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A review by constantlorelai
Escape from Freedom by Erich Fromm
4.0
I have been reading this colossal in depth yet short in length meditation on the current nature of the modern man for the last couple of months in short bursts of enthusiasm followed by long pauses. Happy I got to the bottom of it in the end.
The only issue with this book is the fact that I wish it would have been written today and not in the 40s (at the peak of the Nazi Germany threat) so it would be more apparent to the general public just how incredibly current and faithful it is 80 years later, unfortunately, to the still ongoing plights of today's society when it comes to dealing with the ever fleeting concept of "freedom from Vs freedom to".
I will isolate some thoughts and marked passages below that most spoke to me:
Subjective self consciousness by which man is different in nature from other people confronts man with the problem he feels his insignificance in the universe unless he belongs somewhere. He would be filled with doubt that would impede his drive to live.
***
One of the baseline manifestations of authoritarianism resides in cultural masochism on the part of the individuals that are in desperate need of structure, answers, that need to relinquish the burden of decision about their own belief system and doubt when confronted with the investigative process of making a choice. It's a need for belonging and for validation of said belonging. It's safety in numbers.
It all stems from a lack of individuality. People in touch with their individual self are capable to belong without losing who they are in essence. Both masochism and sadism, conceptually stem from the same thing, the inability to bear the isolation and weakness of one's own self. Thus a symbiotic relationship can emerge.
***
Rejection of authority in spite of the fact that it does not pose any problems of suppression is a mark of authoritarian inclination. Not ever wanting to have any power above your own in spite of a lack of overt oppression. The authoritarian character will rarely act as a revolutionary, but will defy authority, will act as a rebel.
"The right to express our thoughts means something only if we are able to formulate thoughts of our own."
***
Fromm is incredibly current in the 40s when observing that "modern man conforms to the expectations of others, putting up a front of satisfaction and optimism, while at the same time being deeply unhappy, on the verge of desperation. He desprerately clings to the notion of individuality. He wantsto be free and to express his individuality while the true meaning of freedom for the modern man is becoming free of the external bonds that would prevent him from doing and thinking as he sees fit. He would be free to act according to his own will, if he knew what he wanted, thought, and felt. But he does not know. He confirms to anonymous authorities and adopts behaviours that are not his. The more he does this, the more powerless he feels, and the more he is forced to conform. "
Giving up spontaneity and individuality evolvs in a thwarting of life. While being alive mentally and biologically, his life runs through his hands like sand.
The dispair of the human automaton is fietile soil to the political purposes of fascism.
*Freedom and spontaneity*.
"Positive freedom consists in the spontaneous activity of the total integrated personality. " [...]
"Spontaneous activity is not compulsive activity to which the individual is driven by his isolation and powerlessness, it does not imply the uncritical adoption of patterns suggested from the outside. "[...]
"Spontaneous activity is free activity of the self, implying free will. By activity, Fromm means the quality of creative activity that can operate in one's emotional, intellectual, and sensuous experience and in one's will as well. Only if a man does not repress essential parts of himself, and only if the different spheres of his life reach a fundamental integration is spontaneous activity possible."
"Our is only that to which we are related by our creative ability. Only those qualities that result from our spontaneous activity give strength to the self and thereby form the basis for integrity. The inability to act spontaneously, to express what one genuinely feels and thinks and the resulting necessity to present a pseudo self to others and oneself are the root of the feeling of inferiority and weakness. Wether or not we are aware of it, there is nothing of which we are more ashamed than of not being ourselves and there is nothing that gives us greater pride and happiness than to think, to feel, and to say what is ours. "
***
And probably the idea the touched me the most:
"Positive freedom is the realisation of the self and implies the full affirmation of the uniqueness of the individual. Men are born equal but they are also different. The basis of this difference is the inherited equipment, physiological and mental, with which they start life, to which is added the particular constellation of circumstances and experiences that they meet with. This individual basis of the personality is as little identical with any other as two organisms are ever identical physically. The genuine growth of the self is always a growth on this particular basis; it is an organic growth, the unfolding of a nucleus that is peculiar for this one person and only for him. The development of the automaton, in contrast, is not an organic growth. The growth on the basis of the self is blocked and a pseudo self is superimposed upon the self, which is essentially the incorporation of extraneous patterns of thinking and feeling. Organic growth is possible only under the condition of supreme respect for the peculiarity of the self of other persons as well as of our own self. This respect for and cultivation of the uniqueness of the self is the most valuable achievement of human culture and it is this very achievement that is in danger today. "
The only issue with this book is the fact that I wish it would have been written today and not in the 40s (at the peak of the Nazi Germany threat) so it would be more apparent to the general public just how incredibly current and faithful it is 80 years later, unfortunately, to the still ongoing plights of today's society when it comes to dealing with the ever fleeting concept of "freedom from Vs freedom to".
I will isolate some thoughts and marked passages below that most spoke to me:
Subjective self consciousness by which man is different in nature from other people confronts man with the problem he feels his insignificance in the universe unless he belongs somewhere. He would be filled with doubt that would impede his drive to live.
***
One of the baseline manifestations of authoritarianism resides in cultural masochism on the part of the individuals that are in desperate need of structure, answers, that need to relinquish the burden of decision about their own belief system and doubt when confronted with the investigative process of making a choice. It's a need for belonging and for validation of said belonging. It's safety in numbers.
It all stems from a lack of individuality. People in touch with their individual self are capable to belong without losing who they are in essence. Both masochism and sadism, conceptually stem from the same thing, the inability to bear the isolation and weakness of one's own self. Thus a symbiotic relationship can emerge.
***
Rejection of authority in spite of the fact that it does not pose any problems of suppression is a mark of authoritarian inclination. Not ever wanting to have any power above your own in spite of a lack of overt oppression. The authoritarian character will rarely act as a revolutionary, but will defy authority, will act as a rebel.
"The right to express our thoughts means something only if we are able to formulate thoughts of our own."
***
Fromm is incredibly current in the 40s when observing that "modern man conforms to the expectations of others, putting up a front of satisfaction and optimism, while at the same time being deeply unhappy, on the verge of desperation. He desprerately clings to the notion of individuality. He wantsto be free and to express his individuality while the true meaning of freedom for the modern man is becoming free of the external bonds that would prevent him from doing and thinking as he sees fit. He would be free to act according to his own will, if he knew what he wanted, thought, and felt. But he does not know. He confirms to anonymous authorities and adopts behaviours that are not his. The more he does this, the more powerless he feels, and the more he is forced to conform. "
Giving up spontaneity and individuality evolvs in a thwarting of life. While being alive mentally and biologically, his life runs through his hands like sand.
The dispair of the human automaton is fietile soil to the political purposes of fascism.
*Freedom and spontaneity*.
"Positive freedom consists in the spontaneous activity of the total integrated personality. " [...]
"Spontaneous activity is not compulsive activity to which the individual is driven by his isolation and powerlessness, it does not imply the uncritical adoption of patterns suggested from the outside. "[...]
"Spontaneous activity is free activity of the self, implying free will. By activity, Fromm means the quality of creative activity that can operate in one's emotional, intellectual, and sensuous experience and in one's will as well. Only if a man does not repress essential parts of himself, and only if the different spheres of his life reach a fundamental integration is spontaneous activity possible."
"Our is only that to which we are related by our creative ability. Only those qualities that result from our spontaneous activity give strength to the self and thereby form the basis for integrity. The inability to act spontaneously, to express what one genuinely feels and thinks and the resulting necessity to present a pseudo self to others and oneself are the root of the feeling of inferiority and weakness. Wether or not we are aware of it, there is nothing of which we are more ashamed than of not being ourselves and there is nothing that gives us greater pride and happiness than to think, to feel, and to say what is ours. "
***
And probably the idea the touched me the most:
"Positive freedom is the realisation of the self and implies the full affirmation of the uniqueness of the individual. Men are born equal but they are also different. The basis of this difference is the inherited equipment, physiological and mental, with which they start life, to which is added the particular constellation of circumstances and experiences that they meet with. This individual basis of the personality is as little identical with any other as two organisms are ever identical physically. The genuine growth of the self is always a growth on this particular basis; it is an organic growth, the unfolding of a nucleus that is peculiar for this one person and only for him. The development of the automaton, in contrast, is not an organic growth. The growth on the basis of the self is blocked and a pseudo self is superimposed upon the self, which is essentially the incorporation of extraneous patterns of thinking and feeling. Organic growth is possible only under the condition of supreme respect for the peculiarity of the self of other persons as well as of our own self. This respect for and cultivation of the uniqueness of the self is the most valuable achievement of human culture and it is this very achievement that is in danger today. "