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'''Erich Fromm''' (March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was an internationally renowned [[German]]-American [[psychology|psychologist]] and humanistic [[philosophy|philosopher]]. He is associated with what became known as the [[Frankfurt School]] of critical thinkers.

Erich Fromm started his studies in [[1918]] at the [[Johann Wolfgang Goethe Uniersity Frankfurt am Main|University of Frankfurt am Main]] with two semesters of [[jurisprudence]]. During the summer semester of [[1919]], Fromm studied at the [[University of Heidelberg]], where he switched from studying jurisprudence to studying [[sociology]] under [[Alfred Weber]] (brother of [[Max Weber]]), [[Karl Jaspers]], and [[Heinrich Rickert]]. Fromm received his [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] in sociology from Heidelberg in [[1922]], and completed his [[psychoanalytical ]] [[training ]] in [[1930]] at the [[Psychoanalytical Institute in Berlin]]. In that same year, he began his own [[clinical ]] [[practice ]] and joined the Frankfurt [[Institute for Social Research]]. After the [[Nazi ]] takeover of [[power ]] in [[Germany]], Fromm moved to [[Geneva]], then, in 1934, to [[Columbia University]] in New York. After leaving Columbia, he helped [[form ]] the New York Branch of the [[Washington School of Psychiatry]] in [[1943]], and in [[1945]] the [[William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology]].

When Fromm moved to [[Mexico ]] City in 1950, he became a professor at the [[UNAM]] (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico) and established a [[psychoanalytic ]] section at the medical [[school ]] there. He taught at the [[UNAM]] until his retirement in [[1965]]. Meanwhile, he taught as a professor of [[psychology ]] at [[Michigan State University]] from [[1957]] to [[1961]] and as an adjunct professor of psychology at the graduate [[division ]] of [[Arts ]] and [[Sciences ]] at [[New York University]] after [[1962]]. In 1974 he moved to Muralto, Switzerland, and died at his home in 1980, five days before his eightieth birthday. All the while, Fromm maintained his own clinical practice and published a series of books.

Beginning with his first [[seminal work]], ''Escape from [[Freedom]]'' (known in [[United Kingdom|Britain]] as ''The [[Fear ]] of Freedom''), first published in [[1941]], Fromm's writings were notable as much for their [[social ]] and [[political ]] commentary as for their [[philosophical ]] and [[psychological ]] underpinnings. His second seminal [[work]], ''Man for Himself: An Inquiry into the Psychology of [[Ethics]]'', first published in [[1947]], was a continuation of ''Escape from Freedom''. Taken together, these books outlined Fromm's [[theory ]] of [[human ]] [[character]], which was a [[natural ]] outgrowth of Fromm's theory of human [[nature]]. Fromm's most popular book was ''The Art of Loving'', an international bestseller first published in [[1956]], which recapitulated and complemented the [[theoretical ]] principles of human nature found in ''Escape from Freedom'' and ''Man for Himself'', principles which were revisited in many of Fromm's [[other ]] major works.

Central to Fromm's [[world view]] was his [[interpretation ]] of the [[Talmud]], which he began studying as a young man under [[Rabbi J. Horowitz]] and later studied under [[Rabbi Salman Baruch Rabinkow]] while [[working ]] towards his doctorate in sociology at the [[University ]] of Heidelberg and under [[Nehemia Nobel]] and [[Ludwig Krause]] while studying in Frankfurt. Fromm's grandfather and two great grandfathers on his [[father]]'s side were rabbis, and a great uncle on his [[mother]]'s side was a noted Talmudic scholar. However, Fromm turned away from orthodox [[Judaism]] in [[1926]] and turned towards secular [[interpretations ]] of scriptural ideals.

The cornerstone of Fromm's humanistic [[philosophy ]] is his interpretation of the [[Bible|biblical]] story of [[Adam and Eve]]'s exile from the [[Garden of Eden]]. Drawing on his [[knowledge ]] of the Talmud, Fromm pointed out that [[being ]] able to distinguish between [[good ]] and [[evil ]] is generally considered to be a virtue, and that [[biblical ]] scholars generally consider Adam and Eve to have sinned by disobeying [[God]] and eating from the [[Tree of Knowledge]]. However, departing from traditional [[religious ]] orthodoxy, Fromm extolled the virtues of [[humans ]] taking independent [[action ]] and using [[reason ]] to establish [[moral ]] values rather than adhering to authoritarian moral values.

Beyond a simple condemnation of authoritarian [[value ]] systems, Fromm used the story of Adam and Eve as an allegorical explanation for [[human evolution|human biological evolution]] and [[existentialism|existential]] [[angst]], asserting that when Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, they became aware of themselves as being [[separate ]] from nature while still being a part of it. This is why they felt "naked" and "ashamed": They had [[evolution|evolved]] into [[human being]]s, [[conscious ]] of themselves, their own [[mortality]], and their powerlessness before the forces of nature and [[society]], and no longer united with the [[universe ]] as they were in their [[instinct|instinctive]], pre-human [[existence ]] as [[animal]]s. According to Fromm, the [[awareness ]] of a disunited human existence is the source of all [[guilt]] and [[shame]], and the solution to this existential dichotomy is found in the [[development ]] of one's uniquely human powers of [[love]] and reason. However, Fromm so distinguished his [[concept ]] of love from popular notions of love that his reference to this concept was virtually paradoxical.

Fromm considered love to be an interpersonal creative capacity rather than an [[emotion]], and he distinguished this creative capacity from what he considered to be various forms of [[narcissism|narcissistic neuroses]] and [[sado-masochism|sado-masochistic tendencies]] that are commonly held out as proof of "[[true ]] love." Indeed, Fromm viewed the [[experience ]] of "falling in love" as evidence of one's failure to [[understand ]] the true nature of love, which he believed always had the common elements of ''care'', ''[[responsibility]]'', ''respect'', and ''knowledge''. Drawing from his knowledge of the Talmud, Fromm pointed to the story of [[Jonah]], who did not [[wish ]] to save the residents of [[Nineveh]] from the consequences of their sin, as demonstrative of his [[belief ]] that the qualities of ''care'' and ''responsibility'' are generally [[absent ]] from most human relationships. Fromm also asserted that few [[people ]] in modern society had ''respect'' for the [[autonomy ]] of their fellow human beings, much less the [[objective ]] ''knowledge'' of what other people truly wanted and needed.

The [[word ]] "biophilia' was frequently used by Fromm as a description of a productive psychological orientation and "[[state of being]]". For example, in an addendum to his book ''The Heart of Man: Its [[Genius ]] For Good and Evil'', Fromm wrote as part of his famous [[Humanist Credo]]:

"I believe that the man choosing [[progress ]] can find a new [[unity ]] through the development of all his human forces, which are produced in [[three ]] orientations. These can be presented separately or together: biophilia, love for humanity and nature, and independence and freedom." (c. 1965)

The concept of biophilia was used by Fromm as an [[inverse ]] to [[necrophilia]], while some other resources [[state ]] the opposite of biophilia as [[biophobia]].

The culmination of Fromm's social and political philosophy was his book ''The Sane Society'', published in [[1955]], which argued in favor of [[humanist]], [[democratic socialism]]. Building primarily upon the early works of [[Karl Marx]], Fromm sought to re-emphasise the [[ideal ]] of personal freedom, [[missing ]] from most Soviet [[Marxism]], and more frequently found in the writings of libertarian socialists and [[liberal ]] theoreticians. Fromm's brand of [[socialism ]] rejected both [[Capitalism|Western capitalism]] and [[Communism|Soviet communism]], which he saw as dehumanizing and bureaucratic social [[structures ]] that resulted in a virtually [[universal ]] modern phenomenon of [[alienation]]. He became one of the founders of the Socialist [[Humanism]], promoting the early [[Marx]]'s writings and his humanist messages to the US and Western European publics. Thus, in the early 1960s, Fromm has published two books dealing with the Marx [[thought ]] (''Marx's Concept of Man'' and ''Beyond the Chains of [[Illusion]]: my [[Encounter ]] with Marx and [[Freud]]''). Working to stimulate the Western and Eastern cooperation between [[Marxist Humanism|Marxist Humanists]], in [[1965]] Fromm has published the collection of articles entitled ''Socialist Humanism: An International [[Symposium]]''.

For a period Fromm was also [[active ]] in US [[politics]]. He joined the [[Socialist Party of America]] in the middle [[1950]]s, and did his best to [[help ]] [[them ]] provide an alternative viewpoint to the prevailing [[McCarthyism]] of the [[time]], a viewpoint that was best expressed in his [[1961]] paper ''May Man Prevail? An Inquiry into the Facts and Fictions of Foreign Policy''. However, as a co-founder of [[SANE]], Fromm's strongest political interest was in the international peace movement, fighting against the [[nuclear arms ]] [[race ]] and US involvement in the [[Vietnam war]]. After supporting the then Senator [[Eugene McCarthy]]'s losing bid for the [[1968 Democratic National Convention|Democratic presidential nomination]], Fromm more or less retreated from the American political [[scene]], although he did write a paper in [[1974]] entitled ''Remarks on the Policy of Détente'' for a hearing held by the [[U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations]].

*''[[Psychoanalysis ]] and [[Religion]]'', [[1950]]*''The Forgotten [[Language]]: the [[Understanding ]] of [[Dreams]], Fairy Tales and [[Myths]]'', [[1951]]

*''[[Sigmund Freud]]'s Mission: an [[analysis ]] of his [[personality ]] and influence'', [[1959]]*''Let Man Prevail: a Socialist [[Manifest ]] and Program'', [[1960]]*''Zen [[Buddhism ]] and Psychoanalysis'' with D.T. Suzuki and Richard de Martino, [[1960]]

*''The Revoluton of Hope: Toward a Humanized [[Technology]]'', [[1968]]

*''The Working [[Class ]] in Weimar Germany'' (a [[psycho]]-social analysis done in the 1930s), [[1984]] *''For the Love of [[Life]]'', [[1986]]