Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionII. Psychodynamic
Theories- Fromm: Humanistic
Psychoanalysis
(^206) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
Negative traits of marketing characters are aimless, opportunistic, inconsis-
tent, and wasteful. Some of their positive qualities include changeability, open-
mindedness, adaptability, and generosity.
The Productive Orientation
The single productive orientation has three dimensions—working, loving, and rea-
soning. Because productive people work toward positive freedom and a continuing
realization of their potential, they are the most healthy of all character types. Only
through productive activity can people solve the basic human dilemma: that is, to
unite with the world and with others while retaining uniqueness and individuality.
This solution can be accomplished only through productive work, love, and thought.
Healthy people value worknot as an end in itself, but as a means of creative self-
expression. They do not work to exploit others, to market themselves, to withdraw
from others, or to accumulate needless material possessions. They are neither lazy
nor compulsively active, but use work as a means of producing life’s necessities.
Productive loveis characterized by the four qualities of love discussed ear-
lier—care, responsibility, respect, and knowledge. In addition to these four charac-
teristics, healthy people possess biophilia:that is, a passionate love of life and all
that is alive. Biophilic people desire to further all life—the life of people, animals,
plants, ideas, and cultures. They are concerned with the growth and development of
themselves as well as others. Biophilic individuals want to influence people through
love, reason, and example—not by force.
Fromm believed that love of others and self-love are inseparable but that self-
love must come first. All people have the capacity for productive love, but most do
not achieve it because they cannot first love themselves.
Productive thinking,which cannot be separated from productive work and
love, is motivated by a concerned interest in another person or object. Healthy peo-
ple see others as they are and not as they would wish them to be. Similarly, they
know themselves for who they are and have no need for self-delusion.
Fromm (1947) believed that healthy people rely on some combination of all
five character orientations. Their survival as healthy individuals depends on their
ability to receivethings from other people, to takethings when appropriate, to pre-
servethings, to exchangethings, and to work, love,and thinkproductively.
Personality Disorders
If healthy people are able to work, love, and think productively, then unhealthy per-
sonalities are marked by problems in these three areas, especially failure to love pro-
ductively. Fromm (1981) held that psychologically disturbed people are incapable of
love and have failed to establish union with others. He discussed three severe per-
sonality disorders—necrophilia, malignant narcissism,and incestuous symbiosis.
Necrophilia
The term “necrophilia” means love of death and usually refers to a sexual perversion
in which a person desires sexual contact with a corpse. However, Fromm (1964,
1973) used necrophiliain a more generalized sense to denote any attraction to
200 Part II Psychodynamic Theories