Erich Fromm and Albert Camus Similarities and Differences in Their Analysis of Psycho-Social Illness and Its Treatment

Erich Fromm and Albert Camus Similarities and Differences in Their Analysis of Psycho-Social Illness and its Treatment

Douglas Puccini and Norman Elrod

Paper presented at the International Conference of the Erich Fromm Society „Erich Fromm - Psycho- analyst and Supervisor” at Hotel „La Perla”, Ascona, April 4-5, 1997

„... It is man’s fate that his existence is beset by contradictions which he is called on to deal with, without ever solving them. When he has overcome the primitive state of human sac- rifice, be it in the ritualistic form of the human sacrifices of the Aztecs or in the secular form of war, when he bas been able to regulate his relationship with nature reasonably instead of blindly, when things have truly become his servants rather than his idols, he will be con- fronted with the truly human conflicts and problems; he will have to be adventuresome, courageous, imaginative, capable of suffering and of joy, but his powers will be in the service of life, not in the service of death. The new phase of human history, if it comes to pass, will be a new beginning, not an end.” (E. Fromm, „The Present Human Condition” (1955c), in: The Dogma of Christ and Other Essays (1963a), pp. 103-104.)

Accept existence as it is - a sign of strength? No, that is servitude. Accept existence as it was. For the present - struggle. (Albert Camus, 1951b)

Every wall is a door. (Ralph Waldo Emerson (quoted by Albert Camus, 1951 or 1952, p. 33)

Dear Colleagues and Friends: Fromm and Albert Camus viewed psycho-social illness, hunan destructiveness and human free- My name is Douglas Puccini and I invite you to dom, emphasizing at the same time that he con- consider informally with us this afternoon cer- siders his ideas to be tentative, indicative of a tain aspects of mental disturbances in and wish to go into the subject in much greater de- among people as well as certain responses to tail. psycho-social distress. The subject matter of our * talk is centered around two topics which Erich Fromm and Albert Camus dealt with extensively If we recall when Fromm and Camus lived - in their writings: human destructiveness and hu- Erich Fromm was born in 1900 and died in nan freedom. 1980, Albert Camus was born in 1913 and died Our colleague Norman Elrod will begin in 1960 -, it is not surprising that both of them, our presentation by making you acquainted being as they were, very highly aware, took with a few of his reflections on how Erich human beings seriously in their destructive activ-

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ity and in their striving to be free. Fromm’s with Fromm. He clothed his ideas in literature, summary of what took place in the 20th century for example in novels like The Stranger (Camus, until 1945 reads as follows: 1942a) and The Plague (Camus, 1947), as well as „[The First World War,] in which millions in plays like Caligula (Camus, 1941). And Camus died for the territorial ambitions of the expressed his ideas on the nature of human be- European powers, although under the illu- ings and their psycho-social illness in poetic sion of fighting for peace and democracy, analyses, for example in The Myth of Sisyphus was the beginning of that development (Camus, 1942b) and The Rebel (Camus, 1951a). which tended in a relatively short time to As all of us who are familiar with these destroy a two-thousand-year-old Western two men and their works know, they did not tradition of hope and to transform it into a resign themselves to fate as dictated by destruc- mood of despair. tive human beings. If, for example, Hitler’s and The moral callousness of the First World Stalin’s doctrines of salvation were seductive, War was only the beginning. Other events concealing a wolf in sheep’s clothing, were there followed: the betrayal of the socialist hopes other doctrines which are definitely affimative by Statin’s reactionary state capitalism; the of life? Analysis of alternatives was needed! And severe economic crisis at the end of the so Fromm explored psychoanalysis, orthodox twenties; the victory of barbarism in one of Judaism, Christianity and Zen Buddhism. Camus the oldest centers of culture in the world - undertook a thorough study of socialism, com- Germany; the insanity of Stalinist terror dur- munism and Catholicism. Both of them came to ing the thirties; the Second World War, in the conclusion that doctrines of salvation, re- which all the fighting nations lost some of gardless of their origin, cannot be trusted. the moral considerations which had still ex- Doubt, as Fromm put it, not irrational, but ra- isted in the First World War; the unlimited tional doubt is called for under these circum- destruction of civilian populations, started stances: by Hitler and continued by the even more „Historically, rational doubt is one of the complete destruction of cities such as Ham- mainsprings of modern thought, and burg and Dresden and Tokyo, and eventu- through it modern philosophy, as well as ally by the use of atomic bombs against Ja- science, received their most fruitful im- pan.” (E. Fromm, „Afterword,” in George pulses. Here too, as in personal develop- Orwell, ‘1984’ (1961c), New York: The ment, the rise of rational doubt was linked New American Library of World Literature with the growing emancipation from au- 1961, pp. 258-259.) thority, that of the church and the state.” (E. Fromm, Man for Himself (1947a), p. Fromm responded in various ways to these 201; cf. pp. 199-200.) events and developments. One of his responses was the formulation of a concept of character Camus came up with no therapy whatsoever for which he set forth in the first part of his work the psycho-social illness of mankind. But like Man for Himself (Fromm, 1947a). Another re- Henri Balzac, who wrote an important novel sponse to the problem of man against himself about a country doctor (Balzac, 1833), not to was the study of specific individuals who mention Franz Kafka and his „Country Doctor” wrought havoc against others. I am thinking of (Kafka, Winter 1916/1917), as well as Arthur his analyses of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Schnitzler, whose study of a city doctor is full of Heinrich Himmler (E. Fromm, The Anatomy of profound meaning (Schnitzler, 1918), and Boris Human Destructiveness, 1973a). Pasternak, the author of an extremely important Camus’s reaction to human destructive- novel dealing with the challenges of life facing a ness as he encountered it in the 1930s and later sensitive doctor in the Soviet Union (Pasternak, was in essence similar to Fromm’s. The results of 1957), Camus realized that among people who his studies did not, however, reach the reading no longer believe in supernatural forces it is un- public in a social scientific form as was the case derstandable that they turn to the doctor for

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their rescue, expecting him or her, in Kafka’s us our places of exile, our crimes and our rav- words, „to solve everyting with his tender surgi- ages. But our task is not to unleash them on the cal hand” (Kafka, Winter 1916/1917, p, 130). But world; it is to fight them in ourselves and in Camus’s Dr. Rieux does not set out to solve all others” (p. 301). problems. Solving things in this sense means sal- But in this fight a sense of grim humor can vation. This is not Dr. Rieux’ calling. His calling be cultivated: „Upon his arrival in Buchenwald a is to heal earthly illness. He sees himself in- small Frenchman requests a talk in private with volved in a „never ending defeat” (Camus the official who recieves him, who is also a pris- quoted in Heinz Politzer, 1959, p. 10). Camus oner: ‘Just between you and me I’m a special (1951a) wrote: „Even by his greatest effort man case - I’m innocent’.” (Camus, 1989, p. 59). can only propose to diminish arithmetically the Fromm, as we know, was also in favor of sufferings of the world. But the injustice and the a thorough study of human destructiveness. He suffering of the world will remain” (p. 303). made a distinction between biological adaptive Creation, being and destruction are a troika aggression common to animals and human be- human beings cannot escape from. ings and biological nonadaptive, malicious ag- In his novel The Plague, published in gression unique to human beings. The former is 1947, Camus analyzed human destructiveness reactive to specific threats to one’s vital interests. and psycho-social illness. In the description of It is a part of our phylogenetic program for sur- the individual life histories of the people ex- vival. It cannot be wiped-out. Malicious aggres- posed to a plague epidemic in the Algerian port sion is of a different nature. It is present in all of of Oran - Camus’s place of birth - many forms us, not as a drive but as a potential form of re- of human action and reaction are presented, e.g. action to human intercourse, When it is realized, fear, denial, indifference, courage, love of one’s i. e. turned into an actual state through human neighbor and solidarity with threatened and dis- action, it is both biologically and socially de- criminated persons. Critics took the plague to be structive. But since it is not inborn, it is capable a symbol of the psycho-social illness caused by of being changed, transformed, indeed, under the Nazis. Camus himself wrote in his diary that specific circumstances even extirpated (Fromm, with his symbol of the plague he was thinking 1973a, p. 187). For this to take place, much de- about the Second World War as a specific pe- pends on the „character structure” or „character riod in human history, but the plague was also system” of the individual under study (Rainer intended to be a paradigm for human existence Funk, 1989, p. 436) and on the „social charac- as such (Camus, 1942, 1943, 1944 or 1945, pp. ter” of the society in which this person lives 164-165; cf. Politzer, 1959, pp. 11-12; Carol Pe- (Fromm, 1941a). Fromm - and probably Camus tersen, 1961, pp. 61, 64). as well -, thought conditions such as lovelessness Did Camus understand human destruc- and absence of pleasure in a child’s surroundings tiveness as a matter of fate when he chose rats further feelings of helplessness and emptiness, as the carriers of the plague, meaning, perhaps, preconditions for acts of non-adaptive, mali- psycho-social illness? Yes, human destructiveness cious aggression. Of course, if exploitation and a is with us and will stay with us. There is no get- lack of hope are noticeably present in society, ting around it. But what is really important, the individual’s productive powers will be frus- Camus thought, are the attitudes and activities trated and destructive reactions can be ex- that are possible within a destructive situation. pected. If these destructive actions become the Not all of us must become „rhinoceroses”, to dominant characteristic of a person’s behavior speak with Eugène lonesco, but „each of us ... then Fromm spoke of necrophilia. He (1973a) must keep endless watch on ourselves” (Camus, defined necrophilia in the characterological 1946, p. 224). For Camus everything depends sense as „the passionate attraction to all that is on this „endless watch” - „watch” meaning here dead, decayed, putrid, sickly; it is the passion to observation of what is real and control of de- transform that which is alive into something un- structive activity in the interest of life. As Camus alive; to destroy for the sake of destruction; the (1951a) wrote in The Rebel: „We all carry within exclusive interest in all that is purely mechanical.

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It is the passion ‘to tear apart living structures’.” approach to mankind’s enslavement, and he (E. Fromm, The Anatomy of Human Destruc- also emphasized that people contribute much to tiveness, p. 366.) their own bondage. In the course of individual * development man breaks free from oneness with others, according to Fromm. The freedom I myself, Douglas Puccini, would like to say the and independence that he can arrive at by following about psycho-social illness, human de- means of this development, render him fearful structiveness and human freedom. The freedom and helpless. For fear of being isolated and los- or captivity and enslavement of human beings ing his security, being unable to endure being are central themes in Fromm’s and Camus’s alone, he will perhaps succumb to new depend- works. Camus as a son of poor immigrants encies. Fromm stated in Escape from Freedom: urged to leave the French state, became an im- „Religion and nationalism, as well as any custom mediate eyewitness to the enslavement of fel- and any belief however absurd and degrading, if low human beings in his native country, Algeria. it only connects the individual with others, are On the other hand, he and his family being refuges from what man most dreads: isolation” French, belonged to the class of the foreign rul- (1941a, p. 20). Thereby, Fromm pointed out, ers. Camus discussed the conditions among mas- the person destroys his freedom and integrity as ters and slaves at a point in time, when the topic an individual. The oneness with others as a free „North Africa under occupation” was as yet man is replaced by being similar to others. hardly manifest in the public consciousness. He Both Fromm and Camus pointed to the perhaps viewed people as being exposed pri- necessity of cooperation in order to ensure marily to the danger of radicalism in their striv- common survival, which takes place, according ing for freedom and justice, Therefore, Camus to Fromm, on the basis of advancing „to the full urged „moderation”, not ordering people to be realization of positive freedom that is based indifferent, though, but calling them to action. upon the uniqueness and individuality of man” Still, good deeds are not enough for Camus. In (1941a, p. 8). And like Camus, Fromm viewed The Plague, he made Dr. Rieux say that acting spontaneous love and productive cooperation against the plague first requires reflection, but he as the proper alternative to the striving for con- also views knowledge and truth as necessary re- formity and similarity and as the chance to sults of action; and he assumes that psycho- overcome the state of separateness. social illness originates from and flourishes on Fromm’s „endurance of isolation” is the ground of ignorance. Dr. Rieux says: „The matched by Camus’s „carrying on”. By the end evil that is in the world always comes from ig- of the plague, Dr. Rieux states that life goes on, norance, and good intentions may do as much that one must carry on, endure despite the harm as malevolence, if they lack understand- death of his friends and his wife. It is exactly in ing” (Camus, 1949, p. 126). Camus proposed this interhuman realm that Fromm pointed to that man oppose slavery by being moderate and the great temptation of seeking refuge in symbi- by confronting open questions, living with otic, narcissistic, masochistic, and sadistic rela- them, and yet experiencing the joy of life, if tions that indicate the individual’s failure in the possible. He advocated recognition, knowledge, face of pressure to conform to the masses, even action, honesty and love. In the novel The though Fromm was full of hope and trust in the Plague Dr. Rieux says: „There was not one of sound and productive powers within man and their [the afflicted’s] anxieties in which he did despite his appreciation of man’s capacity to not share, no predicament of theirs that was not love and bond. He wrote: „Alcoholism and his” (p. 278). Camus depicted Dr. Rieux as a drug addiction are forms which the individual physician identifying himself with those struck chooses in a nonorgiastic culture. [Elsewhere, he down by the illness and declaring his solidarity adds compulsive sexuality and suicide.] While with them. For us, this attitude is vital in all hu- people try to escape from separateness by taking man relations. refuge in alcohol or drugs, they feel all the more As I understand it, Fromm took the same separate after the orgiastic experience is over,

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and thus are driven to have recourse to it with someone. And this may be true, but I was capa- increasing frequency and intensity” (E. Fromm, ble of choosing a few persons whom I cherished The Art of Loving (1956a), p. 12). Abuse of this in my heart as best I could, regardless of what addiction manifests itself in this respect, as an they did” (Camus, 1959, p. 353). expression of symbiotic-masochistic relational Camus’s literary figures are frequently needs, by which the individual relinquishes his faced with decision making. They can change freedom. their ways if they choose to do so. Indeed, Ca- mus perceived chances for responsible, authentic * behavior, but he could neither promise „pie in the sky when you die” nor „bread on earth for Both of us, Puccini and I, meet people time and everyone”. If achievement and satisfaction are again who seem to be addicted to their illness, attained, that is wonderful, but both are just for people who suffer from anxiety and insecurity the moment. Life is an open book, but it is a and who are at the same time looking for a way story about the „wholly human origin of all that out of their addiction to illness. We try to empa- is human” (Camus, 1942, p. 99), On the basis of thize with these people, try to understand their this consistent humanism Camus could argue sufferings, their unique life histories and the so- with conviction against capital punishment: cial conditions under which they became psychi- „The age of enlightenment, as people say, cally disturbed. We frequently, we assume, dis- wanted to suppress the death penalty on cover powers at work or on call that would be the pretext that man was naturally good. greatly helpful in support of the psychoanalysis. Of course, he is not (he is worse or better). Of course, we also come up against forces which After twenty years of our magnificent his- oblige the patient to remain more or less as he tory we are well aware of this. But precisely or she is. These latter forces can be imbedded in because he is not, no one among us can actual, historical interpersonal relations. Fre- pose as an absolute judge and pronounce quently these social-psychological factors are al- the definitive elimination of the worst lied intrapsychically with super-ego demands for among the guilty, because no one of us can a continuation of the status quo. In such cases it lay claim to absolute innocence. Capital is obvious that our support of the ego must be punishment upsets the only indisputable twofold: on the one hand strengthening the ego human solidarity - our solidarity against at the expense of the super-ego and on the death - and it can be legitimized only by a other hand helping the ego in its efforts to or- truth or a principle that is superior to man ganize the self more effectively in dealings with (Camus, 1957, pp. 157-158). the social world. Puccini and I agree on what has just been At the end of The Artist at Work Camus’s pro- said. It appears that Fromm and Camus were tagonist painter dies in his attic room, leaving sometimes not in agreement as to what might behind an almost completely blank canvas on contribute to healing, Fromm, for his part, of- which he has been working for a long time. fered the individual more concrete alternatives Only at the center of the canvas is there a word than Camus. Fromm’s hope that genuine love written in extremely small letters. It can be deci- could develop in relations that are marked by phered, but it is not certain if the word should giving and taking was not shared by Camus to be read „solitary” or „solidary”. „To be or not the same extent. Camus, not at all certain about to be?” was not Camus’s queston. His was: „To his own capacity to love in a way understand- go it alone or to go it with others?” „Solitaire” able to most people, could never have written a or „Solidaire”‘? Time and again he treated this book like The Art of Loving. And so it is no sur- subject (Camus, 1951-1954, pp. 44, 68,85). prise that the last two sentences in his diary of Camus thought he recognized life’s chal- 1959 - he died tragically near the beginning of lenge, but he confessed that for him the striving January 1960 - read as follows: „From time to for life, liberty and companionship as well as for time I accuse myself of being unable to love justice, truth and beauty is the main thing. If du-

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ration is to exist as a category of thought, then of his alternatives is part of analyzing him. It is let it be seen in this strving; Camus thought this not expressing value judgments; this is just stat- „struggle itself towards the heights is enough to ing - in fact I can state them in any other field - fill a man’s heart” (Camus, 1942, p. 99). At the these are the forces, and if you go this way this end of his speech of acceptance, upon the will happen; if you go that way that will hap- award of the Nobel Prize for Literature, deliv- pen” (Fromm, 1994, p. 110). Fromm seems to ered in Stockholm, 10 December 1957, Camus have thought that he could have the patient’s summarized his position as follows: total life situation in mind. Camus would have „Truth is mysterious, elusive, ever to be perhaps thought this was self-deception. Can the won anew. Liberty is dangerous, as hard to analyst, Camus might have asked, really attain a live with as it is exciting. We must progress bird’s-eye view of the patient’s total situation? towards those two objectives, painfully but What about accident, fate? Fromm went on: resolutely, sure in advance that we shall „To speak of analysis I consider it a very impor- weaken and flinch on such a long road. tant task of the analyst to show the person Consequently, what writer would dare, whom he analyzes the real alternatives, very with a clear conscience, to become a drastically and not pussyfooting, and maybe to preacher of virtue? As for me, I must say put it in careful terms so that one says and once more that I am far from all that. I doesn’t say it” (Fromm, 1994, p, 109). We think have never been able to forget the sunlight, Camus would have questioned Fromm’s as- the delight in life, the freedom in which I sumption that he saw all of the „real alterna- grew up. But although that nostalgia ex- tives”. Camus might have mentioned „surprise” plains many of my mistakes and shortcom- as a helpful category in psychoanalytic thinking. ings, it doubtless helped me to understand And probably „accident”. „fate” and „luck” my calling, and it still helps me to stand im- would have come to his mind. „Certainty” in plicitly beside all those silent men who, matters dealing with human volition would throughout the world, endure the life that have been inacceptable, but he might have ac- has been made for them only because they cepted „probability” as a useful term in psycho- remember or fleetingly re-experience free analysis, agreeing basically with Alexander Pope moments of happiness. (1733), who wrote: Reduced in this way to what I am in reality, to my limits, to my liabilities, as to my dfffi- Say first, of God above, or man below, cult faith, I feel freer to show you in conclu- What can we reason, but from what we know? sion the extent and generosity of the dis- Of Man, what see we but his station here, tinction you have just granted me, freer From which to reason, or to which refer? likewise to tell you that I should like to re- Thro’ worlds unnumber’d tho’the God be ceive it as a tribute paid to all those who, known, sharing the same fight, have received no ‘Tis ours to trace him, only in our own. reward, but on the contrary have known He, who thro’ vast immensity can pierce, only woe and persecution. It remains for See worlds on worlds compose one universe, me then to thank you from the bottom of Observe how system into system runs, my heart and to make you publicly, as a What other planets circle other suns, personal token of gratitude, the same age- What vary’d being peoples ev’ry star, old promise of allegiance that every true May tell, why Heav’n has made us as we are. artist, every day, makes to himself, in si- But of this frame the bearings, and the ties, lence.” (p. 198.) The strong connections, nice dependencies, Gradations just, has thy pervading soul Fromm, as we understand him, seemed to be- Look’d thro’? or can a part contain the whole? lieve that he had a clear idea about how things (Epistle 1, 17-32) stand, about what is right and what is wrong. He wrote: „To help the analysand to get aware The criticism Camus might have made of Fromm

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would be as follows: „‘Tis but a part we see, plained by a theory of internalizing individual, and not a whole.” (60) collective and societal compulsions. With respect to their drug consumption, one can speak of an * internalized external determination. However, the extent of self-destruction in In conclusion I would now like to describe an these people may be explained, in my opinion, area of my former clinical activity, where, in my only on the grounds of a severe superego pa- opinion, the ideas of Fromm and Camus dis- thology accompanied by an omnipresent feeling cussed here apply. For some 15 years I carried of guilt. What I said in my discussion of Camus out psychotherapeutic work with adolescents and especially of Fromm, who described the and young adults in a counseling center and in fear of freedom and the inclination towards re- psychiatric clinics. This included 6 ½ years of di- newed slavery, is confirmed here. recting a long-term therapy station for drug ad- In therapeutic activity I was always facing dicts. I saw these people involved in conflicts be- the question of what real alternative to drug tween desires and reality. They tried for a long consumption I might offer the drug addict. It time to feel at case in our everyday culture and was not always the most difficult task to lead to establish basic relations of a meaningful na- them back into everyday culture, because they ture within this everyday culture as well as to were often pursued by the police, and in most fulfill their desires and satisfy their wants from cases they were threatened with imprisonment. what this culture had to offer. But their real ex- But as soon as they abandoned drugs, the feel- periences with people may have led to a sadistic ings of guilt resurfaced, and along with these the superego developing within them, to which tendencies to subject themselves to the everyday their self-destructive acts are traced back, so that culture once more in the hope of being lovingly they turned away from the everyday culture reinstated and accepted. It was much more diffi- that had promised them justice, work, cult to establish a basic relationship with them. neighborly love, fellowship and happiness as a The original distrust of living human objects that reward for their adaptation and submission, and had led them to cultivate a relationship with the created an anti-culture around the drug in search lifeless object „drug” that they falsely thought of alternatives. They were drawn to people they could manipulate was still there. Whatever who they felt were suffering in a similar way. I could offer as an alternative to drug consump- From them they hoped to find security and un- tion and the drug scene, namely real relations derstanding and simply to feel at ease, and they and the human environment, was nothing but reinforced that feeling by the pain-relieving ef- what they were originally running away from in fect of the drug. everyday culture, even though I understood my Yet sooner or later they were compelled offer to be of a different nature. I had to leave to realize that the safety, security, and under- open the question of what was right and mean- standing were largely based on an illusion, a ingful, and, in a well-meaning way and consid- self-deception, and now they continued to con- ering the personal injuries they had experienced, sume drugs in order to suppress this renewed I had to communicate to the drug addicts what pain and disillusionment. Much as in the every- possibilities and probabilities I saw connected day culture, there were alienated relationships, with their return to everyday culture. In the end alienated work organized according to strict it always remained open whether the renewed economic laws, dishonesty, personal offense, attempt to feel well in the everyday culture and and a lack of possibilities of satisfaction and sub- establish loving and productive relationships limation in the anti-culture. within it was the right and necessary thing, or It appeared to me that their criticisms of rather the secure distance to the sickening envi- the everyday culture were justified, and their ronment established by continued drug con- reasons for dropping out understandable. That sumption. their aggressiveness against others turned into an aggressiveness against themselves can be ex- *

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ing and fawning friends. He kills some of We want to emphasize that Camus and Fromm, them, and those that remain still have to regardless of what reservations Camus might smile and joke. But even all this power does have had about some of Fromm’s ideas, were not satisfy him; he wants absolute power, brothers in spirit, colleagues in the study, diag- he wants the impossible. As Camus has him nosis and treatment of psycho-social illness. This say, ‘I want the moon.’ can be seen in Fromm’s high regard for Camus. It is easy enough to say that Caligula is An example: mad, but his madness is a way of life; it is „To create life is to transcend one’s status as one solution of the Problem of human exis- a creature that is thrown into life as dice are tence, because it serves the illusion of om- thrown out of a cup. But to destroy life also nipotence, of transcending he frontiers of means to transcend it and to escape the un- human existence. In the process of trying to bearable suffering of complete passivity. To win absolute power Caligula lost all contact create life requires certain qualities which with men. He became an outcast by casting the impotent person lacks. To destroy life them out; he had to become mad because, requires only one quality - the use of force. when the bid for omnipotence failed, he The impotent man, if he has a pistol, a was left a lonely, impotent individual. knife, or a strong arm, can transcend life by The case of Caligula is of course excep- destroying it in others or in himself. He thus tional. Few people ever have the chance to takes revenge on life for negating itself to attain so much power that they can seduce him. Compensatory violence is precisely themselves into the delusion that it might that violence which has its roots in and be absolute. But some have existed which compensates for impotence. The throughout history, up to our time; if they man who cannot create wants to destroy. remain victorious, they are celebrated as In creating and in destroying he transcends great statesmen or generals; if they are de- his role as a mere creature. Camus ex- feated, they are considered madmen or pressed this idea succinctly when he had Ca- criminals.” (E. Fromm, The Anatomy of ligula say: ‘I live, I kill, I exercise the raptur- Human Destructiveness (1973a), p. 289.) ous power of a destroyer, compared with which the power of a creator is merest Emerson’s „Every wall is a door” is cited in one child’s play.’ This is the violence of the of Camus’s diaries. We have discovered that cripple, of those to whom life has denied Camus relied on this idea in closing an address the capacity for any positive expression of he delivered at the University of Upsala in De- their specifically human powers. They need cember 1957. We assume Camus’s position as to destroy precisely because they are hu- stated here would have been accepted by man, since being human means transcend- Fromm: ing thing-ness.” (E. Fromm, The Heart of „It is said that Nietzsche after the break Man (1964a), p. 14.) with Lou Salomé, in a period of complete solitude, crushed and uplifted at the same In a later study Fromm returned to Camus’s Ca- time by the perspective of the huge work ligula and wrote: he had to carry on without any help, used „Albert Camus’s play, Caligula, provides an to walk at night on the mountains over- example of an extreme type of sadistic con- looking the gulf of Genoa and light great trol which amounts to a desire for omnipo- bonfires of leaves and branches which he tence. We see how Caligula, brought by cir- would watch as they burned up. I have of- cumstances to a position of unlimited ten dreamed of these fires and have occa- power, gets ever-more deeply involved in sionally imagined certain men and certain the craving for power. He sleeps with the works in front of those fires, as a way of wives of the senators and enjoys their hu- testing men and works. Well, our era is one miliation when they have to act like admir- of those fires whose unbearable heat will

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doubtless reduce many a work to ashes! But shall close, it is there. Great ideas, it has been as for those that remain, their metal will be said, come into the world as gently as doves. intact and, looking at them, we shall be Perhaps then, if we listen attentively, we shall able to indulge without restraint in the su- hear, amidst the uproar of empires and nations, preme joy of the intelligence which we call a faint flutter of wings, the gentle stirring of life ‘admiration’. and hope. Some will say that this hope lies in a One may long, as I do, for a gentler flame, a nation; others, in a man. I believe rather that it respite, a pause for musing. But perhaps there is is awakened, revived, nourished by millions of no other peace for the artist than what he finds solitary individuals whose deeds and works in the heat of combat. ‘Every wall is a door’, every day negate frontiers and the crudest impli- Emerson correctly said. Let us not look for the cations of history. As a result there shines forth door, and the way out, anywhere but in the fleetingly the ever-threatened truth that each wall against which we are living. Instead, let us and every man, on the foundation of his own seek the respite where it is - in the very thick of sufferings and joys, builds for all.” (Camus, 1957, the battle. For in my opinion, and this is where I pp, 190-191.)

page 9 of 9 Puccini, D., and Elrod, N., 1997 Erich Fromm and Albert Camus