their benefit/pleasure o Prefer to steal, plagiarize than create
 desire to see others suffer o Negative: egocentric, conceited, arrogant, seducing
physically/psychologically o Positive: impulsive, proud, charming, self-confident
 DESTRUCTIVENESS  HOARDING
o Doesn’t depend on continuous relationship w/ another but o Seek to save what they already have
seeks to do away w/ other people o Hold everything inside and don’t let go of anything; keep
o Both nations and individuals can employ this money, feelings, thoughts to themselves
 CONFORMITY o In love, they possess loved one and preserve relationship
o Giving up individuality and become whatever other want than allowing to change and grow
them to be; like robots, reacting to the whims of others o Live in the past, repelled by anything new; like Freud’s
o Seldom express own opinions, cling to standards of anal characteristics – orderly, stubborn
behavior; stiff and automated o Negative: rigid, sterile, obstinate, compulsive, lack
o the more they conform, the more powerless, the more creativity
powerless, they must conform o Positive: orderly, clean, punctual
o breaking this cycle is through self-realization/positive
freedom
 fromm: humanistic psychoanalysis

 MARKETING o Sense of worth depends on narcissistic self-image

o Sees self as commodity; personal value is dependent on o When criticized, they react w/ anger and rage, strike out
exchange value; ability to sell themselves others and destroy them
o See self as in constant demand, adjust personality to that o If criticism is overwhelming, they may be unable to
which is currently in fashion, play many roles (I am as you destroy it so they turn rage inward = depression
desire me) o Depression + guilt + hypochondriasis =
o W/o past or future, no permanent principles, values, few symptomatic of deep underlying narcissism
positive traits, empty vessels
o Negative: aimless, opportunistic, inconsistent, wasteful INCESTUOUS SYMBIOSIS
o Positive: changeable, open-minded, adaptable, generosity  Extreme dependence on mother; exaggerated mother fixation
 Inseparable from host person; personalities blended w/ other
PRODUCTIVE ORIENTATIONS – Work toward freedom, most healthy of person, individual identities are lost
all character types  Extremely anxious and frightened if relationship is threatened;
 WORK – value not as an end but as means of creative self- believe they cannot live w/o mother substitute (family, business,
expression; do not exploit others, market self or withdraw from church, nation)
others but means of producing life’s necessities
 LOVE – care, responsibility, respect, knowledge; biophilia – *SYNDROME OF DECAY – pathologic individuals possess all 3 PDs
passionate love of life and all that is alive (people, animals, plants, *SYNDROME OF GROWTH – oppositve; biophilia, love, positive freedom
cultures etc); all are capable of productive love but most do not
achieve it because they cannot first love themselves
 THINKING – concerned interest in another person/object; see
others as they are and not as they would wish them to be
*healthy people rely on some combination of all five character orientations
___________________________________________________________________________
PERSONALITY DISORDERS
Psychologically disturbed people are incapable of love and failed to
establish union w/ others
NECROPHILIA
 Alternative to biophilia
 Hate humanity; racists, warmongers, bullies; love bloodshed,
destruction, terror
 Delight in destroying life; destructive behavior is a reflection of
their character
 Lifestyle revolves around death, destruction, disease, decay

MALIGNANT NARCISSISM
 Preoccupied w/ themselves
 Hypochondriasis – preoccupation w/ one’s body; obsessive
attention to one’s health
 Moral hypochondriasis – preoccupation w/ guilt about previous
transgressions
 Possess neurotic claims (Horney)
o Security by holding on to the belief their extraordinary
qualities give them superiority over everyone