Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionII. Psychodynamic
Theories- Fromm: Humanistic
Psychoanalysis
© The McGraw−Hill^205
Companies, 2009The negative qualities of receptive people include passivity, submissiveness,
and lack of self-confidence. Their positive traits are loyalty, acceptance, and trust.
Exploitative
Like receptive people, exploitative charactersbelieve that the source of all good is
outside themselves. Unlike receptive people, however, they aggressively take what
they desire rather than passively receive it. In their social relationships, they are
likely to use cunning or force to take someone else’s spouse, ideas, or property. An
exploitative man may “fall in love” with a married woman, not so much because he
is truly fond of her, but because he wishes to exploit her husband. In the realm of
ideas, exploitative people prefer to steal or plagiarize rather than create. Unlike re-
ceptive characters, they are willing to express an opinion, but it is usually an opin-
ion that has been pilfered.
On the negative side, exploitative characters are egocentric, conceited, arro-
gant, and seducing. On the positive side, they are impulsive, proud, charming, and
self-confident.
Hoarding
Rather than valuing things outside themselves, hoarding charactersseek to save
that which they have already obtained. They hold everything inside and do not let go
of anything. They keep money, feelings, and thoughts to themselves. In a love rela-
tionship, they try to possess the loved one and to preserve the relationship rather than
allowing it to change and grow. They tend to live in the past and are repelled by any-
thing new. They are similar to Freud’s anal characters in that they are excessively or-
derly, stubborn, and miserly. Fromm (1964), however, believed that hoarding char-
acters’ anal traits are not the result of sexual drives but rather are part of their general
interest in all that is not alive, including the feces.
Negative traits of the hoarding personality include rigidity, sterility, obstinacy,
compulsivity, and lack of creativity; positive characteristics are orderliness, cleanli-
ness, and punctuality.
Marketing
The marketing character is an outgrowth of modern commerce in which trade is
no longer personal but carried out by large, faceless corporations. Consistent with
the demands of modern commerce, marketing characters see themselves as com-
modities, with their personal value dependent on their exchange value, that is, their
ability to sell themselves.
Marketing, or exchanging, personalities must see themselves as being in con-
stant demand; they must make others believe that they are skillful and salable. Their
personal security rests on shaky ground because they must adjust their personality to
that which is currently in fashion. They play many roles and are guided by the motto
“ ‘I am as you desire me’ ” (Fromm, 1947, p. 73).
Marketing people are without a past or a future and have no permanent prin-
ciples or values. They have fewer positive traits than the other orientations because
they are basically empty vessels waiting to be filled with whatever characteristic is
most marketable.
Chapter 7 Fromm: Humanistic Psychoanalysis 199