fei75766_ch08_242-270.indd 269  02/06/20 12:02 PM
Chapter 8    Fromm: Humanistic Psychoanalysis269
Key Terms and Concepts
•People havebeen tornaway from theirprehistoric union withnature and
alsowithoneanother, yettheyhavethepower ofreasoning, foresight, and
imagination.
•Self-awareness contributes tofeelings ofloneliness, isolation, and
homelessness.
•Toescape these feelings, people strive tobecome united withothers and
withnature.
•Only theuniquely human needs ofrelatedness, transcendence, rootedness, 
sense ofidentity, andaframe oforientation canmove people toward a
reunion withthenatural world.
•Asense ofrelatedness drives people tounite withanother person through 
submission, power, orlove.
•Transcendence istheneed forpeople toriseabove theirpassive existence 
andcreate ordestroy life.
•Rootedness istheneed foraconsistent structure inpeople’s lives.
•Asense of identity gives aperson afeeling of“I”or“me.”
•Aframe of orientation isaconsistent wayoflooking attheworld.
•Basic anxiety isasense ofbeing alone intheworld.
•Torelieve basic anxiety, people usevarious mechanisms of escape, especially 
authoritarianism, destructiveness, andconformity.
•Psychologically healthy people acquire thesyndrome of growth, which 
includes (1)positive freedom, orthespontaneous activity ofawhole, 
integrated personality; (2)biophilia, orapassionate loveoflife;and(3)love
forfellow humans.
•Other people, however, livenonproductively andacquire things through 
passively receiving things,  exploiting others, hoarding things, andmarketing 
orexchanging things, including themselves.
•Some extremely sickpeople aremotivated bythesyndrome of decay, which 
includes (1)necrophilia, ortheloveofdeath; (2)malignant narcissism, or
infatuation withself;and(3)incestuous symbiosis, orthetendency toremain 
bound toamothering person orherequivalents.
•ThegoalofFromm’s psychotherapy istoestablish aunion withpatients so
thattheycanbecome reunited withtheworld.
References
Adorno, T.W.,Frenkel-Brunswick, E.,Levinson, 
D.J.,&Sanford, R.N.(1950). The 
authoritarian personality .NewYork: Harper.
Altemeyer, B.(1981). Right-wing authoritarianism. 
Winnipeg: University ofManitoba Press.
Bachofen, J.J.(1861/1967). Myth, religion, and 
Mother Right: Selected writings of Johann Jacob 
Bachofen (R.Manheim, Trans.). Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.Bachofen, J.J.(1861/1967). Myth, religion, and 
Mother Right: Selected writings of Johann Jacob 
Bachofen (R.Manheim, Trans.). Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
Bernard, M.M.,Gebauer, J.E.,&Maio, G.R.
(2006). Cultural estrangement: Theroleof
personal andsocietal value discrepancies. 
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 
78–92.Final PDF to printer