Theories of Personality 9th Edition

Chapter 8 Fromm: Humanistic Psychoanalysis 243

need a woman to care for them, dote on them, and admire them; they feel some-
what anxious and depressed when their needs are not fulfilled. This condition is
relatively normal and does not greatly interfere with their daily life.
With incestuous symbiosis, however, people are inseparable from the host
person; their personalities are blended with the other person and their individual
identities are lost. Incestuous symbiosis originates in infancy as a natural attachment
to the mothering one. The attachment is more crucial and fundamental than any
sexual interest that may develop during the Oedipal period. Fromm disagreed with
Freud in suggesting that attachment to the mother rests on the need for security and
not for sex. “Sexual strivings are not the cause of the fixation to mother, but the
result” (Fromm, 1964, p. 99).
People living in incestuous symbiotic relationships feel extremely anxious
and frightened if that relationship is threatened. They believe that they cannot live
without their mother substitute. (The host need not be another human—it can be
a family, a business, a church, or a nation.) The incestuous orientation distorts
reasoning powers, destroys the capacity for authentic love, and prevents people
from achieving independence and integrity.
Some pathologic individuals possess all three personality disorders; that is,
they are attracted to death (necrophilia), take pleasure in destroying those whom
they regard as inferiors (malignant narcissism), and possess a neurotic symbiotic
relationship with their mother or mother substitute (incestuous symbiosis). Such
people formed what Fromm called the syndrome of decay. He contrasted these
pathological people with those who are marked by the syndrome of growth, which
is made up of the opposite qualities: namely, biophilia, love, and positive freedom.
As shown in Figure 8.1, both the syndrome of decay and the syndrome of growth
are extreme forms of development; most people have average psychological health.

Nec

rop

hilia

(^) B
iop
hilia
Incest
uou
s (^) sy
mb
ios
is Po
sitiv
e^ fre
edom
Syndrome
of
decay
Syndrome
of
growth
Average
development
Average
development
Narcissism Love of others
FIGURE 8.1 Three pathological orientations—necrophilia, narcissism, and
incestuous symbiosis—converge to form the syndrome of decay, whereas three healthy
orientations—biophilia, love of others, and positive freedom—converge in the syndrome
of growth. Most people have average development and are motivated by neither the
syndrome of decay nor the syndrome of growth.