8. Fromm (Humanistic Psychology) Flashcards
Basic Assumption
People have been removed from nature but have the self-awareness to feel isolated and homeless –> develop basic anxiety –> to escape anxiety, strive to become united with others and nature using relatedness, transcendence, rootedness, sense of identity and frame of orientation
Relatedness
Drives people to unite with others through submission, power or love
Transcendence
Need to rise above passive existence and create or destroy life
Rootedness
Need for consistent structure in life
Sense of Identity
The feeling of “I”
Frame of Orientation
Consistent way of viewing the world
Mechanisms to Escape Basic Anxiety
Authoritarianism, destructiveness, and conformity
Syndrome of Growth
In psychologically healthy people
Includes (1) positive freedom, or the spontaneous activity of a whole, integrated personality; (2) biophilia, or a passionate love of life; and (3) love for fellow humans
Syndrome of Decay
Necrophilia, Malignant Narcissism, Incestuous symbiosis
Human Dilemma
Human ability to reason is blessing and curse –> enables survival but must solve existential dichotomies (life/death, impossibility of self-realization, alone/isolated) of human existence, which they can only react to relative to own culture and individual personality
Origin of Existential/Human Needs
Existential needs grew out of human need to find answer for existence and avoid insanity
Authoritarianism
tendency to give up independence and fuse with something outside self to acquire strength
Destructiveness
seeks to do away with other people, individuals or nations; develop perverted isolation
Conformity
escape aloneness by giving up individuality and being what others want
Positive Freedom
Solution to human dilemma –> can be attained by spontaneous full expression of rational and emotional potentialities and through love and work
Character Orientation
A person’s relatively permanent way of relating to people and things, a reflection of personality
Five Character Orientations
(i) Receptive
(ii) Exploitative
(iii) Hoarding
(iv) Marketing
(v) Productive
Nonproductive Orientations
Nonproductive in the sense that they do not move individual closer to self-realization and positive freedom
Receptive Orientation
Feel source of all good is outside self, passively receives it
Exploitative Orientation
Feel source of all good is outside self, aggressively takes it
Hoarding Orientation
Seek to save what they have already obtained
Productive Orientation
Working toward self-realization and positive freedom using productive work, love and reason
Necrophilia
Love/attraction to death
Malignant Narcissism
Narcissism that impedes perception of reality, excessive preoccupation with self
Incestuous Symbiosis
Extreme dependence on mother/surrogate mother (e.g. family, business, church)
