Erich Fromm

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Lore & Background

Erich Fromm was born on March 23, 1900, in Frankfurt am Main, the only child of Rosa and Naphtali Fromm. He started academic studies in 1918 at the University of Frankfurt am Main with two semesters of jurisprudence. During the summer semester of 1919, he studied at the University of Heidelberg, where he began studying sociology under Alfred Weber, Karl Jaspers, and Heinrich Rickert. Fromm received his Ph.D. in sociology from Heidelberg in 1922 with a dissertation titled *Das jüdische Gesetz. Ein Beitrag zur Soziologie des Diaspora-Judentums* (The Jewish Law: A Contribution to the Sociology of Jewish Diaspora). He became strongly involved in Zionism under the influence of Rabbi Nehemia Anton Nobel, but soon turned away, saying it conflicted with his ideal of a 'universalist Messianism and Humanism.' During the mid-1920s, he trained to become a psychoanalyst through Frieda Reichmann's psychoanalytic sanatorium in Heidelberg. They married in 1926, separated shortly after, and divorced in 1942. He began his own clinical practice in 1927. In 1930 he joined the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research and completed his psychoanalytical training. After the Nazi takeover, he moved first to Geneva and then, in 1934, to Columbia University in New York. He helped form the New York branch of the Washington School of Psychiatry in 1943, and in 1946 co-founded the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology. He was on the faculty of Bennington College from 1941 to 1949, and taught courses at the New School for Social Research in New York from 1941 to 1959. When Fromm moved to Mexico City in 1949, he became a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and established a psychoanalytic section at the medical school there. He taught as a professor of psychology at Michigan State University from 1957 to 1961 and as an adjunct professor of psychology at New York University after 1962. He taught at UNAM until his retirement in 1965, and at the Mexican Society of Psychoanalysis (SMP) until 1974. In 1974, he moved from Mexico City to Muralto, Switzerland, and died at his home in 1980, five days before his eightieth birthday. Fromm was reportedly an atheist but described his position as 'nontheistic mysticism.'

Reader's Guide

Erich Fromm's significance lies in his synthesis of psychoanalysis, sociology, and humanistic philosophy, challenging authoritarian value systems and emphasizing human freedom and love. His 1941 work *Escape from Freedom* (known in Britain as *The Fear of Freedom*) is viewed as one of the founding works of political psychology. His second important work, *Man for Himself: An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics* (1947), continued and enriched the ideas of *Escape from Freedom*. His most popular book was *The Art of Loving* (1956), an international bestseller. Central to Fromm's worldview was his interpretation of the Talmud and Hasidism; he began studying Talmud as a young man under Rabbi J. Horowitz and later under Rabbi Salman Baruch Rabinkow, a Chabad Hasid. While working towards his doctorate, he studied the Tanya by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi. Fromm turned away from orthodox Judaism in 1926, towards secular interpretations of scriptural ideals. The cornerstone of his humanistic philosophy is his interpretation of the biblical story of Adam and Eve's exile from the Garden of Eden, where he extolled the virtues of humans taking independent action and using reason to establish moral values rather than adhering to authoritarian moral values. Fromm considered love an interpersonal creative capacity rather than an emotion, always having the common elements of care, responsibility, respect, and knowledge. He outlined three common escape mechanisms from freedom: automaton conformity, authoritarianism, and destructiveness. The word biophilia was frequently used by Fromm as a description of a productive psychological orientation. His legacy includes co-founding the William Alanson White Institute and influencing Neo-Freudian thought alongside Karen Horney and Harry Stack Sullivan.

Did You Know?

• Fromm received his Ph.D. in sociology from Heidelberg in 1922 with a dissertation on Jewish law titled *Das jüdische Gesetz*.
• He was one of the founders of The William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis and Psychology in New York City in 1946.
• Fromm's most popular book, *The Art of Loving*, was first published in 1956 and became an international bestseller.
• He studied the Tanya by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad, while working towards his doctorate.
• Fromm died at his home in Muralto, Switzerland, on March 18, 1980, five days before his eightieth birthday.