Erich Fromm

The pursuit of freedom has constantly been debilitated due to external shackles embodying themselves mainly with the presence of an authority that anesthetizes individuals into voluntary submission. Erich Fromm (1900-80) is the German psychologist who underscores the significance of individual freedom in his book Escape from Freedom (1941) and maintains that on the path towards freedom, individuals attempt at unshackling themselves from restrictive forces; however, as they release themselves from the restrictions of an authority and refuse to yield to its demands, individuals are left with feelings of insecurity and powerlessness. As a result, they try to compensate for the feeling of insecurity by either submitting themselves to another authority figure or becoming authority figures themselves. Within the paper, Fromm’s concept of freedom is elaborated upon and applied to Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962). The paper discusses the two major concepts of “freedom from” and “freedom to” known as “negative freedom” and “positive freedom” and demonstrates the possibility of finding a getaway from a negative sense of freedom by investing mankind with the power of love and communication. Real freedom is not a release from external constraints but mainly a release from internal forces.

Ilene Philipson, the Californian born sociologist and licensed psychologist, asserts that Erich Fromm is the second widely read psychoanalyst in the world standing after Freud. Fromm discusses “necrophilia”, love of death, and “biophilia”, love of life. He also studies “being mode” and “having mode”, one’s general orientation toward being a better person or toward having more, respectively. This paper is the case study of Tolstoy’s novella The death of Ivan Ilyich (1886/2009) in light of Fromm’s insights as reflected in his later works. There are two opposing views arguing if Ivan Ilyich, the protagonist, eventually changes for better or worse. Invoking Fromm’s theories, we argue that Ivan Ilyich undergoes positive changes toward the end of his life which are actualized through the protagonist’s departure from necrophilia and conversion to biophilia. In this sense, it is also argued that Ivan casts “having mode” to embrace that of “being”.

This essay undertakes a critical investigation of Wang Anyi’s short story, The Destination , employing Erich Fromm’s humanist psychoanalysis to elucidate the complex interplay between societal transformation, the erosion of authentic love, and the resulting existential anxieties within the context of contemporary Chinese modernity. The analysis focuses on the protagonist, Chen Xin, and his return to a radically transformed Shanghai, a disorienting architectural and bureaucratic maze that disrupts historical continuity. This spatial disorientation, the essay argues, mirrors Chen Xin’s strained familial ties, which exemplify Fromm’s notion of alienated pseudo-love, wherein genuine emotional intimacy is replaced by commodified social exchanges operating under the pressures of a state-capitalist regime. Fromm’s contrast between a way of life focused on owning and controlling things, versus one that emphasizes being present, growing as a person, and forming meaningful relationships, reveals a subjectivity caught between the pressure of inherited ideologies and the basic human need for love, care, and real emotional connection in a globalized and increasingly commodified society.