Theories of Personality

Humanistic Psychoanalysis
TITLE LOREM IPSUM
Sit Dolor Amet
Prepared by: Kharis Anne P. Taghoy, RPm
Humanistic Psychoanalysis

Erich Fromm (1900 – 1980)

 Overview
◦ Modern-day people have been torn away from their prehistoric union
with nature and also with one another, yet they have the power of
reasoning, foresight, and imagination; humans are freaks of the
universe.
◦ A theory of personality that emphasizes the influence of
sociobiological factors, history, economics, and class structure. His
humanistic psychoanalysis assumes that humanity’s separation from
the natural world has produced feelings of loneliness and isolation, a
condition called basic anxiety.
 Biography

o Born on March 23, 1900, in Frankfurt, Germany

o The only child of middle-class Orthodox Jewish parents.
o As a boy, Erich studied the Old Testament with several prominent
scholars, men who were regarded as “humanists of extraordinary
tolerance”
o A not too happy childhood
o Two significant events
• Suicide of parents friend
• WWI
o “My main interest was clearly mapped out. I wanted to understand the
laws that govern the life of the individual man, and the laws of society”
 Biography
o Studied psychology, sociology, and philosophy at the University of
Heidelberg
o Married his first analyst, Frieda Reichmann, who was more than 10 years
his senior
o In 1944, Fromm married Henny Gurland, a woman two years younger
than Fromm
o Renewed his acquaintance with Karen Horney, who became a strong
mother figure and mentor to him
o He died March 18, 1980, a few days short of his 80th birthday.
o Fromm was authoritarian, gentle, pretentious, arrogant, pious, autocratic,
shy, sincere, phony, and brilliant.
o His theory of personality borrows from myriad sources and is, perhaps, the
most broadly based theory.
 Fromm’s 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. Instead, they have acquired the facility to reason – a condition Fromm
called the human dilemma.

Fundamental Dichotomies
o Life and Death
o Complete Self- realization and shortness of life
o People are ultimately alone yet we cannot
tolerate isolation
 Human Needs
Only the distinctive human needs can move people toward a reunion
with the natural world. Also known as Existential needs:

1. Relatedness
2. Transcendence
3. Rootedness
4. Sense of Identity
5. Frame of Orientation
 Human Needs

1. Relatedness
The drive for union with another person or
other persons.

Three basic ways in which a person may

relate to the world:
o Submission
o Power
o Love
 Three Basic Ways
Submission
When a submissive person and a domineering
person find each other, they frequently
establish a symbiotic relationship, one that is
satisfying to both partners.

The two partners “live on each other and from each

other, satisfying their craving for closeness, yet
suffering from the lack of inner strength and
self-reliance which would require freedom and
independence.” (Fromm, 1981, p. 2)
 Three Basic Ways
Power

People in symbiotic relationships are drawn to one

another not by love but by a desperate need for
relatedness, a need that can never be completely
satisfied by such a partnership.

Underlying the union are unconscious feelings of

hostility.
 Three Basic Ways
Love
Define as “the union with somebody, or something
outside oneself under the condition of retaining the
separateness and integrity of one’s own self.”

In love, two people become one yet remain two.

Four basic elements of love:
o Care
o Responsibility
o Respect
o Knowledge
 Human Needs

2. Transcendence
Defined as the urge to rise above a passive and accidental existence and into “the
realm of purposefulness and freedom”.

Malignant aggression- that is, to kill for reasons other than survival
 Human Needs
3. Rootedness
o The need to establish roots
o To feel at home again in the world
o Influence of mother’s role.
Fixation— a tenacious reluctance to move beyond the protective
security provided by one’s mother
 Human Needs

4. Sense of identity
o The capacity to be aware of ourselves as
a separate entity.
o The need to form a concept of our self,
to be able to say, “I am I,” or “I am the
subject of my actions.”
 Human Needs

5. Frame of Orientation
o A road map, a frame of orientation, to
make their way through the world.”
o Refers to goals or destinations.
Summary of Human Needs
 The Burden of Freedom
o As the only animal possessing
self-awareness, humans are what
Fromm called the “freaks of the
universe.”

o Freedom becomes a burden, and

people experience basic anxiety, or a
feeling of being alone in the world.
 Mechanisms of Escape
Because basic anxiety produces a frightening sense of isolation and
aloneness, people attempt to flee from freedom through a variety of
escape mechanisms:

(1) Authoritarianism
(2) Destructiveness
(3) Conformity
 Mechanisms of Escape
1. Authoritarianism
“The tendency to give up the
independence of one’s own individual self
and to fuse one’s self with someone or
something outside oneself in order to
acquire the strength which the individual
is lacking”

Two forms:
(1) Masochism
(2) Sadism
Mechanisms of Escape
2. Destructiveness
o By destroying people and objects, a
person or a nation attempts to restore
lost feelings of power.

3. Conformity
o 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.
◦ Love and work are the twin components of positive freedom
 Character Orientation
◦ A person’s relatively permanent way of relating to people and
things.
◦ Character - the most important of the acquired qualities of
personality; is a substitute for instincts

o Assimilation - acquiring and using things.

o Socialization - Relating to self and others.

 Nonproductive Orientations
o Strategies that fail to move people closer to positive freedom and self- realization.
o Not entirely negative.
o People can acquire things through any one of four non productive orientations:

1. Receptive
2. Exploitative
3. Hoarding
4. Marketing
 Nonproductive Orientations

(1) Receptive
The only way they can relate to the world is to
receive things, including love, knowledge, and
material possessions

o Negative qualities = passivity, submissiveness,

and lack of self-confidence.
o Positive traits = royalty, acceptance, and trust.
 Nonproductive Orientation

(2) Exploitative
They aggressively take what they desire rather than
passively receive it.

o Negative side = egocentric, conceited, arrogant,

and seducing.
o Positive side = impulsive, proud, charming, and
self- confident.
 Nonproductive Orientation
(3) Hoarding
Characters seek to save that which they have
already obtained.
They hold everything inside and do not let go of
anything. They keep money, feelings, and
thoughts to themselves.

o Negative traits = rigidity, sterility, obstinacy,

compulsivity, and lack of creativity;
o Positive characteristics = orderliness,
cleanliness, and punctuality.
 Nonproductive Orientation
(4) Marketing
See themselves as commodities
Their personal value dependent on their
exchange value, that is, their ability to sell
themselves.
“I am as you desire me”

o Negative traits = aimless, opportunistic,

inconsistent, and wasteful.
o Positive qualities =changeability, open
mindedness, adaptability, and generosity.
 Productive Orientation
Psychologically healthy people work
toward positive freedom through:

o Work: a means of creative expression

o Love
Biophilia - a passionate love of life and
all that is alive
o Productive thinking
 Personality Disorders
People who are incapable of love and have failed to establish union
with others.

1. Necrophilia
2. Malignant narcissism
3. Incestuous symbiosis
 Personality Disorders
1.Necrophilia

oAny attraction to death.

oNecrophilic personalities hate humanity; they are
racists, warmongers, and bullies; they love
bloodshed, destruction, terror, and torture; and
they delight in destroying life.
 Personality Disorders
2. Malignant Narcissism
Impedes the perception of reality so that everything
belonging to a narcissistic person is highly valued
and everything belonging to another is devalued.

◦ Hypochondriasis
Preoccupation with one’s body or an
obsessive attention to one’s health

◦ Moral hypochondriasis
preoccupation with guilt
about previous
transgressions.
 Personality Disorders

3. Incestuous Symbiosis
o Extreme dependence on the mother or
mother surrogate.
o People are inseparable from the host
person or object.
Personality Disorders
 Psychotherapy
o Humanistic psychoanalysis
o Fromm was much more concerned with the interpersonal aspects of a
therapeutic encounter. He believed that the aim of therapy is for patients
to come to know themselves. Without knowledge of ourselves, we cannot
know any other person or thing.
o Fromm believed that patients come to therapy seeking satisfaction of their
basic human needs—relatedness, transcendence, rootedness, a sense of
identity, and a frame of orientation. Therefore, therapy should be built on
a personal relationship between therapist and patient
 Psycho-historical Study of Adolf Hitler
Necrophilia
His necrophilia was expressed in his mania for destroying
buildings and cities, his orders to kill “defective” people, his
boredom, and his slaughter of millions of Jews

Malignant narcissism
◦He was interested only in himself, his plans, and his ideology.
He had no interest in anyone unless that person was of service
to him.

Incestuous symbiosis
◦Manifested by his passionate devotion not to his real mother
but to the Germanic “race.” Consistent with this trait, he also
was sadomasochistic, withdrawn, and lacking in feelings of
genuine love or compassion.
 Critique of Fromm’s Theory

The strength of Fromm’s theory is his lucid writings

on a broad range of human issues.

As a scientific theory:
o High on Organizing Knowledge
o Low on Guiding Action
o Low Internal Consistency
o Low Parsimony
o Very Low on Generating Research and
Falsifiability
Concept of Humanity

◦ Average on free choice vs determinism

◦ Average on optimism vs pessimism
◦ Average on unconscious vs conscious influences
◦ Average on uniqueness and similarities
◦ Low on causality vs teleology
◦ High on social influences