THEORIES OF
FROMM’S BASIC ASSUMPTIONS
PERSONALITY
HUMANISTIC
PSYCHOANALYSIS BY ERICH
FROMM
ERICH FROMM: BIOGRAPHY
▪ Childhood experience that shaped his life:
Jewish Family Life, Suicide of a young
woman, extreme nationalism of Germany
▪ Heavily influenced by Freud, Marx, Old
Testament.
▪ His first wife was Freida Reichmann (his
analyst), 10 years older than him.
▪ Had a relationship with Karen Horney, who
was 15 years older than Fromm.
▪ He later married Henny Gurland. 2 years
younger than him, she died in 1952
▪ He then married again a year after to Annis
Freeman
▪ Fromm died on March 18, 1980, few days
before his 80th birthday
▪ He was an eloquent essayist.
OVERVIEW OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOANALYSIS
▪ Erich fromm’s basic thesis is that 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.
▪ Self-awareness contributes to feelings of
loneliness, isolation, and homelessness.
▪ To escape from these feelings, people strive
to become reunited with nature and with
their fellow human beings.
▪ His humanistic psychoanalysis assumes that
humanity’s separation from the natural
world has produced feelings of loneliness
and isolation, a condition called basic
anxiety.
▪ A more recent event in human history has
been the rise of capitalism, which on one
hand has contributed to the growth of
leisure time and personal freedom, but on
the other hand, it has resulted in feelings of
anxiety, isolation, and powerlessness.
▪ The isolation wrought by capitalism has
been unbearable, leaving people with two
alternatives:
o To escape from freedom into
interpersonal dependencies,
o To move to self-realization through
productive love and work.
1
▪ Human dilemma – Fromm (1947) believed
that humans, unlike other animals, have
been “torn away” from their prehistoric
union with nature. They have no powerful
instincts to adapt to a changing world;
instead, they have acquired the facility to
reason.
▪ Curse and Blessing of Reason – Blessing since
we became more efficient in surviving, it’s a
curse because it forces human beings to
solve the unsolvable dichotomies of life
which are called Existential Dichotomies.
▪ EXISTENTIAL DICHOTOMIES
➢ Life and Death – Self-awareness and
reason tell us that we will die, but we try
to negate this dichotomy by postulating
life after death, an attempt that does not
alter the fact that our lives end with
death.
➢ Humans are capable of conceptualizing
the goal of complete self-realization, but
we also are aware that life is too short to
reach that goal.
➢ The third existential dichotomy is that
people are ultimately alone, yet we
cannot tolerate isolation.
HUMAN NEEDS (EXISTENTIAL NEEDS)
▪ Existential Needs – As animals, humans are
motivated by such physiological needs as
hunger, sex, and safety; but they can never
resolve their human dilemma by satisfying
these animal needs.
▪ These existential needs have emerged
during the evolution of human culture,
growing out of their attempts to find an
answer to their existence and to avoid
becoming insane.
▪ Healthy people are those who found
meaning to their existence and neurotic
people are those who are still confused
about their existence.
▪ Healthy individuals are better able to find
ways of reuniting to the world by
productively solving the human needs of
relatedness, transcendence, rootedness, a
sense of identity, and a frame of orientation.
A. RELATEDNESS
▪ It is the drive for union with another person or
other persons.
▪ Three ways to relate to the world:
o Submission (negative)
➢ A person can submit to another, to a
group, or to an institution in order to
become one with the world.
o Domination (negative)
➢ domineering people, power seekers
welcome submissive partners.
 ➢ When a submissive person and a
domineering person find each other,
they frequently establish a symbiotic
relationship, one that is satisfying to
both partners.
➢ Although such symbiosis may be
gratifying, it blocks growth toward
integrity and psychological health.
➢ Similar to the concept
codependence
o Love ( positive)
➢ the only route by which a person can
become united with the world and,
at the same time, achieve
individuality and integrity.
➢ He 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”
➢ In love, two people become one yet
remain two.
➢ In The Art of Loving, Fromm (1956)
identified care, responsibility, respect,
and knowledge as four basic
elements common to all forms of
genuine love:
• Care – person and be willing to
take care of him or her.
• Responsibility - ability to respond
to their physical and
psychological needs
• Respect – respects them for who
they are, and avoids the
temptation of trying to change
them.
• Knowledge
B. TRANSCENDENCE
▪ It is defined as the urge to rise above a
passive and accidental existence and into
“the realm of purposefulness and freedom”
(Fromm,1981, p. 4).
o Destruction (negative)
➢ we can transcend life by destroying it
and thus rising above our slain victims
➢ Malignant Aggression – only humans
can kill others for reason other than
survival
o Creation (positive)
➢ Although other animals can create
life through reproduction, only
humans are aware of themselves as
creators.
➢ Also humans can be creative in other
ways. They can create art, religions,
ideas, laws, material production, and
love.
C. ROOTEDNESS
▪ It is the need to establish roots or to feel at
home again in the world. There are two ways
to feel our home again:
o Independence from Mother (positive)
➢ people are weaned from the orbit of
their mother and become full born;
of that is, they actively and creatively
relate to the world and become
whole or integrated.
o Fixation (negative)
➢ a tenacious reluctance to move
beyond the protective security
provided by one’s mother. People
who strive for rootedness through
fixation are “afraid to take the next
step of birth, to be weaned from the
mother’s breast. They have a deep
craving to be mothered, nursed,
protected by a motherly figure; they
are the externally dependent ones,
who are frightened and insecure
when motherly protection is
withdrawn”
➢ Fromm believed incestuous feelings
are based in “the deep-seated
craving to remain in, or to return to,
the all-enveloping womb, or to the
all-nourishing breasts.”
➢ He believed that ancients societies
are matriarchal and this tendency of
Fromm to revere mother figure is
evident in his relationship with
women.
D. SENSE OF IDENTITY
▪ It is the capacity to be aware of ourselves as
a separate entity. Because we have been
torn away from nature, we need to form a
concept of our self, to be able to say, “I am
I,” or “I am the subject of my actions.”
▪ Without a sense of identity, people could not
retain their sanity, and this threat provides a
powerful motivation to do almost anything
to acquire of identity. There are two ways to
achieve this:
o Adjustment to a Group (negative)
➢ Neurotics try to attach themselves to
powerful people or to social or
political institutions.
o Individuality (positive)
➢ Healthy people, however, have less
need to conform to the herd, less
need to give up their sense of self.
➢ They do not have to surrender their
freedom and individuality in order to
fit into society because they possess
an authentic sense of identity.
2
E. FRAME OF ORIENTATION
▪ Being split off from nature, humans need a
road map, a frame of orientation, to make
their way through the world.
▪ Without such a map, humans would be
“confused and unable to act purposefully
and consistently”. Basically, a philosophy in
life.
o Irrational Goals (negative)
➢ those who lack a reliable frame of
orientation will strive to put these
events into some sort of framework in
order to make sense of them.
➢ People will do nearly anything to
acquire and retain a frame of
orientation, even to the extreme of
following irrational or bizarre
philosophies such as those espoused
by fanatical political and religious
leaders.
o Rational Goals ( positive)
➢ People who possess a solid frame of
orientation can make sense of these
events and phenomena.
➢ According to Fromm, this goal or
object of devotion focuses people’s
energies in a single direction, enables
us to transcend our isolated
existence, and confers meaning to
their lives.
❖ Fromm believed that lack of satisfaction of
any of these EXISTENTIAL NEEDS is
unbearable and results in insanity.
❖ Existential needs is the Basic Hostility of
Fromm’s theory
❖ Same with Basic Hostility, it also breeds Basic
Anxiety
❖ Some people solve this Basic Anxiety by
subordinating or being subordinated by
people of Positive Freedom.
THE BURDEN OF FREEDOM
▪ Historically, as people gained more and
more economic and political freedom, they
came to feel increasingly more isolated.
o In the past, the moment you were born,
you already have a role of being an
artisan, blacksmith, laborer, king, queen,
nobleman/noblewoman, warrior,
scholar etc. Which is more or less forced
to you.
o Nowadays, we have so much freedom
to choose what we want to become and
where we want to be. We become
separated from their roots and isolated
from one another.
▪ On a more personal level, as children
become more independent of their
mothers, they gain more freedom to express
their individuality, to move around
3
unsupervised, to choose their friends,
clothes, and so on.
▪ On both a social and an individual level, this
burden of freedom results in basic anxiety,
the feeling of being alone in the world.
▪ Freedom is too tiring, exhausting and
daunting that is why people unconsciously
desire to escape from it.
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.
Fromm’s mechanisms of escape are the
driving forces in normal people, both
individually and collectively.
A. AUTHORITARIANISM
▪ The tendency to give up the independence
of one’s own individual self and to fuse one’s
self with somebody or something outside
oneself, in order to acquire the strength
which the individual is lacking. Can manifest
in two forms:
o Masochism
➢ results from basic feelings of
powerlessness, weakness, and
inferiority and is aimed at joining the
self to a more powerful person or
institution.
o Sadism
➢ is aimed at reducing basic anxiety
through achieving unity with another
person or persons. Three kinds of
sadistic tendencies:
• The need to make others
dependent on oneself and to
gain power over those who are
weak.
• The compulsion to exploit others,
to take advantage of them, and
to use them for one’s benefit or
pleasure.
• Sadistic tendency is the desire to
see others suffer, either physically
or psychologically.
B. DESTRUCTIVENESS
▪ Unlike sadism and masochism, however,
destructiveness does not depend on a
continuous relationship with another person;
rather, it seeks to do away with other
people.
o Both individuals and nations can employ
destructiveness as a mechanism of
escape (World Wars)
o Destroying in an individual level is more
like being aggressive to them (Karens)
C. 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.
▪ People in the modern world are free from
many external bonds and are free to act
according to their own will, but at the same
time, they do not know what they want,
think, or feel
▪ We are free to do what we want, but we are
also free to do what others want us to do.
POSITIVE FREEDOM
▪ A person “can be free and not alone, critical
and yet not filled with doubts, independent
and yet an integral part of mankind’, a
spontaneous and full expression of both their
rational and their emotional potentialities.
o Positive freedom represents a successful
solution to the human dilemma of being
part of the natural world and yet
separate from it.
o Through active love and work, humans
unite with one another and with the
world without sacrificing their integrity.
They affirm their uniqueness as individuals
and achieve full realization of their
potentialities.
CHARACTER ORIENTATIONS
▪ Similar with Horney’s Neurotic Trends, It is
defined as the way a person relate the world
in response to how a person solves his/her
existential dilemma and existential needs
that comes with it.
▪ Character – defined as “the relatively
permanent system of all noninstinctual
strivings through which man relates himself
to the human and natural world”
▪ Characterized into two: Nonproductive and
Productive
A. NONPRODUCTIVE ORIENTATIONS
▪ Fromm used the term “nonproductive” to
suggest strategies that fail to move people
closer to positive freedom and self-
realization. Personality is always a blend or
combination of several orientations, even
though one orientation is dominant.
1. RECEPTIVE CHARACTERS
▪ Receptive characters feel that the source of
all good lies outside themselves and that the
only way they can relate to the world is to
4
receive things, including love, knowledge,
and material possessions.
o Negative traits: passivity, submissiveness,
and lack of self-confidence.
o Positive traits: loyalty, acceptance and
trust
2. EXPLOITATIVE CHARACTERS
▪ Exploitative characters believe that the
source of all good is outside themselves.
Unlike receptive people, however, they
aggressively take what they desire rather
than passively receive it. They steal people,
ideas and other properties from other
people just for the joy of it.
o Negative traits: exploitative character
are egocentric, conceited, arrogant,
and seducing
o Positive traits: impulsive, proud, charming
and self-confident
3. HOARDING CHARACTERS
▪ 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. They do not like
change.
▪ Almost the same with Anal Personality
o Negative Traits: rigidity, sterility,
obstinacy, compulsivity and lack of
creativity
o Positive traits: orderliness, cleanliness and
punctuality.
4. MARKETING CHARACTERS
▪ Marketing character see themselves as
commodities, with their personal value
dependent on their exchange value, that is
their ability to sell themselves. Their personal
security rests on shady ground because they
must adjust their personality to that which is
currently in fashion.
▪ Marketing people are without a past or a
future and have no permanent principles or
values.
▪ They have fewer positive traits than the other
orientations because they are basically
empty vessels waiting to be filled with
whatever characteristic is most marketable.
o Negative traits: aimless, opportunistic,
inconsistent and wasteful
o Positive traits: changeability, open-
mindedness, adaptability and generosity
B. PRODUCTIVE ORIENTATIONS
▪ The single productive orientation has three
dimensions: working, loving and reasoning
▪ Only through productive activity can
people solve the basic human dilemma:
that is, to unite with the world and with others
while retaining uniqueness and individuality.
o Working
➢ Healthy people value work not as an
end in itself, but as a means of
creative self expression.
➢ They do not work to exploit others, to
market themselves, to withdraw from
others, or to accumulate needless
material possessions. They are neither
lazy nor compulsively active, but use
work as a means of producing life’s
necessities.
o Loving
➢ Productive love is characterized by
the four qualities of love discussed
earlier—care, responsibility, respect,
and knowledge.
➢ Biophilia: that is, a passionate love of
life and all that is alive, Biophilic
people desire to further all life—the
life of people, animals, plants, ideas,
and cultures. They are concerned
with the growth and development of
themselves as well as others.
➢ Fromm believed that love of others
and self-love are inseparable but that
selflove must come first. All people
have the capacity for productive
love, but most do not achieve it
because they cannot first love
themselves.
o Reasoning
➢ Productive thinking, which cannot be
separated from productive work and
love, is motivated by a concerned
interest in another person or object.
Healthy people see others as they are
and not as they would wish them to
be. Similarly, they know themselves
for who they are and have no need
for self-delusion.
❖ Fromm (1947) believed that healthy people
rely on some combination of all five
character orientations. Their survival as
healthy individuals depends on their ability
to receive things from other people, to take
things when appropriate, to preserve things,
to exchange things, and to work, love, and
think productively.
❖ Syndrome of Growth – People with biophilia,
love, positive freedom
PERSONALITY DISORDERS
▪ If healthy people are able to work, love, and
think productively, then unhealthy
personalities are marked by problems in
these three areas, especially failure to love
productively.
5
A. NECROPHILIA
▪ The term “necrophilia” means love of death
and usually refers to a sexual perversion in
which a person desires sexual contact with
a corpse. However, Fromm (1964,1973) used
necrophilia in a more generalized sense to
denote any attraction to death. Necrophilia
is an alternative character orientation to
biophilia.
o Necrophilic personalities
➢ They hate humanity; they are racists,
warmongers, and bullies; they love
bloodshed, destruction, terror, and
torture; and they delight in destroying
life.
➢ They are strong advocates of law and
order; love to talk about sickness,
death, and burials; and they are
fascinated by dirt, decay, corpses,
and feces.
B. MALIGNANT NARCISSISM
▪ In its malignant form, narcissism impedes the
perception of reality so that everything
belonging to a narcissistic person is highly
valued and everything belonging to
another is devalued.
o Preoccupation with one’s body often
leads to hypochondriasis – an obsessive
attention to one’s health.
o Moral hypochondriasis – a
preoccupation with guilt about previous
transgressions.
o Narcissistic people possess what Horney
(see Chapter 6) called “neurotic claims.”
C. INCESTUOUS SYMBIOSIS
▪ Incestuous symbiosis is an extreme
dependence on the mother or mother
surrogate. People are inseparable from the
host person; their personalities are blended
with the other person and their individual
identities are lost.
▪ Fromm agreed more with Harry Stack
Sullivan (see Chapter 8) than with Freud in
suggesting that attachment to the mother
rests on the need for security and not for sex.
“Sexual strivings are not the cause of the
fixation to mother, but the result” (Fromm,
1964, p. 99).
▪ People living in incestuous symbiotic
relationships feel extremely anxious and
frightened if that relationship is threatened.
They believe that they cannot live without
their mother substitute.
o The host need not be another human—it
can be a family, a business, a church, or
a nation.
D. SYNDROME OF DECAY

▪ Some pathologic individuals possess all

three personality disorders; that is, they are
attracted to death (necrophilia), take
pleasure in destroying those whom they
regard as inferiors (malignant narcissism),
and possess a neurotic symbiotic
relationship with their mother or mother
substitute (incestuous symbiosis).

PSYCHOTHERAPY

▪ Psychotherapy – Compared with Freud,

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.
▪ 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.