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Example research essay topic: Escape From Freedom By Erich Fromm - 1,718 words

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Escape from Freedom by Erich Fromm Fromm produced his first book Escape from Freedom, also known as The Fear of Freedom in 1941. In Escape from Freedom Fromm observed the growth of humans from the Middle Ages forward. As he developed his philosophy, Fromm came to define human nature as being dynamic and logical. He stressed that man had five basic needs: to have relationships, to rise above the fact that humanity is accidental, to be secure, to have identification, and to have orientation. Fromm also argued that personality is a by-product of biology and of ones culture. Fromm's humanistic and holistic approach to psychoanalysis integrates psychological understanding with religious, economic, and sociological factors.

He was one of the best-known psychoanalysts during the 40 s, 50 s and 60 s and some of his books became instant best sellers. Escape from Freedom introduced intellectuals to psychoanalysis and its relevance to understanding society, analyzing the psychology of fascism and authoritarianism. More than any other psychoanalyst, Fromm showed how the passionate need to find meaning in life was tied to our capacity for destructiveness. While Fromm's work fits contemporary, postmodern thinking, after the late 1960 s he fell into neglect, dismissed as superficial by the psychoanalytic establishment that he relentlessly criticized and by the new left as a bourgeois reformer. While postmodern theorists struggle to define a model that incorporates two elements, Fromm in his book Escape from Freedom has already conceived a three-dimensional psychic universe. Unique among psychoanalysts, Fromm's profound grasp of the human condition was integrated with a broad understanding of socio-cultural forces as they impact on individual personality and on relationships.

Not limited to the psychobiology of infantile drives their derivatives, Fromm grounds his view of human development in the conquest of physical need and emotional security; in the quest for identity and satisfaction; in questions of work and love; and in the realms of religion, politics, ethics, and aesthetics; as well as psychology, sociology anthropology, and history. In the twenty-first century, psychoanalysis will be challenged to keep pace with the complexities Fromm envisioned. Escape from Freedom was written about Fascism in 1941. It is mainly an attempt by Erich Fromm to examine the psychological basis for the success of Fascist philosophy.

Parts of this book read like a commentary on what has been happening in Bombay (and elsewhere in this country) in the last few months, and suggest an explanation for the sudden shift in middle-class perceptions that we have been witnessing. Fromm's basic thesis is that sometimes human beings find it impossible to live with freedom. This is not an intrinsic defect of human nature. Rather, it occurs when human beings become politically free, but are unable to decide what they should do with this freedom. Being liberated from external constraints can lead to a feeling of intense loneliness and isolation, unless one is able to channel one's energies into a socially fulfilling and purposeful life.

The inability to do this (which may be related to economic, political and cultural forces in the environment) creates a feeling of insignificance, insecurity and self-doubt. The result is a kind of desperation, which makes people seek to escape from their freedom by merging themselves with a monolithic, authoritarian structure. This solves their problem in a perverse and temporary way: not by providing the means for them to pursue a meaningful and positive life, but by taking away the freedom, which apparently caused their emotional distress. On the subject of Nazism, the specific questions which Fromm wished to examine were the psychological aspects of this ideology, which made it so attractive to a class of people, and the character of the people who became its followers. One of his first observations was that Nazisms spirit of blind obedience to a leader and of hatred against racial and political minorities, its craving for conquest and domination, its exaltation of the German people and the Nordic race had a tremendous emotional appeal for certain classes of people.

This made them ardent believers in and fighters for the Nazi cause. The characteristics of this class which made them so susceptible to this philosophy are described as their love of the strong, hatred of the weak, their pettiness, hostility, thriftiness with feelings as well as with money... Their outlook on life was narrow, ... their whole life was based on the principle of scarcity economically as well as psychologically. Many of these characteristics can be observed within our own society. One important feature is hatred of the weak.

Whether we like to admit it or not, ours is a society where it is acceptable to kick lame dogs, jeer at the crippled, and beat up poor pickpockets. As for rich thieves in the world of business, these command our utmost respect, and some are national heroes. The principle of scarcity is another feature: we seem to believe that the total wealth in this country will forever be limited, so we have to grab what we can now. Our collective psychology is unwilling to absorb the opposite idea that unlimited material progress for society, as a whole is a possibility.

Fromm in his book tells us, The essence of the authoritarian character has been described as the simultaneous presence of sadistic and masochistic drives. He describes sadism as unrestricted power over another person, more or less mixed with destructiveness, while masochism aims at dissolving oneself in an overwhelmingly strong power and participating in its strength and glory. Both of these have the same cause: the inability of the isolated individual to stand alone and his need for a symbiotic relationship that overcomes his aloneness. According to Fromm, the most important thing is the reassuring feeling of this simplified world-view. Everything fits neatly in place, and one need not bother to think for oneself or grapple with complex questions. Conversation with the communalized class reveals that it gets some superficial psychological relief by this means, from the unbearable tension (and guilt) caused by the demolition of Baby Masjid.

Instead of facing this tension in a logical way, it is much easier to escape from freedom, blame the helpless and revere the strong. Of course, not all Muslims are helpless, or innocent of blame for various things. However, mainly the helpless ones have been damaged physically and psychologically in a systematic way, in the last few months. The Bombay riots caused serious casualties primarily among slum dwellers. Yet, instead of rising up and expressing its unconditional horror at this event, much of the middle class found refuge in the famous they deserved it. Interestingly, the same people did not show much effective sympathy for Hindu slum dwellers affected in the riots either.

Hatred of the weak is really quite secular in a way. Of Hitlers propaganda, in his book Fromm says, He and the German people are always the ones who are innocent and the enemies are sadistic brutes. A great deal of this propaganda consists of deliberate, conscious lies. Moreover, Hitler accuses his enemies of the very things that he quite frankly admits to be his own aims. We have heard by now that Muslims are cruel people, polygamists, and anti-national elements. Fascism gains popular support by promising a world in which everyone in society finds their place someone below, to dominate, and someone above, to submit to.

This picture is self-fulfilling. If Fascism is perceived to be winning, people whose psychology is already ripe for takeover will flock to it in large numbers. Conversely, if it is seen to be losing, people desert in equally large numbers. The demolition on December 6 was a signal that the march of Fascism in India has started in earnest and its success is inevitable. That is what acted, as if by remote control, on the minds of the middle class in Bombay, and elsewhere. It remains to ask whether the victory of Indian Fascism is really inevitable.

It is anyone's guess what will happen. However, Erich Fromm made a bold prediction about the future of Nazism at a time when it was looking rather successful, and it is only appropriate to conclude by quoting his words: The function of an authoritarian ideology and practice can be compared to the function of neurotic symptoms. Such symptoms result from unbearable psychological conditions and at the same time offer a solution that makes life possible. Yet they are not a solution that leads to happiness or growth of personality... The history of humankind is the history of growing individuation, but it is also the history of growing freedom...

The authoritarian systems cannot do away with the basic conditions that make for the quest for freedom; neither can they exterminate the quest for freedom that springs from these conditions. Fromm spoke of the centrality of the relationship in the analytic process and of the importance of the complete human context for the meaning of personal development and psychotherapeutic change. Maccoby and Cortina have gathered an impressive and articulate array of articles and scholars who help us to understand Fromm anew, and who give him his rightful place as a forerunner of modern relational theory. Their own chapter integrates this vision and introduces the novice to this important body of work. A Prophetic Analyst is recommended for scholars and questioning clinicians alike.

It will help us all to understand the centrality of the relationship in human development and the importance of the social context for everything that we experience. Erich Fromm's enormous influence on the development of psychoanalytic theory and practice over the past several decades has operated behind the scenes. Cortina and Maccoby have collected a wide array of contributions on Fromm the clinician, Fromm the prophet, Fromm the theorist, Fromm the provocateur, and Fromm the teacher that convey the manifold ways in which From instructed, goaded, and inspired so many of the major currents in psychoanalytic thinking in recent decades. Bibliography: Fromm, E. (1942) The Fear of Freedom, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Fromm, E. (1950) Psychoanalysis and Religion, New Haven: Yale University Press.

Fromm, E. and Maccoby, M. (1970) Social Character in a Mexican Village, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Fromm, E. , Suzuki, D. T. , and de Martino, R. (1960) Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis, New York: Harper and Row. Kellner, D. (undated) Erich Fromm, Illuminations, web web


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