Table Of ContentERICH FROMM AND THE QUEST FOR SOLIDARITY
Also by Lawrence Wilde
APPROACHES TO MARX (coeditor with Mark Cowling)
MARX AND CONTRADICTION
MODERN EUROPEAN SOCIALISM
ETHICAL MARXISM AND ITS RADICAL CRITICS
MARXISM'S ETHICAL THINKERS (editor)
ERICH FROMM AND THE QUEST FOR
SoLIDARITY
LAWRENCE WILDE
* ERICH FROMM AND THE QUEST FOR SOLIDARITY
© Lawrence Wilde, 2004.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2004 978-1-4039-6141-9
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ISBN 978-1-349-73113-8 ISBN 978-1-137-07511-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-07511-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wilde, Lawrence.
Erich Fromm and the quest for solidarity I Lawrence Wilde.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Solidarity. 2. Humanistic ethics. 3. Fromm, Erich, 1900-1. Title.
HM717.W55 2004
302'.14-dc22 2004046072
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For Frances Catherine
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Vlll
Principal Events in the Life ofE rich Fromm lX
1. Introduction: The Quest
2. Freedom Lost 19
3. Humanistic Ethics 37
4. Toward a Gendered Humanism 57
5. Work 75
6. Consumption 97
7. Democracy 113
8. One World 131
9. Conclusion: Radical Humanism and Human Solidarity 145
Notes 153
Select Bibliography 179
Index 181
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am indebted to Ian Fraser and Vincent Geoghegan for their meticulous and invaluable
comments on the entire manuscript, and to Tony Burns for his comments on an
early version of chapter four. Special thanks to Rainer Funk for his wonderful hospi
tality at the Erich Fromm Archive in Tiibingen, and for granting permission to quote
from the works of Erich Fromm. Many thanks to participants who commented on
papers presented on Fromm's work at the University of Sussex, Edge Hill College,
Lancashire, and Nottingham Trent University. I am grateful to Nottingham Trent
University for granting me a sabbatical at the beginning of the project, and to the
library staff there for helping me with interlibrary loans. Thank you to Joan Melia
for her tireless and skillful work in helping to knock this book into shape, and to her
and our daughter Frances Catherine for creating the loving environment in which it
has been produced. I am grateful to Anthony Wahl of Palgrave, New York, for his
enthusiastic support for this project.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF
ERICH FROMM
1900 March 23, born in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, the only child of an
Orthodox Jewish middle-class family.
1914 Outbreak ofWar causes Fromm to question the irrationality of nationalism.
1916 Begins Talmudic studies with Rabbi Nehemia Nobel, until1921.
1918 Graduates from the Wohler-Schule and begins studying law at the
University of Frankfurt.
1919 Moves to the University of Heidelberg and studies Sociology and
Economics.
1920 Talmudic studies under Salman Rabinkow, a socialist, until1926.
1922 Awarded a doctorate from Heidelberg for a dissertation on the sociology
of three communities of the Jewish diaspora.
1924 Psychoanalyzed by Frieda Reichmann. They set up a therapy center for
Jewish patients in Heidelberg.
1926 Marries Frieda Reichmann. Rejects theistic religion.
1928 Further psychoanalytical training in Berlin.
1929 Returns to Frankfurt to help found the South German Institute for
Psychoanalysis. Seeks a new social psychology combining Marx's sociology
and Freud's psychoanalysis.
1930 Publishes The Dogma of Christ. Joins the Institute for Social Research (the
Frankfurt School) as head of psychoanalysis and social psychology.
Commences work on an empirical project on the personality structure of
the German working class. Completes psychoanalytical training in Berlin
and opens his own practice.
1931 Parts from Frieda Fromm-Reichmann.
1932 Contracts tuberculosis and recuperates in Davos, Switzerland.
1933 Accession to power of Hitler and the Nazis forces the Institute for Social
Research to move to Geneva, Switzerland. Death of father. Begins rela
tionship with the psychoanalyst Karen Horney.
1934 Emigrates to the United States and continues work with the Institute at its
new home in New York. Sets up psychoanalytical practice.
1935 Cooperation with psychoanalysts Harry Stack Sullivan and Clara
Thompson.
1937 Rejects Freud's drive theory.
Description:Erich Fromm and the Quest for Solidarity argues that Fromm's humanistic ethics provides a framework for the analysis of alienation in affluent societies and his exploration of the social forces capable of challenging that alienation. It examines his work on authoritarianism, the experience of work,
