By: Erich Fromm Publisher: Holt Paperbacks Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Holt Paperbacks Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 320 Publication Date: September 15, 1994
If humanity cannot live with the dangers and responsibilities inherent in freedom, it will probably turn to authoritarianism. This is the central idea of Escape from Freedom, a landmark work by one of the most distinguished thinkers of our time, and a book that is as timely now as when first published in 1941. Few books have thrown such light upon the forces that shape modern society or penetrated so deeply into the causes of authoritarian systems. If the rise of democracy set some people free, at the same time it gave birth to a society in which the individual feels alienated and dehumanized. Using the insights of psychoanalysis as probing agents, Fromm’s work analyzes the illness of contemporary civilization as witnessed by its willingness to submit to totalitarian rule.
It's Fromm I purchased this book for a class. It is a fabulous book and it was in good shape.
Escape from freedom When I first read it I was enlightened. To me most people want freedom, but are afraid of the results of their actions. To avoid a bad chose people will let someone else choose for them. That's the origin of Fascism,Communism and other totalitarianisms. in everyEscape from Freedom cultures you have people that just "Don't Rock the Boat." or "Go with the flow." It makes them feel safe. To be free you have the right to be right or wrong. That's scary for most people.
A provocative dead end This book, initially published in 1941, provides an invaluable framework for understanding the rise of Fascism in the 1930s. Fromm argues that the German masses (especially the lower middle class) were not tricked into supporting Hitler and his cohorts; they willingly succumbed to gain powerful psychic benefits. In brief, by surrendering themselves to the great leader, they escaped the dilemma of surviving in a world that seemed threatening and beyond their control.
Having come to the United States in 1934 to escape the Nazis, Fromm wrote with first hand familiarity of the political situation in his native country. In addition, he was an accomplished psychologist, well versed in the theories of Sigmund Freud et al. No wonder his analysis of the appeal of Nazism to the German population rings true, even though this development might seem of primarily historical interest at this point.
But there is much more, because Fromm postulates a similar lack of comfort with individual political and economic freedom to the populations of other nations under widely varying circumstances. He also describes a variety of coping mechanisms, from accepting religious belief systems (which he obviously does not set much store in) to giving up one's own autonomy and buying into the conventional wisdom of the society as communicated by the mass media.
While it is suggested that people can learn to live authentically in accordance with their own ideas, converting freedom from a threat to a benefit, Fromm sets so many obstacles in the way that one is inclined to doubt whether he truly believes in such a vision. Note also his sense of comfort with society in the Middle Ages, when people knew what fate held in store for them based on the accident of their birth, and with the lot of animals (e.g., wood chucks) that can make their way in life based on instinct.
Ultimately, Fromm makes clear what he really thinks: most people are not qualified for freedom after all and someone (hopefully infused with benevolent intent) must do their thinking for them.
On the one hand, he says, "progress for democracy lies in enhancing the actual freedom, initiative, and spontaneity of the individual, not only in certain private and spiritual matters, but above all in the activity fundamental to every man's existence, his work."
On the other, "the irrational and planless character of society must be replaced by a planned economy that represents the planned and concerted effort of society as such. *** Only in a planned economy in which the whole nation has rationally mastered the economic and social forces can the individual share responsibility and use creative intelligence in his work."
In holding up a planned economy as part of the solution, it seems to me, Fromm is basically conceding the bankruptcy of his central premise - that there is some way to have certainty and freedom at the same time.
What is to say that a planned economy works better than the free market, or that people will really have more outlets for their individual aspirations and abilities in such a system? Also, come to think of it, the Fascists (and Communists as well) were big on centrally planned economies.
An Honest and Sincere Analysis Following in the footsteps of Sigmund Freud, Erich Fromm was trained in psychoanalysis and became a consulting psychologist. Writing this book in 1941, Fromm was intrigued by how dictators like Mussolini, Hitler, and Stalin were able to gain the support of their mass populations and, in effect, lure them away from freedom (insofar as they had any to begin with). His study is partly driven by his assetion that this luring force toward fascism widely prevails "in millions of our own people", referring to Americans, and is the reason I read this book.
His thesis then becomes that in a state of freedom (independent, rational, objective), individuals are alone and alienated and have doubt. Man longs for security and a sense to belong.
In support of his thesis, Fromm begins with lessons drawn from the middle ages and the Renaissance, a time when "The masses who did not share the wealth and power of the ruling group had lost the security of their former status and had become a shapeless mass, to be flattered or to be threatened-but always to be manipulated and exploited by those in power. A new despotism arose side by side with the new individualism. Freedom and tyranny, individuality and disorder, were inextricably interwonen".
He, furthermore, uses examples of "masochistic perversion because it proves beyond doubt that suffering can be something sought for".
The book becomes more relevant when Fromm finally gets to 20th century America and writes, "The principal social avenues of escape in our time are the submission to a leader, as has happened in Fascist countries, and the compulsive conforming as is prevalent in our own democracy".
And then Fromm gets to the mechanisms of escape. The one I find particularly intersting is "automaton conformity". In his words, "...the individual ceases to be himself; he adopts entirely the kind of personality offerred to him by cultural patterns; and he therefore becomes exactly as all others are and as they expect him to be. The discrepancy between "I" and the world disappears and with it the conscious fear of aloneness and powerlessness...The person who gives up his individual self and becomes an automaton, identical with millions of other automatons around him, need not feel alone and anxious any more. But the price he pays, however, is high; it is the loss of his self".
And this, patient reader, is the relevance of Erich Fromm's "Escape From Freedom" to the American Republic. If 300 million individuals lose their "self" to their "leader" (because they want to conform) then what we have is a totalitarian dictatorship exactly like Hitler's, Stalin's, and Mussolini's. And, as I went to great detail to show in my review of the book, Propaganda, the invisible government of the USA has been conditioning our minds and snatching our thought without us even being aware of it. This conditioning is, for all intensive purposes, complete. Expect the other shoe to drop within the next twelve months.
Fromm writes, "...if we do not see the unconscious suffering of the average automatized person, then we fail to see the danger that threatens our culture from its human basis; the readiness to accept any ideology and any leader, if only he promises excitement and offers a political structure and symbols which allegedly give meaning and order to an individual's life. The despair of the human automaton is fertile soil for the political purposes of Fascism".
Essential Delve Into What Freedom Is Written almost seventy years ago, this book is still surprisingly relevant today. Fromm explores freedom from two sides, man's strive for it and man's strive in spite of it.
An essential book for anyone who truly values freedom, and even more essential for those who try to rebel against society and carve their own niche. Are they really? Or are they falling into freedom's trappings.
Especially powerful is the section on Nazism, written at the dawn of World War II. Great stuff here.
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