A review by ujames1978
Escape from Freedom by Erich Fromm

2.0

Although this book contains some important insights and is an interesting take on the nature and danger of Fascism, the fact that it relies so heavily on outdated and long debunked Freudian pseudo-psychology (a field which is now infamous for being nothing but circular and self-fulfilling intellectual masturbation,) means that much of it is now worthless. And having now spent several years studying Fascism, I was deeply frustrated by the way that the author touched on, then proceeded to brush past the core issue. Namely, to many people's existential fear of the degenerate and inferior, yet somehow, all powerful 'Other' taking what is rightfully theirs in a world in which Neo-Liberal Capitalism forces us all to run to stand still and fight for every crumb. After all, this is the defining basis of the new breed of Neo-Fascism which presents itself as 'Defending Democracy' by ensuring that only the *True* people can vote. So in the end, while this book definitely isn't a total waste of time, there many far better, more useful and less outdated books exploring Fascism that I would recommend first.