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Erich Fromm and Critical Theory 1 in Post-War Japanese Social Theory 2 3 Its Past, Present, and Future 4 5 Takeshi Deguchi 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Abstract: Erich Fromm has been one of the most influential social 13 theorists in Japanese social sciences, especially in sociology and social 14 psychology and the adoption of his theory reflects the socio-cultural 15 structure of post-war Japan and its historical changes. In this paper, 16 I will examine Fromm’s social theory in relation to Japan’s post-war 17 swift rehabilitation and rapid economic growth and discuss the re- 18 markable role that it played by the 1970s in critical analysis of Jap- 19 anese society. I will discuss Fromm’s popularity and influence in 20 Japan, examining its theoretical features from the view point of Crit- 21 ical Theory, since in Japan Fromm’s theory is considered to have its 22 roots not only in American sociology and social psychology but also 23 in German Critical Theory (the Frankfurt School). As a result of Ja- 24 pan’s economic success and status as an affluent consumption society, 25 however, postmodern relativism and cynicism prevailed in the world 26 of thought through 1980s and 1990s and consequently Fromm was 27 forgotten. This story of Fromm in Japan is not over, however, for we 28 will discuss how neo-liberal reforms are breaking the fetters of an out- 29 dated Japanese-style management regime and giving people the free- 30 dom for self-realization. This “pseudo positive freedom,” of course, 31 creates again the social pathologies of escapes from freedom Fromm 32 discussed in 1940s. Fromm’s normative anthropology of human free- 33 dom is thus recovering its popularity and has a great theoretical po- 34 tential for critiquing today’s neo-liberal reforms. 35 36 219 in: R. Funk and N. McLaughlin (Eds.), Towards a Human Science. The Relevance of Erich Fromm for Today, Giessen (Psychosozial-Verlag) 2015. Takeshi Deguchi 1 Introduction 2 3 This study examines the role that Erich Fromm’s social theory has played 4 in Japanese sociology since the end of the Second World War and discusses 5 its potential for criticizing contemporary neo-liberal capitalism. Nearly all 6 theories applied by the social sciences in Japan, including sociology, origi- 7 nated overseas. Japanese social scientists appropriated Western social theo- 8 ries and explored their own society with the help of these theoretical frame- 9 works. Erich Fromm’s social theory was adopted enthusiastically by “critical 10 sociologists” in Japan immediately after the end of the Second World War 11 in order to identify sociocultural elements that facilitate the emergence of 12 fascist dictatorships. By “critical sociologists”, I refer here to those who have 13 been strongly influenced by the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School, 14 although they did not use the term “critical sociology” or “critical sociol- 15 ogists” to refer to themselves (Hidaka 1958; Miyajima 1980; Shoji 1977; 16 Tanaka 1972). Interestingly, Erich Fromm, though outside the mainstream 17 of the Frankfurt School, was for some time more influential in Japan than 18 Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, the authors ofDialectic of Enlight- 19 enment (2002), which is considered the magnum opus of Critical Theory 20 (Deguchi 2013). 21 However, the situation changed drastically during Japanese capitalism’s 22 period of stable economic growth beginning in the early 1970s. Critical 23 sociologists in Japan have paid less attention to Fromm’s social theory since 24 then, believing that it has lost its potential for criticism due to structural 25 changes in the capitalist system. These sociologists have reached the conclu- 26 sion that Fromm’s theoretical resources have been completely exhausted. In 27 contrast, my intention here is to re-examine their opinion and demonstrate 28 the unexhausted theoretical richness of Fromm’s work. 29 To introduce my discussion, I would like to describe briefly the present 30 study’s methodological approach in two ways. First, the purpose here is 31 not restricted to theoretical or philological reconstruction of the influence 32 of Fromm’s theory on Japanese sociology; rather, I would like to focus on 33 the practical and sociological backdrop against which his theory gained wide 34 acceptance. Second, I will pay much attention to the concept of “reason” 35 in order to contrast Fromm with the critical theorists of the Frankfurt 36 School. So far, comparative research on the relationship between Fromm 220 in: R. Funk and N. McLaughlin (Eds.), Towards a Human Science. The Relevance of Erich Fromm for Today, Giessen (Psychosozial-Verlag) 2015. Erich Fromm and Critical Theory in Post-War Japanese Social Theory and Horkheimer or Adorno has remained superficial in that it has been 1 limited solely to investigating differences in their interpretation of Sigmund 2 Freud’s psychoanalytic theory – especially its biological element, libido. In 3 contrast, I will review Fromm’s place in the intellectual history of Critical 4 Theory itself, encompassing theoretical developments from its first genera- 5 tion (Horkheimer and Adorno) through the second and third generations 6 (Jürgen Habermas and Axel Honneth) (Deguchi 2010; 2011). 7 Having completed this methodological preface, I will now move on to 8 my primary subject. First, I will elucidate the relationship between Fromm 9 and post-war Japanese critical sociologists. Next, I will examine the concept 10 of reason in Fromm and in the critical theorists in terms of how it addresses 11 our relationships to others and to our inner nature (psychological drive), 12 and I will demonstrate the uniqueness of Fromm’s perspective. Then, I will 13 put Fromm’s views aside briefly and take a look at the changes in Japanese 14 capitalism, in order to explain why Fromm has been unpopular among 15 Japanese critical sociologists since the early 1970s. Finally, I will return to 16 Fromm’s original theory, and with the help of Honneth’s critical analysis of 17 neo-liberalism, reappraise its theoretical potential in the age of neo-liberal 18 society. 19 20 21 Fromm and Post-War Critical Sociology in Japan 22 23 Dialectic of Freedom or Vestiges of Feudalism? 24 25 Escape from Freedom was introduced relatively early in Japan and enjoyed 26 wide readership among Japanese critical sociologists, providing guidance for 27 their analysis of Japanese society (The Japanese translation was published in 28 1950, while that of The Dialectic of Enlightenment was published in 1990). 29 The first point to be noted is that there are significant differences between 30 the results of sociological research on fascism conducted by Fromm and by 31 Japanese critical sociologists. Before turning to a closer examination of this 32 point, I would like to describe Fromm’s original theoretical proposition of 33 modern freedom in terms of a “dialectic of freedom”, a concept introduced 34 by Axel Honneth in characterizing Fromm’s Escape from Freedom as con- 35 trasted with Horkheimer and Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment (Hon- 36 221 in: R. Funk and N. McLaughlin (Eds.), Towards a Human Science. The Relevance of Erich Fromm for Today, Giessen (Psychosozial-Verlag) 2015. Takeshi Deguchi 1 neth 2006). The dialectic of freedom can be defined as a contradictory pro- 2 cess in which the freedom made possible by modernization is undermined 3 and destroyed by freedom itself. Fromm investigated the mechanisms of 4 the rise of National Socialism (as an instance of escape from freedom) in 5 terms of the dialectical contradiction of modernization itself. In his view, 6 modern freedom was a negative freedom, emancipating people from bonds 7 such as hierarchy of status, the traditional family system, guilds and village 8 communities; however, that same emancipatory power also evoked in peo- 9 ple’s minds a sense of isolation, angst and powerlessness as the cost of in- 10 dependence. As a result, people eventually chose to give up their freedom 11 and obey a new authoritarian dictator, or accepted traditional oppression 12 because it promised them protection and security. 13 In contrast to this process, Japanese critical sociologists investigated Jap- 14 anese fascism and found its causes in the traditional, pre-modern feudalism, 15 which continued in Japanese society and which they referred to as “vestiges 16 of feudalism”. In Fromm’s view, however, the phenomenon of escape from 17 freedom could never have occurred in such a “half-traditional” society as 18 pre-war Japanese society, where a variety of old and feudal ties remained 19 very strong and provided people with protection. Nevertheless, despite this 20 great difference in the explanation of fascism’s causes between Fromm and 21 Japanese critical sociologists, Fromm’s social theory was popular in Japan 22 from the 1950s through the 1960s. To explain this fact, we must turn to the 23 sociological context in which Fromm’s social theory enjoyed wider reader- 24 ship among Japanese intellectuals. 25 26 27 Escape from Freedom after the Second World War in Japan 28 29 First, we must note the time lag between the German society that Fromm 30 used as his primary object of research and the Japanese one to which his 31 theory was applied by critical sociologists. Let us return to Fromm’s analy- 32 sis in Escape from Freedom (Fromm 1941a). According to Fromm, Germans 33 enjoyed freedom just after the First World War ended, but it came as a result 34 of the collapse of an imperial regime and the subsequent turbulence in the 35 social order and traditional values that the former imperial authority had se- 36 cured. This political and sociological situation, combined with the economic 222 in: R.

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