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
vices love-myself virtue
If it is a virtue to love my neighbor as a human being, it must be a virtue - and not a vice - to love myself, since I am a human being too.
freedom growth fundamentals
Freedom is the fundamental condition for any growth.
wisdom religious fun
We try to evade the question of existence with property, prestige, power, possession, production, fun, and, ultimately, by trying to forget that we- that I- exist. No matter how much he thinks of God or goes to church, or how much he believes in religious ideas , if he, the whole man, is deaf to the question of existence, if he does not have an answer to it, he is marking time, and he lives and dies like one of the million things he produces. He thinks of God, instead of experiencing God.
civilization doubt may
Human history began as an act of disobedience, and it is not unlikely that it will be terminated by an act of obedience. At this point in history the capacity to doubt, to criticize and to disobey may be all that stands between a future for mankind and the end of civilization.
differences brotherhood identity
If I perceive in another person mainly the surface, I perceive mainly the differences,that which separates us. If I penetrate to the core, i perceive our identity, the fact of our brotherhood. This relatedness from center to center - instead of that from periphery to periphery - is 'central relatedness'.
children fighting neurosis
The scars left from the child's defeat in the fight against irrational authority are to be found at the bottom of every neurosis.
giving-up mean self
Well-being is possible to the degree to which one has overcome one's narcissism; to the degree to which one is open, responsive, sensitive, awake, empty.... Well-being means, finally, to drop one's Ego, to give up greed, to cease chasing after preservation and the aggrandizement of the Ego, to be and to experience one's self in the act of being, not in having, preserving, coveting, using.
best-love someone-you-love moments
It takes a moment to tell someone you love them, but it takes a lifetime to prove it.
effort greed needs
Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.
letting-go spiritual courage
Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.
ideas numbers culture
Many psychiatrists and psychologists refuse to entertain the idea that society as a whole may be lacking in sanity. They hold that the problem of mental health in a society is only that of the number of 'unadjusted' individuals, and not of a possible unadjustment of the culture itself.
century dead god man problem twentieth
In the nineteenth century the problem was that God is dead; in the twentieth century the problem is that man is dead
himself psychic task tolerate
The psychic task which a person can and must set for himself is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity.
follows immature love loved mature
Infantile love follows the principle: ""I love because I am loved."" Mature love follows the principle: ""I am loved because I love."" Immature love says: ""I love you because I need you."" Mature love says: ""I need you because I love you.