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| The Lives of Erich Fromm: Love''s Prophet
ISBN: 9780231531061
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / Columbia University Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Fromm Erich 1900–1980; Psychoanalysts -- Germany -- Biography; Psychoanalysts -- United States -- Biography;
Friedman, a professor at Harvard University's "Mind/Brain/Behavior Initiative," summarizes Erich Fromm's notion of "the primary task for the modern self" thusly: "to use one's freedom spontaneously, energetically, and uniquely... [to] enhance his joy, his sense of viable selfhood, and his capacity to share with others." Interestingly, this humanistic doctrine arose from a rather unhappy childhood-to escape a tense home environment, Fromm (1900-1980) dedicated himself to Talmudic study and a life of "ethics, scholarship, and a commitment to the community." Reading Marx and Freud, he became an influential scholar of psychology, well-known for his "social character" theory and emphasis on the role of environment in shaping the individual. Friedman (Identity's Architect) also demonstrates how Fromm's philosophy arose from a personal social fabric: experiences in his childhood and with lovers and colleagues were frequently woven into his prodigious writings. The author occasionally derails the narrative in order to illuminate pivotal peripheral figures in Fromm's life, and he duly describes his subject's flaws, lapses in scholarly precision, and the contradictions between his public persona and private practices, but always in the spirit of honest understanding-an approach favored by Fromm. Through this thorough portrait, "Love's Prophet" emerges as an exemplar of enjoying an examined life to its fullest potential. 16 photos. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Lawrence J. Friedman is a professor in Harvard University's Mind/Brain/Behavior Initiative and a professor emeritus at Indiana University. The author of eight scholarly books and more than fifty articles, he has lectured in eleven countries and was named International Writer of the Year for 2003 by the International Biographical Center. His works include Identity's Architect: A Biography of Erik Erikson ; Menninger: The Family and the Clinic ; Gregarious Saints: Self and Community in American Abolitionism ; and The White Savage: Racial Fantasies in the Postbellum South . |
