238 Part II Psychodynamic Theories
does not depend on a continuous relationship with another person; rather, it seeks
to do away with other people.
Both individuals and nations can employ destructiveness as a mechanism of
escape. By destroying people and objects, a person or a nation attempts to restore lost
feelings of power. However, by destroying other persons or nations, destructive peo-
ple eliminate much of the outside world and thus acquire a type of perverted isolation.Conformity
A third means of escape is conformity. People who conform try to escape from a
sense of aloneness and isolation by giving up their individuality and becoming what-
ever other people desire them to be. Thus, they become like robots, reacting predict-
ably and mechanically to the whims of others. They seldom express their own
opinion, cling to expected standards of behavior, and often appear stiff and automated.
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. They conform like automatons to an anonymous authority
and adopt a self that is not authentic. The more they conform, the more powerless
they feel; the more powerless they feel, the more they must conform. People can
break this cycle of conformity and powerlessness only by achieving self-realization
or positive freedom (Fromm, 1941).Positive Freedom
The emergence of political and economic freedom does not lead inevitably to the
bondage of isolation and powerlessness. A person “can be free and not alone, criti-
cal and yet not filled with doubts, independent and yet an integral part of mankind”
(Fromm, 1941, p. 257). People can attain this kind of freedom, called positive
freedom, by a spontaneous and full expression of both their rational and their emo-
tional potentialities. Spontaneous activity is frequently seen in small children and in
artists who have little or no tendency to conform to whatever others want them to
be. They act according to their basic natures and not according to conventional rules.
Positive freedom represents a successful solution to the human dilemma of being
part of the natural world and yet separate from it. Through positive freedom and
spontaneous activity, people overcome the terror of aloneness, achieve union with the
world, and maintain individuality. Fromm (1941) held that love and work are the twin
components of positive freedom. 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
In Fromm’s theory, personality is reflected in one’s character orientation, that is,
a person’s relatively permanent way of relating to people and things. Fromm (1947)
defined personality as “the totality of inherited and acquired psychic qualities
which are characteristic of one individual and which make the individual unique”
(p. 50). The most important of the acquired qualities of personality is character,