The Lives of Erich Fromm
Love's Prophet
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
This “brilliantly comprehensive study” explores the influential thinker’s contributions to psychology, philosophy and more—“academic biography at its best” (Kirkus, starred review).
Erich Fromm was a political activist, psychologist, psychoanalyst, philosopher, and one of the most important intellectuals of the twentieth century. Known for his theories of personality and political insight, Fromm dissected the sadomasochistic appeal of populist dictators. He eloquently championing the virtues of love rooted in joyful contact with others and humanity at large. Admired all over the world, Fromm continues to inspire with his message of universal brotherhood.
In the first systematic study of Fromm's influences and achievements, Lawrence J. Friedman revisits the thinker's most important works, including Escape from Freedom and The Art of Loving. He also recounts Fromm's political activism as a founder of Amnesty International, the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, and other peace groups. Friedman also reveals Fromm's support for anti-Stalinist democratic movements in Central and Eastern Europe and his efforts to revitalize American democracy.
Friedman elucidates Fromm's key intellectual contributions, especially his innovative concept of "social character," in which social institutions and practices shape the inner psyche, and he clarifies Fromm's conception of love as an acquired skill. Taking full stock of the thinker's historical and global accomplishments, Friedman portrays a man of immense authenticity and spirituality who made life in the twentieth century more humane than it might have been.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Friedman, a professor at Harvard University's "Mind/Brain/Behavior Initiative," summarizes Erich Fromm's notion of "the primary task for the modern self" thusly: "to use one's freedom spontaneously, energetically, and uniquely... enhance his joy, his sense of viable selfhood, and his capacity to share with others." Interestingly, this humanistic doctrine arose from a rather unhappy childhood to escape a tense home environment, Fromm (1900 1980) dedicated himself to Talmudic study and a life of "ethics, scholarship, and a commitment to the community." Reading Marx and Freud, he became an influential scholar of psychology, well-known for his "social character" theory and emphasis on the role of environment in shaping the individual. Friedman (Identity's Architect) also demonstrates how Fromm's philosophy arose from a personal social fabric: experiences in his childhood and with lovers and colleagues were frequently woven into his prodigious writings. The author occasionally derails the narrative in order to illuminate pivotal peripheral figures in Fromm's life, and he duly describes his subject's flaws, lapses in scholarly precision, and the contradictions between his public persona and private practices, but always in the spirit of honest understanding an approach favored by Fromm. Through this thorough portrait, "Love's Prophet" emerges as an exemplar of enjoying an examined life to its fullest potential. 16 photos.
