Erich Fromm
Psychoanalyst and social philosopher (1900 to 1980) whose Escape from Freedom (1941) argued that modern freedom leaves people isolated and anxious, and that many flee it into authority and conformity.
Erich Fromm did not write this page.
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Their wordsFreedom, though it has brought him independence and rationality, has made him isolated and, thereby, anxious and powerless.
↗Escape from Freedom (Rinehart, 1941)archive.org All 7 from this book
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Their wordsThe 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.
↗Escape from Freedom (Rinehart, 1941)archive.org All 7 from this book
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Our reading
The only productive answer to isolation is solidarity, love and work as a free individual
Their wordsThere is only one possible, productive solution for the relationship of individualized man with the world: his active solidarity with all men and his spontaneous activity, love and work, which unite him again with the world, not by primary ties but as a free and independent individual.
↗Escape from Freedom (Rinehart, 1941)archive.org All 7 from this book
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Their wordspositive freedom consists in the spontaneous activity of the total, integrated personality.
↗Escape from Freedom (Rinehart, 1941)archive.org All 7 from this book
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Their wordsMan's nature, his passions, and anxieties are a cultural product
↗Escape from Freedom (Rinehart, 1941)archive.org All 7 from this book
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Their words“Freedom from” is not identical with positive freedom, with “freedom to.”
↗Escape from Freedom (Rinehart, 1941)archive.org All 7 from this book
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Their wordsThe right to express our thoughts, however, means something only if we are able to have thoughts of our own
↗Escape from Freedom (Rinehart, 1941)archive.org All 7 from this book