fei75766_ch08_242-270.indd 243  02/06/20 12:02 PM
Chapter 8    Fromm: Humanistic Psychoanalysis243
Whywar?Whycan’t nations getalong? Whycan’t people from different coun -
triesrelate tooneanother, ifnotinarespectful manner atleastinanaccept -
ableone?How canpeople avoid theviolence thatleads toandperpetuates slaughter 
onthebattlefield?
Astheyoung boypondered these questions, awarraged throughout hishome -
land. Thiswarthathesawfirsthand wasWorld WarI,theGreat War, theWarto
EndAllWars. Hesawthatthepeople ofhiscountry—Germany—hated people ofthe
opposing countries—mostly France andEngland, andhewassurethatthepeople of
France andEngland hated thepeople ofGermany. Thewarmade nosense. Why
would normally friendly andrational people revert tosuchsenseless killing?
These questions weren’t thefirsttohavebothered theyoung boy.Hewasalso
atalossintrying tounderstand thesuicide ofabeautiful young artist whokilled her-
selfimmediately afterthedeath ofherfather—an event thatleftthe12-year-old boy
confused andperplexed. Theyoung woman—a friend oftheboy’s family—was both
beautiful andtalented, whereas herfather wasoldandunattractive. Yetshelefta
suicide notestating thatshewished tobeburied withherfather. Theyoung boycould 
make nosense ofeither herwishorheractions. Thebeautiful artist seemed tohave
hadmuch tolivefor,butshechose death rather thanalifewithout herfather. How 
could theyoung woman make suchadecision?
Athird experience thathelped shape theyoung man’s early lifewashis
training byTalmudic teachers. Hewasespecially moved bythecompassionate 
andredemptive toneoftheOldTestament prophets Isaiah, Hosea, andAmos. 
Although helaterabandoned organized religion, these early experiences withthe
Talmudic scholars, combined withhisdistaste forwarandhispuzzlement over
thesuicide oftheyoung artist, contributed substantially tothehumanistic views of
Erich Fromm.
Overview of Humanistic Psychoanalysis
Erich Fromm’s basic thesis isthatmodern-day people havebeen tornaway from 
theirprehistoric union withnature andalsowithoneanother, yettheyhavethe
power ofreasoning, foresight, andimagination. Thiscombination oflackofanimal 
instincts andpresence ofrational thought makes humans thefreaks oftheuniverse. 
Self-awareness contributes tofeelings ofloneliness, isolation, andhomelessness. 
Toescape from these feelings, people strive tobecome reunited withnature andwith
theirfellow human beings.
Trained inFreudian psychoanalysis andinfluenced byKarlMarx, Karen 
Horney, andother socially oriented theorists, Fromm developed atheory ofpersonal -
itythatemphasizes theinfluence ofsociobiological factors, history, economics, and
class structure. Hishumanistic psychoanalysis assumes thathumanity’s separation 
from thenatural world hasproduced feelings ofloneliness andisolation, acondition 
called basic anxiety.
Fromm wasmore thanapersonality theorist. Hewasasocial critic, psychother -
apist, philosopher, biblical scholar, cultural anthropologist, andpsychobiographer. 
Hishumanistic psychoanalysis looks atpeople from ahistorical andcultural perspec -
tiverather thanastrictly psychological one.Itislessconcerned withtheindividual 
andmore concerned withthose characteristics common toaculture.Final PDF to printer