Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionII. Psychodynamic
Theories- Fromm: Humanistic
Psychoanalysis
(^202) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
The Burden of Freedom
The central thesis of Fromm’s writings is that humans have been torn from nature,
yet they remain part of the natural world, subject to the same physical limitations as
other animals. As the only animal possessing self-awareness, imagination, and rea-
son, humans are “the freak[s] of the universe” (Fromm, 1955, p. 23). Reason is both
a curse and a blessing. It is responsible for feelings of isolation and loneliness, but it
is also the process that enables humans to become reunited with the world.
Historically, as people gained more and more economic and political freedom,
they came to feel increasingly more isolated. For example, during the Middle Ages
people had relatively little personal freedom. They were anchored to prescribed roles
in society, roles that provided security, dependability, and certainty. Then, as they ac-
quired more freedom tomove both socially and geographically, they found that they
were free fromthe security of a fixed position in the world. They were no longer tied
to one geographic region, one social order, or one occupation. They became sepa-
rated from their roots and isolated from one another.
A parallel experience exists on a personal level. As children become more in-
dependent of their mothers, they gain more freedom toexpress their individuality, to
move around unsupervised, to choose their friends, clothes, and so on. At the same
time, they experience the burden of freedom; that is, they are free fromthe security
of being one with the mother. On both a social and an individual level, this burden
of freedom results in basic anxiety,the feeling of being alone in the world.
Mechanisms of Escape
Because basic anxiety produces a frightening sense of isolation and aloneness, peo-
ple attempt to flee from freedom through a variety of escape mechanisms. In Escape
from Freedom,Fromm (1941) identified three primary mechanisms of escape—
authoritarianism, destructiveness, and conformity. Unlike Horney’s neurotictrends
(see Chapter 6), Fromm’s mechanisms of escape are the driving forces in normal
people, both individually and collectively.
Authoritarianism
Fromm (1941) defined authoritarianismas the “tendency to give up the indepen-
dence of one’s own individual self and to fuse one’s self with somebody or something
outside oneself, in order to acquire the strength which the individual is lacking”
196 Part II Psychodynamic Theories
TABLE 7.1
Summary of Fromm’s Human Needs
Relatedness Submission or domination Love
Transcendence Destructiveness Creativeness
Rootedness Fixation Wholeness
Sense of identity Adjustment to a group Individuality
Frame of orientation Irrational goals Rational goals
Negative Components Positive Components