Property of the Erich Fromm Document Center. For personal use only. Citation or publication of material pro- hibited without express written permission of the copyright holder. Eigentum des Erich Fromm Dokumentationszentrums. Nutzung nur für persönliche Zwecke. Veröffentlichungen – auch von Teilen – bedürfen der schriftlichen Erlaubnis des Rechteinhabers. Funk_R_2017k Erich Fromm's Socio-Psychoanalytic Re-Vision of Freudian Theory Rainer Funk „Erich Fromm’s Socio-Psychoanalytic Re-Vision of Freudian Theory“, in: Fromm Forum (English Edi- tion – ISBN 1437-1189), 21 / 2017, Tuebingen (Selbstverlag), pp. 22-31. Copyright © 2017 by Dr. Rainer Funk, Ursrainer Ring 24, D-72076 Tuebingen / Germany. E-Mail: frommfunk[at-symbol]gmail.com. The following paper by Rainer Funk and the comment by Sandra Buechler were presented on January 18, 2017 in a Discussion Group on the "History of Psychoanalysis" at the Na- tional Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. The discussion group was led by Prof. Peter Rudnytsky. Erich Fromm shares the fate of several other spend the rest of his life in Locarno, Switzer- pioneers in psychoanalysis who did not follow land, where I became his last assistant and fi- the mainstream of what once was called nally his literary executor and trustee of his sci- "Freudian orthodoxy” and as a result were ig- entific papers and his reference library. nored and forgotten. I could tell you the story Fromm grew up as an only child in an orthodox of how this happened in the case of Fromm (cf. Jewish family and studied sociology at the Uni- Funk 2000), but this would take too long. versity of Heidelberg. For his PhD he wrote a By way of introduction I will first give a short sociological dissertation on the function of Jew- overview of the life of Erich Fromm, before ex- ish law (Thora) as a social cement keeping dias- plaining why and how Fromm revised psycho- pora Jews together (Fromm 1989b). Shortly af- analytic theory; and I will then outline some of ter he had finished his dissertation in 1922, he the implications of his socio-psychoanalytic ap- became acquainted with Freud’s psychoanaly- proach, to launch a discussion of whether sis with the help of his girlfriend Frieda Reich- Fromm’s ideas contribute to our present un- mann (who in 1926 became his first wife). This derstanding of psychoanalysis. Let me start acquaintance with psychoanalysis changed with a short biographical sketch. Fromm’s life and interests fundamentally. At this time Fromm linked the idea that human Biographical Sketch beings are related to each other by more or less Erich Fromm was born in March 1900 in Frank- unconscious strivings (stemming from pre- furt in Germany and died in March 1980 in Lo- genital and genital forms of sexuality) to the carno, Switzerland. In 1934 he immigrated to subject of sociology, namely society and socie- the United States in order to escape the Nazis. tal processes. He became a citizen of the United States and Fromm finished his psychoanalytic training in had his main residence until 1950 in New York Berlin and started his own psychoanalytic prac- and Bennington. From 1950 until 1973 his main tice; at the same time he followed up his own residence was in Mexico, but he continued to interest in the social-psychological question of lecture in the United States for three months what makes many human beings think, feel, and more every year. In 1974 he decided to and act in similar ways. For nine years Fromm page/Seite 1 of/von 7 Funk, R., 2017k Erich Fromm's Socio-Psychoanalytic Re-Vision of Freudian Theory Property of the Erich Fromm Document Center. For personal use only. Citation or publication of material pro- hibited without express written permission of the copyright holder. Eigentum des Erich Fromm Dokumentationszentrums. Nutzung nur für persönliche Zwecke. Veröffentlichungen – auch von Teilen – bedürfen der schriftlichen Erlaubnis des Rechteinhabers. collaborated with the Institute for Social Re- drives caused by societal requirements. Exam- search in Frankfurt, and from 1934 on in New ples here are Fromm's interest in matricentric York, in order to explore this question by using cultures, his criticism of Freud's appraisal of the Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. Oedipus Complex, and his criticism of Freud's view of women; also important, however, were Fromm's stroke of genius: Fromm's new contacts in the United States: Society is represented with Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict and in our psychic structure formation their cross-cultural anthropological studies, and Fromm's stroke of genius was in bringing to- with Harry Stack Sullivan, in whose view human gether the objects of sociological and of psy- beings are driven by an existential need for re- choanalytical investigation – namely society latedness and not by the desire to satisfy libidi- and the individual – by showing that the socie- nal wishes. tal aspect, with its requirements regarding life, In the winter of 1936-1937 Fromm took a few survival, and communal living must be repre- months off to re-formulate his social psychoan- sented in each individual human being in the alytic approach more accurately and to delve form of a libidinal structure formation. To into the "basic principles" of Freud's libido the- quote a paper from 1932: "Every society has its ory, as he wrote in a letter to his Institute col- own distinctive libidinal structure" (Fromm league Wittfogel: "I am trying to demonstrate 1932a, p. 160), which can be studied by looking that the urges which motivate social activities at the libidinal structure which causes large are not, as Freud supposes, sublimations of numbers of individuals to think, feel and act sexual instincts, but rather products of social similarly. The study of this socially molded libid- processes." (Letter to Karl August Wittfogel on inal structure not only makes it possible to for- 18 December 1936 – Erich Fromm Archive – cf. mulate statements about the impulses which Funk 2013.) In this 85-page paper, Fromm are at work in a societal group but also explains (1992e) states in detail his reasons for saying why human beings passionately and gladly con- that most psychic structures are not only tribute whatever they must, in the form of psy- formed by the object relations of man but are chic and social acts of accommodation, in order also independent of libidinal drives. to bring about a successful communal life. Sullivan's relational approach naturally influ- The crucial point is the new determination of enced Fromm's revision of psychoanalytic theo- the relationship between the individual and so- ry in the sense that the individual's underlying ciety. In Fromm's socio-psychoanalytic ap- psychic problem is not the satisfaction of drives proach, the two are no longer antipodes. Ra- but rather the satisfaction of his or her need for ther, society is present with its expectations in relatedness. For Fromm, however, every per- each individual in the form of libidinal impulses, son must always stand in a relationship not on- and the individual cannot exist in any other way ly with reality and with other human beings, as than as a social being. Fromm’s interest as a Sullivan made clear with his interpersonal and trained and practicing psychoanalyst was to (as one would say today) intersubjective ap- overcome the traditional split between individ- proach. The hunger to be related to oneself and ual and society. to the social group one belongs to arises with Yet this idea, that "every society has its own the same existential urgency from this relation- distinctive libidinal structure" (Fromm 1932a, p. al approach. 160) was not the end of Fromm’s re-vision of Implications of Fromm's psychoanalysis. There are numerous indications socio-psychoanalytic approach that Fromm was increasingly doubtful about the Freudian libido theory that he had used to I would now like to point out certain implica- explain the passionate strivings as libidinal tions of the socio-psychoanalytic approach de- page/Seite 2 of/von 7 Funk, R., 2017k Erich Fromm's Socio-Psychoanalytic Re-Vision of Freudian Theory Property of the Erich Fromm Document Center. For personal use only. Citation or publication of material pro- hibited without express written permission of the copyright holder. Eigentum des Erich Fromm Dokumentationszentrums. Nutzung nur für persönliche Zwecke. Veröffentlichungen – auch von Teilen – bedürfen der schriftlichen Erlaubnis des Rechteinhabers. veloped by Fromm. (2) If we view Fromm's socio-psychoanalytic approach against the backdrop of our deep- (1) Given his view that individual and society rooted fear of social isolation and the psychic are not antipodes, but are structurally joined so structures whose formation it makes necessary, that "society is nothing but living, concrete in- a number of other implications with theoretical dividuals, and the individual can live only as a impact come into view. Freud's concept of social human being" (Fromm 1992e, p. 58), "primary narcissism", for example, and the no- Fromm from the very beginning understands tion that man is "primarily self-sufficient and the individual as a socialized being. This is also only secondarily in need of others in order to reflected in how Fromm expanded Sullivan's re- satisfy his/her instinctual needs" were emphat- lational approach by postulating an existential ically rejected by Fromm (1941a, p. 290) and hunger for ties to a social group which makes were criticized by him point by point in one of every type of psychology a form of social psy- his later writings (Fromm 1979a, pp. 43-54). chology. The concept has also been quite clearly dis- Every person has an inescapable need for rela- proven by the studies of infants and attach- tionship with a social group.