The Pathology of Normalcy
The Pathology of Normalcy

Author: Erich Fromm

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2023-02-28

Total Pages: 197

ISBN-13: 1504082753

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The legendary social psychologist and New York Times–bestselling author meditates on ideas of mental health and normalcy in contemporary society. At the beginning of the 1950s, Erich Fromm increasingly questioned whether people in contemporary industrial society were mentally healthy. Eventually the topic of various lectures, Fromm’s new social psychoanalytic approach enabled him to further develop the psychoanalytic method into a comprehensive critique of the pathology of the “normal,” socially adjusted human being. He was thus able to subject to a radical analysis the widespread strivings that dominate behavior in society—and therefore question what is “normal,” what is beneficial to mental health, and what makes people ill. In The Pathology of Normalcy, Fromm examines the concepts of mental health and mental illness in modern society. He discusses, through a series of lectures, subjects including a frame of reference for evaluating mental health, the relationship between mental health issues and alienation, and the connection between psychological and economic theory. Finally, he elucidates how humanity can overcome “the insane society,” as well as its own innate laziness.

The Right Way to Flourish
The Right Way to Flourish

Author: John Ehrenfeld

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-10-08

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 100001164X

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In this ground-breaking book, pre-eminent thought leader in the fields of sustainability and flourishing, John R. Ehrenfeld, critiques the concept of sustainability as it is understood today and which is coming more and more under attack as unclear and ineffective as a call for action. Building upon the recent work of cognitive scientist, Iain McGilchrist, who argues that the human brain’s two hemispheres present distinct different worlds, this book articulates how society must replace the current foundational left-brain-based beliefs – a mechanistic world and a human driven by self interest – with new ones based on complexity and care. Flourishing should replace the lifeless metrics now being used to guide business and government, as well as individuals. Until we accept that our modern belief structure is, itself, the barrier, we will continue to be mired in an endless succession of unsolved problems.

Insane Society: A Sociology of Mental Health
Insane Society: A Sociology of Mental Health

Author: Peter Morrall

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-03-27

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 1351271148

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This book critiques the connection between Western society and madness, scrutinizing if and how societal insanity affects the cause, construction, and consequence of madness. Looking beyond the affected individual to their social, political, economic, ecological, and cultural context, this book examines whether society itself, and its institutions, divisions, practices, and values, is mad. That society’s insanity is relevant to the sanity and insanity of its citizens has been argued by Fromm in The Sane Society, but also by a host of sociologists, social thinkers, epidemiologists and biologists. This book builds on classic texts such as Foucault’s History of Madness, Scull’s Marxist-oriented works and more recent publications which have arisen from a range of socio-political and patient-orientated movements. Chapters in this book draw on biology, psychology, sociological and anthropological thinking that argues that where madness is concerned, society matters. Providing an extended case study of how the sociological imagination should operate in a contemporary setting, this book draws on genetics, neuroscience, cognitive science, radical psychology, and evolutionary psychology/psychiatry. It is an important read for students and scholars of sociology, anthropology, social policy, criminology, health, and mental health.

Erich Fromm’s Revolutionary Hope
Erich Fromm’s Revolutionary Hope

Author: Joan Braune

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-11-26

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 9462098123

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“Socialism ... is essentially prophetic Messianism ...” So Erich Fromm writes in his 1961 classic Marx’s Concept of Man. World-renowned Critical Theorist, activist, psychoanalyst, and public Marxist intellectual, Erich Fromm (1900-1980) played a pivotal role in the early Frankfurt Institute for Social Research and influenced emancipatory projects in multiple disciplines. While he remains popularly well known as author of such best-selling books as Escape from Freedom and The Art of Loving, Fromm’s contribution to Critical Theory is now being rediscovered. Fromm’s work on messianism in the 1950s-1970s responded to earlier debates among early twentieth century German Jewish thinkers and radicals, including Hermann Cohen, Rosa Luxemburg, Martin Buber, Gershom Scholem, and Georg Lukács. The return to Fromm, as well as growing interest in Jewish messianism’s influence on the Frankfurt School, makes this book timely. Fromm’s bold defense of radical hope and trenchant critique of political catastrophism are more relevant than ever. “Joan Braune’s work on Erich Fromm is indispensable for students of Frankfurt School critical theory ... Braune reveals the central role that Fromm played in the early development of Frankfurt School critical theory. She also discloses the role that Fromm played in shaping some of the most important debates in critical theory. One of the most interesting issues that informed the debates among early critical theorists was messianism and its political implications. There is no better book on this issue. Those of us who are interested in the development of Frankfurt School critical theory owe Dr. Braune a great deal of gratitude.” – Arnold L. Farr, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Kentucky, President, International Herbert Marcuse Society “Joan Braune's work on Fromm brings this important figure in critical theory back into the conversation at a needed time. It also appears at a time when we must recapture prophetic messianism – the hope in humanity for a better future.” Jeffery Nicholas, Providence College, author of Reason, Tradition, and the Good: MacIntyre’s Tradition-Constituted Reason and Frankfurt School Critical Theory

The Sane Society
The Sane Society

Author: Erich Fromm

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-06-28

Total Pages: 419

ISBN-13: 1136748377

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Following the publication of the seminal Fear of Freedom, Erich Fromm applied his unique vision to a critique of contemporary capitalism in The Sane Society. Where the former dealt with man's historic inability to come to terms with his sense of isolation, and the dangers to which this can lead, The Sane Society took his theories one step further.

The Legacy of Erich Fromm
The Legacy of Erich Fromm

Author: Daniel Burston

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9780674521681

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This is the first full-scale intellectual biography in English of Erich Fromm, perhaps the most widely read psychoanalyst after Freud, whose contributions to clinical and social psychology and the history of the psychoanalytic movement have long been underrated. Though considered a pedant, a popularizer--Escape from Freedom, The Sane Society, and The Art of Loving, among others, were best-sellers -and an "outsider" in many psychoanalytic circles, Fromm played a historic role in the development of the discipline. As a member of Freud's "loyal opposition" with strong leanings toward the "dissident fringe;' he helped effect the transfer of productive ideas from the periphery to the mainstream of the psychoanalytic movement. Daniel Burston's meticulous elucidation of these ideas unravels the numerous strands--philosophical, literary, and social--that formed a part of Freud's own work and of Fromm's sympathetic, but not uncritical, reaction to Freudian orthodoxy. Despite his grounding in the tradition of Freud, contemporaries and former associates persistently misunderstood Fromm's work. Insofar as he attempted to decipher the ideological subtexts to Freudian theory, analytically oriented theorists doing clinical or social research avoided his ideas. His Marxist leanings and his radically historical approach to human behavior made it all but impossible for mainstream academic psychologists to grasp his meaning, much less to grant it any validity. At the same time, his humanistic and ethical concerns struck many psychologists as grossly unscientific. Practical and intellectual constraints have conspired to ensure that Fromm's impact has been peripheral at best. Burston's eloquent, evenhanded reassessment of Fromm's life and work cuts through the ideological and political underbrush to reveal his pivotal role as a theorist and a critic of modern psychoanalysis. It leads readers back to Freud, whose theoretical and clinical contributions Fromm refracted and extended, and on to controversies that remain a vital part of contemporary intellectual life.

The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness
The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness

Author: Erich Fromm

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2013-02-26

Total Pages: 962

ISBN-13: 1480401935

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A study of aggression from the renowned social psychologist and New York Times–bestselling author of The Art of Loving and Escape from Freedom. Throughout history, humans have shown an incredible talent for destruction as well as creation. Aggression has driven us to great heights and brutal lows. In The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, renowned social psychologist Erich Fromm discusses the differences between forms of aggression typical for animals and two very specific forms of destructiveness that can only be found in human beings: sadism and necrophilic destructiveness. His case studies span zoo animals, necrophiliacs, and the psychobiographies of notorious figures such as Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Through his broad scholarship, Fromm offers a comprehensive exploration of the human impulse for violence. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Erich Fromm including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s estate.

Reclaiming the Sane Society
Reclaiming the Sane Society

Author: Miri Seyed Javad

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-07-03

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 9462096074

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Erich Fromm’s body of work, written more than 50 years ago, was prophetic of the contemporary moment: Increasingly, global society is threatened by the many-headed monster of corporate greed, neo-liberalism, nihilism, extreme fundamentalist beliefs, and their resulting effects on the natural world and the lived lives of people. Fromm clearly warned us of the peril of the misuse of technology and the destructive nature of man’s perverse desire to possess, control and/or destroy. Through his theories of having vs. being, the importance of hope as active resistance, and his notion of freedom as the capacity to love self, and others, Fromm encouraged his readers to cultivate biophilic ways of being in the world that will counter and heal the impending necrophilic plunder of man’s hubris. This multi-authored volume sheds new light on Fromm’s forgotten role in the formation of contemporary thought through an engaging variety of reflexive and historical narratives from fields of sociology, clinical psychology, political science, critical theory of religion and education. Key concepts from his body of work are interpreted and expressed in ways that offer hopeful and humane alternatives to the present global conditions of despair, greed and depersonalization.