This document discusses the humanistic psychoanalyst Erich Fromm. It outlines his background, basic assumptions about human nature, and the existential needs he believed humans have. It also describes mechanisms of escape from these needs like authoritarianism and destructiveness, as well as non-productive and productive orientations.
This document discusses the humanistic psychoanalyst Erich Fromm. It outlines his background, basic assumptions about human nature, and the existential needs he believed humans have. It also describes mechanisms of escape from these needs like authoritarianism and destructiveness, as well as non-productive and productive orientations.
This document discusses the humanistic psychoanalyst Erich Fromm. It outlines his background, basic assumptions about human nature, and the existential needs he believed humans have. It also describes mechanisms of escape from these needs like authoritarianism and destructiveness, as well as non-productive and productive orientations.
This document discusses the humanistic psychoanalyst Erich Fromm. It outlines his background, basic assumptions about human nature, and the existential needs he believed humans have. It also describes mechanisms of escape from these needs like authoritarianism and destructiveness, as well as non-productive and productive orientations.
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HUMANISTIC PSYCHOANALYSIS
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ERICH FROMM • Born in Germany in 1900 • Strict upbringing, similar to Karen Horney • Eclectic philosophy • Combination of Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx • First infatuation / WWI • Married three times • Went to the US in 1934, affair with Karen Horney • Went to Mexico towards end of career • Private Psychoanalytic practice • Publication of researches and books • Died in Switzerland in 1980, 5 days before his 80th birthday. Basic assumptions • Fromm believed that humans have been torn away from their prehistoric union with nature and left with no powerful instincts to adapt to a changing world. But because humans have acquired the ability to reason, they can think about their isolated condition – a situation Fromm called the human dilemma. • People experience this basic dilemma because they have become separate form nature and yet have the capacity to be aware of themselves as isolated beings. Human needs
• These existential needs have
emerged during the evolution of human culture, growing out of their attempts to find answer to their existence. • It can only be addressed by fulfilling our uniquely human needs. Fromm identified five of these distinctively human or existential needs. RELATEDNESS • Drives people to unite with another person through submission, power and love. • SUBMISSION - A person can submit to another, to a group, or to an institution in order to become one with the world • POWER - A person seeks additional power, and as a result, they become more and more dependent on their partners and less of an individual. • LOVE -Fromm defined love as a “union with somebody, or something outside oneself under the condition of retaining the separateness and integrity of one’s own self.” TRANSCENDENC E • Is the need for people to rise above their passive existence and create or destroy life. • Humans can be creative in other ways. They can create art, religion, ideas, laws, material production and love. • But we can also transcend life by destroying it and thus rising above our slain victims. • Malignant Aggression (to kill for reasons)
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ROOTEDNESS • Is the need for a consistent structure in people’s lives. • To feel at home again in the world. • Fromm was influenced by Johann Jakob Bachofen’s ideas on early matriarchal societies. Bachofen held that the mother was the central figure in these ancient social groups. SENSE OF IDENTITY • Capacity to be aware of ourselves as a separate entity. • People were identified by their social roles. • The identity of most people still resides in their attachment to others or to institutions such as the nations, religion, occupation, or social group. FRAME OF ORIENTATION • Consistent way of looking at the world. Mechani sms of escape 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. • Masochism -results from basic feelings of powerlessness, weakness, and inferiority, and is aimed at joining the self to a more powerful person or institution. • Sadism -more neurotic and more socially harmful. DESTRUC TIVENESS is rooted in the feelings of aloneness, isolation and powerlessness. CONFORMITY • people who conform try to escape from a sense of aloneness and isolation by giving up their individuality and becoming whatever other people desire them to be. Positive Freedom • Solution to the human dilemma • Represents overcoming of loneliness, achieving union with the world, & maintain individuality.
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Non- • Strategies that fail to move people closer to Productiv positive freedom and self- realization. • Not entirely negative ◦ e • Receptive • Exploitative Orientatio • Hoarding • Marketing ns Receptive orientations • The only way they can relate to the world is by receiving things; more concerned with receiving than giving. • Negative qualities: Passivity, submissiveness, lack self- confidence • Positive qualities: Loyalty, acceptance, trust EXPLOITATIVE ORIENTATIONS • They aggressively take what they desire rather than passively receive it. • Negative side: Egocentric, Conceited, Arrogant, Seducing This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY.
• Positive side: Impulsive, Proud,
Charming, Self-confident HOARDING ORIENTATIONS • Seek to save that which they have already obtained. • Negative traits: Rigidity, Obstinacy, Lack of creativity • Positive characteristics: Orderliness, Cleanliness, Punctuality Marketing orientations • Marketing characters see themselves as commodities, with their personal value dependent on their exchange value, that is, their ability to sell themselves. • Negative traits: Aimless, Opportunistic, Inconsistent, Wasteful • Positive Qualities: Open- mindedness, Generosity PRODUCTIVE ORIENTATIONS • Three Dimensions: • a. Working -as a means of creative self- expression • b. Loving -concerned with the growth and development of themselves as well as others. • c. Reasoning / thinking -which cannot be separated from productive work and love. PERSONALITY DISORDERS • NECROPHILIA -means love of death and usually refers to a sexual perversion in which a person desire sexual contact with a corpse. • MALIGNANT NARCISSISM -Infatuation with self • INCESTUOUS SYMBIOSIS -Extreme dependence on the mother or mother surrogate.