228 Part II Psychodynamic Theories
W
hy war? Why can’t nations get along? Why can’t people from different
countries relate to one another, if not in a respectful manner at least in an
acceptable one? How can people avoid the violence that leads to and perpetuates
slaughter on the battlefield?
As the young boy pondered these questions, a war raged throughout his
homeland. This war that he saw firsthand was World War I, the Great War, the
War to End All Wars. He saw that the people of his country—Germany—hated
people of the opposing countries—mostly France and England, and he was sure
that the people of France and England hated the people of Germany. The war made
no sense. Why would normally friendly and rational people revert to such senseless
killing?
These questions weren’t the first to have bothered the young boy. He was
also at a loss in trying to understand the suicide of a beautiful young artist who
killed herself immediately after the death of her father—an event that left the
12-year-old boy confused and perplexed. The young woman—a friend of the boy’s
family—was both beautiful and talented, whereas her father was old and unat-
tractive. Yet she left a suicide note stating that she wished to be buried with her
father. The young boy could make no sense of either her wish or her actions. The
beautiful artist seemed to have had much to live for, but she chose death rather
than a life without her father. How could the young woman make such a decision?
A third experience that helped shape the young man’s early life was his train-
ing by Talmudic teachers. He was especially moved by the compassionate and
redemptive tone of the Old Testament prophets Isaiah, Hosea, and Amos. Although
he later abandoned organized religion, these early experiences with the Talmudic
scholars, combined with his distaste for war and his puzzlement over the suicide of
the young artist, contributed substantially to the humanistic views of Erich Fromm.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. This combination of lack of animal
instincts and presence of rational thought makes humans the freaks of the universe.
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.
Trained in Freudian psychoanalysis and influenced by Karl Marx, Karen
Horney, and other socially oriented theorists, Fromm developed a theory of per-
sonality that emphasizes the influence of sociobiological factors, history, econom-
ics, 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.
Fromm was more than a personality theorist. He was a social critic, psycho-
therapist, philosopher, biblical scholar, cultural anthropologist, and psychobiogra-
pher. His humanistic psychoanalysis looks at people from a historical and cultural
perspective rather than a strictly psychological one. It is less concerned with the
individual and more concerned with those characteristics common to a culture.