Chapter 7 - Fromm

Question 0

What are the existential dichotomies Fromm identified?

Answer 0

• life vs death
• self-realization vs time constraints
• isolation vs loneliness

Question 1

What is the human dilemma?

Answer 1

We have no powerful instincts to adapt to a changing world & have instead developed facility to reason
- we have become separated from nature & have capacity to recognize this separation

Question 2

What are existential needs?

Answer 2

Human needs which can move us to reunion with the natural world

• relatedness (submission/power, love)
• transcendence (creation, destruction)
• rootedness (wholeness, fixation)
• sense of identity (w/ group, w/ self)
• frame of orientation

Question 3

What is the burden of freedom?

Answer 3

Fromm’s notion that we are part of the natural world while being torn from it; freedom to express individuality is also freedom from security and structure
- results in basic anxiety

Question 4

What is Maslow’s conception of basic anxiety?

Answer 4

Fear of being alone in the world

Question 5

What mechanisms of escape did Fromm identify?

Answer 5

• authoritarianism (sadism, masochism)
• destructiveness
• conformity

Question 6

What is positive freedom?

Answer 6

Spontaneous activity of the whole, integrated personality; reunification with what others & with the world

Question 7

What are the nonproductive character orientations?

Answer 7

• receptive (parasitic)
• exploitative (manipulative)
• hoarding (selfish)
• marketing (chameleon)

Question 8

What are the dimensions of the productive orientation?

Answer 8

• work
• love (biophilia)
• reasoning

Question 9

What is necrophilia?

Answer 9

Love of death; hatred of humanity

Question 10

What is malignant narcissism?

Answer 10

All things belonging to the person are valued; those of others devalued

• hypochondriasis: obsessive attention to one’s health
• moral hypochondriasis: preoccupation with guilt about past transgressions

Question 11

What is incestuous symbiosis?

Answer 11

Extreme dependence on mother figure

Question 12

What are the three personality disorders Fromm identified?

Answer 12

• necrophilia
• malignant narcissism
• incestuous symbiosis

Question 13

What is the syndrome of growth?

Answer 13

• positive freedom
• biophilia
• love of fellow humans

Question 14

What is the syndrome of decay?

Answer 14

• necrophilia
• malignant narcissism
• incestuous symbiosis

Question 15

What is the goal of Fromm’s psychotherapy?

Answer 15

To establish a union with patients so that they can become reunited with the world