Erich Fromm
Erich Fromm
Erich Seligmann Frommwas a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPsychologist
Date of Birth23 March 1900
CountryUnited States of America
moving men skills
Modern man has transformed himself into a commodity; he experiences his life energy as an investment with which he should make the highest profit, considering his position and the situation on the personality market. He is alienated from himself, from his fellow men and from nature. His main aim is profitable exchange of his skills, knowledge, and of himself, his "personality package" with others who are equally intent on a fair and profitable exchange. Life has no goal except the one to move, no principle except the one of fair exchange, no satisfaction except the one to consume.p97.
sides authority irrational
Power on the one side, fear on the other, are always the buttresses on which irrational authority is built.
life alive individual
The duty to be alive is the same as the duty to become oneself, to develop into the individual one potentially is.
home sick culture
The sick individual finds himself at home with all other similarly sick individuals. The whole culture is geared to this kind of pathology.
life hate products
Hate is a product of the unfulfilled life.
men progress world
Man unites himself with the world in the process of creation.
lying passion confusion
The most important misunderstanding seems to me to lie in a confusion between the human necessities which I consider part of human nature, and the human necessities as they appear as drives, needs, passions, etc., in any given historical period.
anxiety source art-of-loving
The experience of separateness arouses anxiety; it is, indeed, the source of all anxiety.
love reality growth
We have faith in the potentialities of others, of ourselves, and of mankind because, and only to the degree to which, we have experienced the growth of our own potentialities, the reality of growth in ourselves, the strength of our own power of reason and love.
men psychology tools
Today the function of psychiatry, psychology and psychoanalysis threatens to become the tool in the manipulation of man.
leadership times-have-changed earth
In times of change, learners inherit the earth
people religion turns
When people can't handle God any more, they turn to religion.
life hate men
That man can destroy life is just as miraculous a feat as that he can create it, for life is the miracle, the inexplicable. In the act of destruction, man sets himself above life; he transcends himself as a creature. Thus, the ultimate choice for a man, inasmuch as he is driven to transcend himself, is to create or to destroy, to love or to hate.
motivation real passion
Our conscious motivations, ideas, and beliefs are a blend of false information, biases, irrational passions, rationalizations, prejudices, in which morsels of truth swim around and give the reassurance albeit false, that the whole mixture is real and true. The thinking processes attempt to organize this whole cesspool of illusions according to the laws of plausibility. This level of consciousness is supposed to reflect reality; it is the map we use for organizing our life.