Erich Fromm was a German-American psychologist who developed humanistic psychoanalysis, which emphasizes sociobiological influences on personality. Fromm believed humanity's separation from nature causes basic anxiety and dichotomies like life/death that people try to resolve. He identified existential needs like relatedness, transcendence, and identity. Productive orientations like working and loving help fulfill needs, while unproductive ones like authoritarianism and destructiveness rely on escape mechanisms. Fromm's theory organizes knowledge but lacks consistency, parsimony, and falsifiability for research.

1. Humanistic Psychoanalysis
Erich Fromm
PSY103 – Theories of Personality

2. Overview
Emphasizes the influence of
sociobiological factors, history,
economics, and class structure.
Humanity’s separation from the natural
world has produced feelings of loneliness
& isolation, called Basic Anxiety.

3. Erich Fromm
Born in Germany in 1900.
Strict upbringing, similar to Karen Horney
Eclectic philosophy
Combination of Sigmund Freud and Karl
Marx
First infatuation / WWI
Married three times
Went to the US in 1934, affair with Karen
Horney

4. Erich Fromm
Went to Mexico towards end of career
Private Psychoanalytic practice
Publication of researches and books
Died in Switzerland in 1980, 5 days before
his 80th birthday.

5. Influences
1. Teachings of humanistic rabbis
2. Karl Marx
3. Sigmund Freud
4. Zen Buddhism
5. Johann Jakob Bachofen

6. Basic Assumptions
Individual personality can be understood
in the light of human history.
Concept of Human Dilemma
◦ Reasoning facility
◦ Awareness as isolated beings
◦ Permits them to survive
◦ Tendency to solve insoluble dichotomies

7. Fundamental Dichotomies
Life and Death
Complete Self- realization and shortness
of life
Separate Individuals and Social
Relatedness

8. Human Needs
Also known as existential needs
◦ Relatedness
◦ Transcendence
◦ Rootedness
◦ Sense of Identity
◦ Frame of Orientation

9. Relatedness
Drive for union with
another person or other
persons.
Submission
Power
Love

10. Transcendence
 An urge to rise above
a passive and accidental
existence and into the
realm of
purposefulness and
freedom.
 Malignant Aggression

11. Rootedness
The need to establish roots
To feel at home with the world.
Influence of mother’s role

12. Sense of Identity
The capacity to be aware of ourselves as
a separate entity.

13. Frame of Orientation
Philosophy, a consistent way of thinking.
Refers to Goals or destinations

14. Summary of Human Needs
Negative Positive
Components Components
Relatedness Submission / Love
domination
Transcendence Destructiveness Creativeness
Rootedness Fixation Wholeness
Sense of Identity Group Individuality
conformity
Frame of Irrational goals Rational goals
Orientation

15. Mechanisms of Escape
Authoritarianism
◦ Tendency to fuse with another person
◦ Masochism / sadism
Destructiveness
◦ By destruction, people restore feelings of
power.
Conformity
◦ Reactive, acts like robots

16. Positive Freedom
 Solution to the human dilemma
 Represents overcoming of loneliness, achieving union
with the world, & maintain individuality.

17. Character Orientations
A person’s relatively permanent way of
relating to persons and things.
Character replaces instincts
Assimilation
◦ Acquisition and use of things
Socialization
◦ Relating to self and others

18. Non- Productive Orientations
Strategies that fail to move people closer to
positive freedom and self- realization.
Not entirely negative
◦ Receptive
◦ Exploitative
◦ Hoarding
◦ Marketing

19. Receptive
The only way they can relate to the world is by
receiving things; more concerned with receiving
than giving.
Passivity, submissiveness, lack self- confidence
Loyalty, acceptance, trust

20. Exploitative
Aggressively take what they desire
Egocentric, conceited, arrogant, seducing
Impulsive, proud, charming, self-
confident.

21. Hoarding
Hold everything inside and do not let go of
anything.
Rigidity, sterility, obstinacy, compulsivity, lack of
creativity
Orderliness, cleanliness, punctuality

22. Marketing
Dependent on the ability to sell themselves.
Personal security rests on shaky grounds.
No permanent principles or values.
Opportunistic and wasteful
Openmindedness & adaptability

23. The Productive Orientation
Working
Loving
Reasoning

24. Personality Disorders
People who are incapable of love and
uniting with others.
Necrophilia
MalignantNarcissism
Incestuous Symbiosis

25. Necrophilia
Any attraction to death
Hates humanity
Destructive behavior is a
manifestation of their basic character

26. Malignant Narcissism
Impedes the perception of reality so that
everything belonging to a narcissistic
person is valued and everything belonging
to another is devalued.

27. Incestuous Symbiosis
Extreme dependence on the mother or
mother surrogate.
It may be another person or object.

28. Comparison
Syndrome of Decay Syndrome of Growth
Necrophilia Biophilia
Narcissism Love
Incestuous Symbiosis Positive Freedom

29. Psychotherapy
Dream Analysis
Interviews
Questionnaires
Projective Techniques
Psychohistory

30. Examples
Social Character in a Mexican Village
◦ Study of social character in an isolated farming village in
Mexico
◦ Found evidence of all character orientations except the
marketing one
A Psychohistorical Study of Hitler
◦ Applied the techniques of psychohistory to study Hitler,
the conspicuous example of someone with the
syndrome of decay
◦ Fromm traces and describes Hitler’s necrophilia,
malignant narcissism, and incestuous symbiosis

31. Critique
Fromm’s Theory Is:
◦ High on Organizing Knowledge
◦ Low on Guiding Action, Internal
Consistency, and Parsimony
◦ Very Low on Generating Research and
Falsifiability