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((Short description|German-American sociologist and psychoanalyst (1900–1980)))
((For|the tennis player|Eric Fromm))
((Use mdy dates|date=September 2011))
((Infobox philosopher
| name              = Erich Fromm
| region            = [[Western philosophy]]
| era               = [[20th century philosophy]]
| image             = Erich Fromm 1974.jpg
| image_size        = 250px 
| caption           = Fromm in 1974
| birth_name        = Erich Seligmann Fromm
| birth_date        = March 23, 1900
| birth_place       = [[Frankfurt am Main]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date        = ((death date and age|1980|03|18|1900|03|23))
| death_place       = [[Muralto]], [[Ticino]], Switzerland
| alma_mater        = [[Heidelberg University]]
| school_tradition  = ((hlist|[[Continental philosophy]]|[[Frankfurt School]]|[[psychoanalysis]]|[[Marxist humanism]]|[[humanistic Judaism]]))
| main_interests    = [[Humanism]], [[social theory]], [[Marxism]]
| influences        = [[Johann Jakob Bachofen|Bachofen]], [[Baruch Spinoza|Spinoza]], [[Meister Eckhart|Eckhart]], [[Søren Kierkegaard|Kierkegaard]], [[Karl Marx|Marx]], [[Sigmund Freud|Freud]], [[Alfred Weber]], [[Karl Korsch|Korsch]], [[Georg Lukács|Lukács]],<ref>((Cite web|url=https://jacobinmag.com/2020/08/erich-fromm-frankfurt-school-marxism-weimar-germany|title=Erich Fromm and the Revolution of Hope|website=jacobinmag.com))</ref> [[Raya Dunayevskaya|Dunayevskaya]]<ref>((Cite journal|url=https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/reviews/individual-reviews/truly-liberating|title=Ben Watson: Truly Liberating / Radical Philosophy|first=Ben|last=Watson|journal=Radical Philosophy|year=2013|issue=178))</ref>
| influenced        = [[Martin Luther King Jr.]],<ref>((cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=NOUJepqbFRYC&q=Erich+Fromm|title=Writing Beyond Race: Living Theory and Practice by bell hooks (p. 93)|isbn=9780415539142|last1=Hooks|first1=Bell|year=2013|publisher=Routledge ))</ref> [[Elias Porter]], [[Chögyam Trungpa]], [[Paulo Freire]]
| notable_ideas     = [[To Have or to Be?|Being and Having]] as [[Being|modes of existence]], [[Escape from Freedom|security versus freedom]], [[social character]], [[Character orientation]]
))
((Frankfurt School))
((Psychoanalysis))

'''Erich Seligmann Fromm''' (((IPAc-en|f|r|ɒ|m)); ((IPA-de|fʁɔm|lang)); March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a German-American [[social psychologist]], [[psychoanalyst]], [[sociologist]], [[humanistic]] [[philosopher]], and [[democratic socialist]]. He was a [[German Jew]] who fled the Nazi regime and settled in the United States. He was one of the founders of The [[William Alanson White Institute]] of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis and Psychology in New York City and was associated with the [[Frankfurt School]] of [[critical theory]].<ref name=Funk>Funk, Rainer. ''Erich Fromm: His Life and Ideas''. Translated by Ian Portman, Manuela Kunkel. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003. ((ISBN|0-8264-1519-9)), ((ISBN|978-0-8264-1519-6)). [https://books.google.com/books?id=9g_DMoBDpw8C&pg=PA13 p. 13].</ref>((Refn|For a second name he was given that of his grandfather on his father's side—Seligmann Pinchas Fromm, although the registry office in Frankfurt does not record him as Erich Pinchas Fromm, but as Erich Seligmann Fromm. Also his parents addressed his mail to "Erich S. Fromm".<ref name=Funk />|group=n))

==Life==
Erich Fromm was born on March 23, 1900, at [[Frankfurt am Main]], the only child of [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox Jewish]] parents, Rosa (Krause) and Naphtali Fromm.<ref>((Cite web|url=https://lib.msu.edu/branches/ua/|title=MSU Libraries|website=lib.msu.edu))</ref> He started his academic studies in 1918 at the [[Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main|University of Frankfurt am Main]] with two semesters of [[jurisprudence]].  During the summer semester of 1919, Fromm studied at the [[University of Heidelberg]], where he began studying [[sociology]] under [[Alfred Weber]] (brother of sociologist [[Max Weber]]), psychiatrist-philosopher [[Karl Jaspers]], and [[Heinrich Rickert]]. Fromm received his PhD in sociology from Heidelberg in 1922 with a dissertation "On Jewish Law".

Fromm at the time became strongly involved in [[Zionism]], under the influence of the religious Zionist rabbi Nehemia Anton Nobel.<ref>Klaus Widerström: ''Einführung in das Leben Erich Fromms.'' Erich Fromm Dokumentationszentrum, 2013 [https://www.fromm-gesellschaft.eu/images/pdf-Dateien/Widerstroem_K_2013.pdf]</ref>  He was very active in Jewish ''[[Studentenverbindung]]en'' and other Zionist organisations.
But he soon turned away from Zionism, saying that it conflicted with his ideal of a "universalist Messianism and Humanism".<ref>Alfred Lévy: ''Erich Fromm: Humanist zwischen Tradition und Utopie''. Königshausen & Neumann, 2002, ISBN 978-3-8260-2242-5, p.&nbsp;13.</ref>

During the mid-1920s, he trained to become a [[psychoanalyst]] through [[Frieda Reichmann]]'s psychoanalytic sanatorium in [[Heidelberg]]. They married in 1926, but separated shortly after and divorced in 1942. He began his own clinical practice in 1927. In 1930 he joined the Frankfurt [[Institute for Social Research]] and completed his psychoanalytical training.

After the Nazi takeover of power in Germany, Fromm moved first to [[Geneva]] and then, in 1934, to [[Columbia University]] in New York. Together with [[Karen Horney]] and [[Harry Stack Sullivan]], Fromm belongs to a [[Neo-Freudian]] school of psychoanalytical thought. Horney and Fromm each had a marked influence on the other's thought, with Horney illuminating some aspects of  psychoanalysis for Fromm and the latter elucidating sociology for Horney. Their relationship ended in the late 1930s.<ref>Paris, Bernard J. (1998) [http://plaza.ufl.edu/bjparis/horney/fadiman/02_pers.html Horney & Humanistic Psychoanalysis – Personal History] ((webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523164003/http://plaza.ufl.edu/bjparis/horney/fadiman/02_pers.html |date=May 23, 2011 )). International Karen Horney Society.</ref> After leaving Columbia, Fromm helped form the New York branch of the Washington School of Psychiatry in 1943, and in 1946 co-founded the [[William Alanson White Institute]] of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology. He was on the faculty of [[Bennington College]] from 1941 to 1949, and taught courses at the [[The New School|New School for Social Research]] in New York from 1941 to 1959.

When Fromm moved to [[Mexico City]] in 1949, he became a professor at the [[National Autonomous University of Mexico]] (UNAM) and established a psychoanalytic section at the medical school there. Meanwhile, he taught as a professor of psychology at [[Michigan State University]] from 1957 to 1961 and as an adjunct professor of psychology at the graduate division of Arts and Sciences at [[New York University]] after 1962. He taught at UNAM until his retirement, in 1965, and at the Mexican Society of Psychoanalysis (SMP) until 1974. In 1974 he moved from Mexico City to [[Muralto]], Switzerland, and died at his home in 1980, five days before his eightieth birthday. All the while, Fromm maintained his own clinical practice and published a series of books.

Fromm was reportedly an atheist<ref name=Davidson>Keay Davidson: "Fromm, Erich Pinchas", American National Biography Online, Feb. 2000 (accessed April 28, 2008)</ref>((Refn|About the same time he stopped observing Jewish religious rituals and rejected a cause he had once embraced, Zionism. He "just didn't want to participate in any division of the human race, whether religious or political," he explained decades later (Wershba, p. 12), by which time he was a confirmed atheist.<ref name=Davidson />|name=|group=n)) but described his position as "[[nontheistic religion|nontheistic]] [[mysticism]]".<ref>Fromm, E. (1966). You shall be as Gods, A Fawcett Premier Book, p. 18:"Hence, I wish to make my position clear at the outset. If I could define my position approximately, I would call it that of a nontheistic mysticism."</ref>

==Psychological theory==
((more citations needed section|date=May 2023))
Beginning with his first [[wikt:seminal|seminal]] work of 1941, ''[[Escape from Freedom]]'' (known in Britain as ''The Fear of Freedom''), Fromm's writings were notable as much for their social and political commentary as for their philosophical and psychological underpinnings. Indeed, ''Escape from Freedom'' is viewed as one of the founding works of [[political psychology]]. His second important work, ''Man for Himself:  An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics'', first published in 1947, continued and enriched the ideas of ''Escape from Freedom''. Taken together, these books outlined Fromm's theory of human character, which was a natural outgrowth of Fromm's theory of human nature. Fromm's most popular book was ''[[The Art of Loving]]'', an international bestseller first published in 1956, which recapitulated and complemented the theoretical principles of human nature found in ''Escape from Freedom'' and ''Man for Himself''—principles which were revisited in many of Fromm's other major works.

Central to Fromm's [[world view]] was his interpretation of the [[Talmud]] and [[Hasidic Judaism|Hasidism]]. He began studying Talmud as a young man under Rabbi J. Horowitz and later under Rabbi Salman Baruch Rabinkow, a [[Chabad]] [[Hasid]]. While working towards his doctorate in sociology at the [[University of Heidelberg]],<ref>His 1922 thesis was under the title ''Das jüdische Gesetz. Ein Beitrag zur Soziologie des Diaspora-Judentums'' (''The Jewish Law: A Contribution to the Sociology of Jewish Diaspora'').</ref> Fromm studied the [[Tanya (Judaism)|Tanya]] by the founder of Chabad, Rabbi [[Shneur Zalman of Liadi]]. Fromm also studied under Nehemia Nobel and Ludwig Krause while studying in Frankfurt. Fromm's grandfather and two great-grandfathers on his father's side were [[rabbi]]s, and a great uncle on his mother's side was a noted Talmudic scholar.  However, Fromm turned away from orthodox Judaism in 1926, towards secular interpretations of scriptural ideals.

The cornerstone of Fromm's humanistic philosophy is his interpretation of the biblical story of [[Adam and Eve]]'s exile from the [[Garden of Eden]].  Drawing on his knowledge of the Talmud, Fromm pointed out that being able to distinguish between good and evil is generally considered to be a virtue, but that biblical scholars generally consider Adam and Eve to have ''sinned'' by disobeying God and eating from the [[Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil|Tree of Knowledge]]. However, departing from [[Jewish orthodoxy|traditional religious orthodoxy]] on this, Fromm ''extolled'' the virtues of humans taking independent action and using reason to establish moral values rather than adhering to authoritarian moral values.

Beyond a simple condemnation of authoritarian value systems, Fromm used the story of Adam and Eve as an allegorical explanation for [[human evolution|human biological evolution]] and [[existentialism|existential]] angst, asserting that when Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, they became aware of themselves as being separate from nature while still being part of it.  This is why they felt "naked" and "ashamed":  they had [[evolution|evolved]] into [[human being]]s, conscious of themselves, their own mortality, and their powerlessness before the forces of nature and society, and no longer united with the universe as they were in their [[instinct]]ive, pre-human existence as animals.  According to Fromm, the awareness of a disunited human existence is a source of [[guilt (emotion)|guilt]] and [[shame]], and the solution to this existential dichotomy is found in the development of one's uniquely human powers of love and reason. However, Fromm distinguished ''his'' concept of love from unreflective ''popular'' notions as well as ''Freudian paradoxical'' love (see the criticism by Marcuse [[#Criticism|below]]).

Fromm considered love an [[interpersonal]] [[creativity|creative]] capacity rather than an [[emotion]], and he distinguished this creative capacity from what he considered to be various forms of [[narcissism|narcissistic neuroses]] and [[sado-masochism|sado-masochistic]] tendencies that are commonly held out as proof of "true love". Indeed, Fromm viewed the experience of "falling in love" as evidence of one's failure to understand the true nature of love, which he believed always had the common elements of ''care'', ''responsibility'', ''respect'', and ''knowledge''.  Drawing from his knowledge of the [[Torah]], Fromm pointed to the story of [[Jonah]], who did not wish to save the residents of [[Nineveh]] from the consequences of their sin, as demonstrative of his belief that the qualities of ''care'' and ''responsibility'' are generally absent from most human [[Interpersonal relationship|relationships]]. Fromm also asserted that few people in modern society had ''respect'' for the autonomy of their fellow human beings, much less the objective ''knowledge'' of what other people truly wanted and needed.

Fromm believed that freedom was an aspect of human nature that we either embrace or escape. He observed that embracing our freedom of will was healthy, whereas escaping freedom through the use of escape mechanisms was the root of psychological conflicts. Fromm outlined three of the most common escape mechanisms:
*''Automaton conformity'': changing one's ideal self to conform to a perception of society's preferred type of personality, losing one's true self in the process; ''Automaton conformity'' displaces the burden of choice from self to society;
*''Authoritarianism'': giving control of oneself to another. By submitting one's freedom to someone else, this act removes the freedom of choice almost entirely.
*''Destructiveness'': any process which attempts to eliminate others or the world as a whole, all to escape freedom. Fromm said that "the destruction of the world is the last, almost desperate attempt to save myself from being crushed by it".<ref>((cite book| last= Fromm| first= Erich |title= Escape from Freedom| place= New York| publisher= Henry Holt and Company, LLC| year= 1941| page= 177))</ref>

The word [[biophilia hypothesis|biophilia]] was frequently used by Fromm as a description of a productive psychological orientation and "[[state of being]]".  For example, in an addendum to his book ''The Heart of Man:  Its Genius For Good and Evil'', Fromm wrote as part of his [[Humanism|humanist]] [[credo]]:

"I believe that the man choosing progress can find a new unity through the development of all his human forces, which are produced in three orientations.  These can be presented separately or together: biophilia, love for humanity and nature, and independence and freedom."<ref>((cite book| last= Fromm| first= Erich |title= On Being Human| place= London| publisher= The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd| year= 1997| page= 101))</ref>

Erich Fromm postulated eight basic needs:
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Need
!Description
|-
|Transcendence 
|Being thrown into the world without their consent, humans have to transcend their nature by destroying or creating people or things.<ref name="Garling">((cite web| url=http://www.theglaringfacts.com/psychology/erich-fromm-humanistic-psychoanalysis/ |title= Erich Fromm & Humanistic Psychoanalysis| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20130121222920/http://www.theglaringfacts.com/psychology/erich-fromm-humanistic-psychoanalysis/| archivedate= January 21, 2013| website= TheGlaringFacts.com | date= 12 November 2011))</ref> Humans can destroy through malignant aggression, or killing for reasons other than survival, but they can also create and care about their creations.<ref name= "Garling" />
|-
|Rootedness
|Rootedness is the need to establish roots and to feel at home again in the world.<ref name="Garling" /> Productively, rootedness enables us to grow beyond the security of our mother and establish ties with the outside world.<ref name="Garling" /> With the nonproductive strategy, we become fixated and afraid to move beyond the security and safety of our mother or a mother substitute.<ref name="Garling" />
|-
|Sense of Identity 
|The drive for a sense of identity is expressed nonproductively as conformity to a group and productively as individuality.<ref name="Garling" />
|-
|Frame of orientation
|Understanding the world and our place in it.
|-
|Excitation and Stimulation 
|Actively striving for a goal rather than simply responding.
|-
|Unity
|A sense of oneness between one person and the "natural and human world outside."
|-
|Effectiveness
|The need to feel accomplished.<ref>((cite book| last=Engler |first= Barbara |title= Personality Theories| place= Boston| publisher= Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company| year= 2008| page= 137)) (based on ''The Sane Society'' and ''The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness'')</ref>
|}
Fromm's thesis of the "escape from freedom" is epitomized in the following passage.  The "individualized man" referenced by Fromm is man bereft of the "primary ties" of belonging (such as nature, family, etc.), also expressed as "freedom from":

((blockquote|There is only one possible, productive solution for the relationship of individualized man with the world: his active solidarity with all men and his spontaneous activity, love and work, which unite him again with the world, not by primary ties but as a free and independent individual.... However, if the economic, social and political conditions... do not offer a basis for the realization of individuality in the sense just mentioned, while at the same time people have lost those ties which gave them security, this lag makes freedom an unbearable burden.  It then becomes identical with doubt, with a kind of life which lacks meaning and direction. Powerful tendencies arise to escape from this kind of freedom into submission or some kind of relationship to man and the world which promises relief from uncertainty, even if it deprives the individual of his freedom.|Erich Fromm<ref>((cite book| first= Erich |last= Fromm| title= Escape from Freedom| place= New York| publisher= Rinehart| year= 1941| pages= 36–37; 31, 256–57))</ref>)))

===Five basic orientations===
((main article|Character orientation))
In his book ''Man for Himself'' Fromm spoke of "[[Character orientation|orientation of character]]".  He differentiates his theory of character from that of Freud by focusing on two ways an individual relates to the world. Freud analyzed character in terms of libido organization, whereas Fromm says that in the process of living, we relate to the world by: 1) acquiring and assimilating things—"Assimilation", and 2) reacting to people—"Socialization". Fromm asserted that these two ways of relating to the world were not instinctive, but an individual's response to the peculiar circumstances of his or her life; he also believed that people are never exclusively one type of orientation. These two ways of relating to life's circumstances lead to basic character-orientations.

Fromm lists four types of nonproductive character orientation, which he called receptive, exploitative, hoarding, and marketing, and one positive character orientation, which he called productive. Receptive and exploitative orientations are basically how an individual may relate to other people and are socialization attributes of character. A hoarding orientation is an acquiring and assimilating materials/valuables character trait. The marketing orientation arises in response to the human situation in the modern era. The current needs of the market determine value. It is a relativistic ethic. In contrast, the productive orientation is an objective ethic. Despite the existential struggles of humanity, each human has the potential for love, reason and productive work in life. Fromm writes, "It is the paradox of human existence that man must simultaneously seek for closeness and for independence; for oneness with others and at the same time for the preservation of his uniqueness and particularity. ...the answer to this paradox – and to the moral problems of man – is productiveness."

===Fromm's influence on other notable psychologists===
Fromm's four non-productive orientations were subject to validation through a psychometric test, ''The Person Relatedness Test'' by Elias H. Porter, PhD in collaboration with [[Carl Rogers]], PhD at the University of Chicago's Counseling Center between 1953 and 1955.  Fromm's four non-productive orientations also served as basis for the ''LIFO'' test, first published in 1967 by Stuart Atkins, Alan Katcher, PhD, and [[Elias Porter]], PhD and the ''Strength Deployment Inventory'', first published in 1971 by Elias H. Porter, PhD.<ref>((cite web| title= Relationship Awareness Theory Overview| website= personalstrengths.us| url= http://www.personalstrengths.us/index.php/en/ra-theory/theory-overview|publisher=Personal Strengths Publishing| access-date=28 January 2013| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130528120433/http://www.personalstrengths.us/index.php/en/ra-theory/theory-overview|archive-date=May 28, 2013 |url-status=dead))</ref> Fromm also influenced his student Sally L. Smith who went on to become the founder of the Lab School of Washington and the Baltimore Lab School.<ref>Liberman & Kiriki,1951</ref>

==Critique of Freud==
Fromm examined the life and work of [[Sigmund Freud]] at length. Fromm identified a discrepancy between early and later Freudian theory: namely that, prior to World War I, Freud had described human drives as a tension between desire and repression, but after the end of the war, began framing human drives as a struggle between biologically universal Life and Death ([[Sigmund Freud#Life and death drives|Eros and Thanatos]]) instincts.  Fromm charged Freud and his followers with never acknowledging the contradictions between the two theories.

Fromm also criticized Freud's dualistic thinking. According to Fromm, Freudian descriptions of human consciousness as struggles between two poles were narrow and limiting.  Fromm also condemned Freud as a [[misogynist]] unable to think outside the patriarchal milieu of early 20th century Vienna. However, in spite of these criticisms, Fromm nonetheless expressed a great respect for Freud and his accomplishments. Fromm contended that Freud was one of the "architects of the modern age", alongside [[Albert Einstein]] and [[Karl Marx]], but emphasized that he considered Marx both far more historically important than Freud and a finer thinker.<ref>Fromm, Erich. ''Beyond the Chains of Illusion: My Encounter with Marx & Freud''. London: Sphere Books, 1980, p. 11</ref>

==Political ideas and activities==
Fromm's best known work, ''Escape from Freedom'', focuses on the human urge to seek a source of authority and control upon reaching a freedom that was thought to be an individual's true desire. Fromm's critique of the modern political order and [[Capitalism|capitalist]] system led him to seek insights from [[Middle Ages|medieval]] [[feudalism]]. In ''Escape from Freedom'', he found value in the lack of individual freedom, rigid structure, and obligations required on the members of medieval society:

((blockquote| What characterizes medieval in contrast to modern society is its lack of individual freedom…But altogether a person was not free in the modern sense, neither was he alone and isolated.  In having a distinct, unchangeable, and unquestionable place in the social world from the moment of birth, man was rooted in a structuralized whole, and thus life had a meaning which left no place, and no need for doubt…There was comparatively little competition.  One was born into a certain economic position which guaranteed a livelihood determined by tradition, just as it carried economic obligations to those higher in the social hierarchy.<ref>Fromm, Erich "Escape from Freedom" New York: Rinehart & Co., 1941, p. 41 – 42</ref> ))

[[File:Chomsky 5 - On Fromm's alienation of man.ogg|thumb|[[Noam Chomsky]] discusses Erich Fromm's theory of alienation.]]

The culmination of Fromm's social and political philosophy was his book [[The Sane Society]], published in 1955, which argued in favor of a [[Humanism|humanistic]] and [[democratic socialism]]. Building primarily upon the early works of [[Karl Marx]], Fromm sought to re-emphasise the ideal of freedom, missing from most Soviet Marxism and more frequently found in the writings of [[Libertarian socialism|libertarian socialists]] and liberal theoreticians. Fromm's brand of socialism rejected both [[Capitalism|Western capitalism]] and [[Soviet communism]], which he saw as dehumanizing, and which resulted in the virtually universal modern phenomenon of [[Marx's theory of alienation|alienation]]. He became one of the founders of [[Marxist humanism|socialist humanism]], promoting the early writings of Marx and his humanist messages to the US and Western European public.

In the early 1960s, Fromm published two books dealing with Marxist thought (''[[Marx's Concept of Man]]'' and ''Beyond the Chains of Illusion: My Encounter with Marx and Freud''). In 1965, working to stimulate the Western and Eastern cooperation between Marxist humanists, Fromm published a series of articles entitled ''Socialist Humanism: An International Symposium''.  In 1966, the [[American Humanist Association]] named him Humanist of the Year.

For a period, Fromm was also active in U.S. politics. He joined the [[Socialist Party of America]] in the mid-1950s, and did his best to help them provide an alternative viewpoint to [[McCarthyist]] trends in some US political thought. This alternative viewpoint was best expressed in his 1961 paper ''May Man Prevail? An Inquiry into the Facts and Fictions of Foreign Policy''. However, as a co-founder of [[Peace Action|SANE]], Fromm's strongest political activism was in the international [[peace movement]], fighting against the [[nuclear arms race]] and U.S. involvement in the [[Vietnam War]]. After supporting Senator [[Eugene McCarthy]]'s losing bid for the [[1968 Democratic National Convention|Democratic presidential nomination]], Fromm more or less retreated from the American political scene, although he did write a paper in 1974 entitled ''Remarks on the Policy of Détente'' for a hearing held by the [[U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations]]. Fromm was awarded the [[Nelly Sachs Prize]] in 1979.

==Criticism==
In ''[[Eros and Civilization]]'', [[Herbert Marcuse]] is critical of Fromm: In the beginning, he was a radical theorist, but later he turned to conformity. Marcuse also noted that Fromm, as well as his close colleagues Sullivan and Karen Horney, removed Freud's libido theory and other [[Radicalism (historical)|radical]] concepts, which thus reduced psychoanalysis to a set of [[Ideal (ethics)|idealist]] ethics, which only embrace the [[status quo]].<ref>John Rickert, The Fromm-Marcuse debate revisited, 1986 in "Theory and Society", vol. 15, pp. 351–400. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht</ref> Fromm's response, in both ''The Sane Society''<ref>Erich Fromm, [1955] 1990 ''The Sane Society'', New York: Henry Holt</ref> and in ''The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness'',<ref>Erich Fromm, [1973] 1992, ''The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness'', New York: Henry Holt.</ref> argues that Freud indeed deserves substantial credit for recognizing the central importance of the unconscious, but also that he tended to reify his own concepts that depicted the self as the passive outcome of instinct and social control, with minimal volition or variability. Fromm argues that later scholars such as Marcuse accepted these concepts as dogma, whereas social psychology requires a more dynamic theoretical and empirical approach. In reference to Fromm's leftist political activism as a public intellectual, [[Noam Chomsky]] said "I liked Fromm's attitudes but thought his work was pretty superficial".<ref>((cite book |last= Barsky |first= Robert |year= 1997 |title= Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent |title-link=Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent |location= Cambridge, MA |publisher= MIT Press |page= [https://books.google.com/books?id=RKUbyYPG4mcC&q=Noam+Chomsky%3A+A+Life+of+Dissent+%22pretty+superficial%22&pg=PA134 134] ))</ref>

==Works==

===Early work in German===
((refbegin|30em))
* ''Das jüdische Gesetz. Ein Beitrag zur Soziologie des [[Diaspora]]-Judentums''. Promotion, 1922. ((ISBN|3-453-09896-X)).
* ''Über Methode und Aufgaben einer analytischen Sozialpsychologie''. Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung, Bd. 1, 1932, S. 28–54.
* ''Die psychoanalytische Charakterologie und ihre Bedeutung für die Sozialpsychologie''. Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung, Bd. 1, 1932, S. 253–277.
* ''Sozialpsychologischer Teil. In: Studien über Autorität und Familie''. Forschungsberichte aus dem Institut für Sozialforschung. Alcan, Paris 1936, S. 77–135.
* ''Zweite Abteilung: Erhebungen'' (Erich Fromm u.a.). In: Studien über Autorität und Familie. Forschungsberichte aus dem Institut für Sozialforschung. Alcan, Paris 1936, S. 229–469.
* ''Die Furcht vor der Freiheit'', 1941 (In English, "Fear/Dread of Freedom"). ((ISBN|3-423-35024-5))
* ''Psychoanalyse & Ethik'', 1946. ((ISBN|3-423-35011-3))
* ''Psychoanalyse & Religion'', 1949. ((ISBN|3-423-34105-X)) ([https://web.archive.org/web/20110903083209/http://www.yale.edu/terrylecture/past_23-99.html The Dwight H. Terry Lectureship 1949/1950])

===Later works in English===
* ''[[Escape from Freedom]]'' (US), ''The Fear of Freedom'' (UK) (1941) ((ISBN|978-0-8050-3149-2))
* ''Man for Himself: An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics'' (1947) ((ISBN|978-0-8050-1403-7))
* ''[[Psychoanalysis and Religion]]'' (1950) ((ISBN|978-0-300-00089-4))
* ''The Forgotten Language: An Introduction to the Understanding of Dreams, Fairy Tales, and Myths'' (1951) ((ISBN|978-0-03-018436-9))
* ''The Sane Society'' (1955) ((ISBN|978-0-415-60586-1))
* ''[[The Art of Loving]]'' (1956) ((ISBN|978-0-06-112973-5))
* ''Sigmund Freud's Mission: An Analysis of his Personality and Influence'' (1959)
* ''Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis'' (1960) ((ISBN|978-0-285-64747-3))
* ''May Man Prevail? An Inquiry into the Facts and Fictions of Foreign Policy'' (1961) ((ISBN|978-0-385-00035-2))
* ''[[Marx's Concept of Man]]'' (1961) ((ISBN|978-0-8264-7791-0))
* ''Beyond the Chains of Illusion: My Encounter with Marx and Freud'' (1962) ((ISBN|978-0-8264-1897-5))
* ''The Dogma of Christ and Other Essays on Religion, Psychology and Culture'' (1963) ((ISBN|978-0-415-28999-3))
* ''The Heart of Man: Its Genius for Good and Evil'' (1964) ((ISBN|978-0-06-090795-2))
* (editor) ''Socialist Humanism: An International Symposium'', (1965)
* ''You Shall Be as Gods: A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and Its Tradition'' (1966) ((ISBN|978-0-8050-1605-5))
* ''The Revolution of Hope: Toward a Humanized Technology'' (1968) ((ISBN|978-1-59056-183-6))
* ''The Nature of Man'' (1968) ((ISBN|978-0-86562-082-7))
* ''The Crisis of Psychoanalysis: Essays on Freud, Marx and Social Psychology'' (1970) ((ISBN|978-0-449-30792-2))
* ''Social Character in a Mexican Village: A Sociopsychoanalytic Study'' (Fromm & Maccoby) (1970) ((ISBN|978-1-56000-876-7))
* ''The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness'' (1973) ((ISBN|978-0-8050-1604-8))
* ''[[To Have or to Be?|To Have or To Be?]]'' (1976) ((ISBN|978-0-8050-1604-8))
* ''Greatness and Limitation of Freud's Thought'' (1979) ((ISBN|978-0-06-011389-6))
* ''[[On Disobedience and Other Essays]]'' (1981) ((ISBN|978-0-8164-0500-8))
* ''For the Love of Life'' (1986) ((ISBN|0-02-910930-2))
* ''The Art of Being'' (1993) ((ISBN|978-0-8264-0673-6))
* ''[[The Art of Listening]]'' (1994) ((ISBN|978-0-8264-1132-7))
* ''On Being Human'' (1997) ((ISBN|978-0-8264-1005-4))
((refend))

==See also==
* [[American philosophy]]
* [[Ernst Simmel]]
* [[Group narcissism]]
* [[List of American philosophers]]
* [[Psychoanalytic sociology]]
* [[Psychohistory]]

== Explanatory notes==
((reflist|group=n))

==References==
((Reflist))

== Further reading ==
* De Rodrigo, Enrique, ''Neoliberalismo y otras patologías de la normalidad. Conversando nuestro tiempo con Erich Fromm''. Madrid: PenBooks, 2015. ((ISBN|978-84-608-1648-5)). (Spanish)
* Friedman, Lawrence J., ''The Lives of Erich Fromm: Love's Prophet''. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013. ((ISBN|978-0231162586)).
* Funk, Rainer, ''Erich Fromm: His Life and Ideas An Illustrated Biography''. Continuum: New York, 2000. ((ISBN|978-0826412249)).
* Funk, Rainer, [http://www.logosjournal.com/issue_6.3/funk.htm "Life and Work of Erich Fromm"] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180730184221/http://www.logosjournal.com/issue_6.3/funk.htm |date=July 30, 2018 )), ''Logos'', 6:3, Summer 2007
* [[Ghislain Deslandes]], "Escape from freedom: Revisiting Erich Fromm in the light of Contemporary Authoritarianism", [[Organization Studies (journal)]], 2018.
* Jensen, Walter A., ''Erich Fromm's contributions to sociological theory''. Kalamazoo, MI: Printmill, 2017. ((ISBN|978-0970491947)).

==External links==
((wikiquote))
((Commons category))
* ((Helveticat))
* [https://fromm-online.org/ Erich Fromm online] – Official website about Erich Fromm, his Life and Work: Documents, information about the Institute, Study Center, Foundation, Literary Estate and events.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131102065315/http://www.erich-fromm.de/e/index.php erich-fromm.de] – Erich Fromm Archives; Literary Estate
* [https://www.fromm-gesellschaft.eu/index.php/en/ International Erich Fromm Society] 
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080102075325/http://www.ifefromm.it/ International Foundation Erich Fromm] ((in lang|it))
* [http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/multimedia/video/2008/wallace/fromm_erich.html 1958 Mike Wallace interview] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130725154038/http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/multimedia/video/2008/wallace/fromm_erich.html |date=July 25, 2013 )), hrc.utexas.edu
* [https://zenodo.org/record/10672 Интервью с Майком Уоллесом: в гостях Эрих Фромм], 1958 Mike Wallace interview ((in lang|ru)) Russian translation by Anzhela Cherkashyna ((doi|10.5281/zenodo.10672))
* [http://www.panarchy.org/fromm/escapefreedom.html ''Fear from Freedom'' Chapter V "Mechanisms of Escape from Freedom"], Erich Fromm (1942)
* [http://vault.fbi.gov/Erich%20Fromm FBI file on Erich Fromm]
* [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Erich-Fromm Erich Fromm] at the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''

((Critical theory))
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