Psychology · Ch 2 — Self and Personality
Erich Fromm : The Human Concerns
Erich Fromm : The Human Concerns
Erich Fromm: The Human Concerns
Fromm broke sharply with Freud’s biological view of human nature. Where Freud saw instincts and unconscious drives as the core of personality, Fromm insisted that human beings are fundamentally social. You cannot understand a person in isolation — you must understand them in terms of their relationships with others.
For Fromm, the driving forces of psychological growth are not buried instincts but a desire for freedom, a striving for justice, and a search for truth. These are not secondary or derivative motives; they are primary. Growth and the realisation of human potentials happen when these strivings are allowed to flourish.
Personality, in Fromm’s system, is not something you are born with. Character traits develop out of your experiences with other people. The way you are treated, the kinds of relationships you form, the social conditions you live in — these shape who you become.
Fromm’s theory is a two-way street between the individual and society. Culture is shaped by the mode of existence of a given society — how people produce and organise their lives. But at the same time, the dominant character traits of people in that society work as forces that shape social processes and the culture itself. Personality and society are in constant, mutual influence. …