Erich Fromm quotes: aphorisms, beautiful sayings, catchphrases

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

He was involved in the birth of neo-Freudianism and Freudo-Marxism, was the most influential sociologist and psychologist of the 20th century, and devoted his entire life to the study of the human subconscious. “The Art of Loving”, “To Have or to Be?”, “Escape from Freedom” - this is just a small list of what Erich Fromm wrote. For more than a decade, his work on psychoanalysis has been popular in narrow circles, but Erich Fromm's quotes are not as popular as the aphorisms of writers who were his contemporaries. Why? It's simple: Erich Fromm shamelessly revealed the truth that people did not want to admit.

Biography

Erich Seligmann Fromm was born on 1900-23-03 in Frankfurt am Main. Since his parents were Jewish, he was able to receive an excellent education for his environment. He studied at the gymnasium, where, along with general education subjects, Jewish religious traditions and religious theory were taught. After high school, Fromm became one of the founders of the Society for Jewish Public Education.

From 1919 to 1922 studied at the University of Heidelberg, where the main subjects were psychology, philosophy and sociology. After graduation, he received a Ph. D. He became too carried away by the ideas of Sigmund Freud, discarded all the values on which his upbringing was based, and began to study psychoanalysis, which later began to be integrated into practical medicine.

For the sake of science, ready for anything

In 1925, he organizes a private practice. This gave him the opportunity to constantly observe people, studying the social and biological components of the human psyche.

Since 1930 he began teaching psychoanalysis at the University of Frankfurt. Until 1933 he was director of the Department of Social Psychological Research at the Horkheimer Institute. Later he improved his knowledge at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute. At that time, he managed to make several useful contacts, thanks to which he was able to get to Chicago. When the Nazis came to power, Erich Fromm emigrated to Switzerland, and a year later to New York.

American students begin to use Erich Fromm quotes. In 1940, he received American citizenship, works as a teacher at Bennington College and is a member of the American Institute of Psychoanalysis. In 1943 he took part in the creation of the New York branch of the Washington School of Psychiatry. Later it was renamed the W. White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis and Psychology, which Fromm headed from 1946 to 1950.

Legacy

In addition to all the achievements, wasProfessor Emeritus at Yale University, taught in Michigan and New York. In 1960 he became a member of the Socialist Party. He manages to successfully combine political activity, teaching and the creation of scientific treatises. Erich Fromm's quotes are worth their weight in gold, but with such a busy schedule, it's hard to lead a full and he althy life.

In 1969, Fromm suffered a heart attack, because of tuberculosis he began to visit Switzerland more and more often, where in 1974 he finally moved. He suffered another heart attack in 1977 and 1978.

Died March 18, 1980, leaving behind many interesting psychoanalytic and sociological theories. Erich Fromm's quotes and aphorisms are an invaluable legacy that he passed on to humanity in the hope that they would be understood correctly. However, this is what we will do.

Escape from Freedom

Perhaps, this is the first work of Erich Fromm, which students of universities get acquainted with at the Faculty of Sociology. To tell the truth, it is quite difficult for an unprepared person to understand this work. And it’s not at all about complicated terminology or an old-fashioned style of narration, I just don’t want to admit that a person is just a “cog in the social system”, who constantly plays different roles, is selfish due to a lack of love, and only rare lucky ones manage to experience real pride in being that did not give up. Erich Fromm's quotes from "Escape from Freedom" are often not perceived by the modern generation, because, as they say, the truth hurts the eye. It's only thanks to themyou can understand the true state of things, and having understood them, you can change your life.

Thoughts and routine

Well, let's start looking at Erich Fromm's quotes:

The right to express our thoughts only makes sense if we are able to have our own thoughts.

The psychologist is absolutely right in this, a person should not talk about what he does not fully understand. People can fill their minds with scraps of other people's phrases and thoughts, but without understanding what is happening, even the most brilliant idea will turn into ordinary garbage. In one modern novel (“Will You Show Me Hell?”) there is a phrase: “A ready-made answer has no chance of creating a thought.” Fromm also speaks about this: to think, to think, to create - this is what a person should do.

Knowing your true desires is much more difficult than most of us think; this is one of the most difficult problems of human existence. We are desperately trying to get around this problem by taking the standard targets as our own.

This is another problem for humanity that will always exist. Here we are talking about that notorious dusty scenario that everyone follows.

Do people really want to live the way they do? Study, work, family, a stable and unremarkable existence - this is considered a mandatory norm, and those who go against it will certainly face rejection, aggression and misunderstanding. That's why you have to:

Play many roles and be subjectively sure that each of them is him. In fact, the personplays each role in accordance with his ideas about what others expect from him; and in many people, if not most, the real personality is completely smothered by the pseudo-personality.

The Way to Happiness

While reading "Escape from Freedom", the question involuntarily arises: "Is there really no way to be happy?" Erich Fromm mentioned this as well:

Whether we realize it or not, we are not as ashamed of anything as the rejection of ourselves, and we experience the highest pride, the highest happiness when we think, speak and feel truly on our own. ("Escape from Freedom")

It's simple, but really complicated. Falling under the influence of public opinion, it is difficult for a person to remain true to himself, even when it comes to the simplest things. What can we say about big goals and grandiose plans?! To break this vicious circle, you need to at least once try to protect your interests, complete the work you have begun and, overcoming adversity, achieve a small plan. That inspiration, relief and joy that will come after will be remembered for a lifetime. And then it remains only to raise the bar.

Selfishness

But Fromm wrote not only about society, he was also interested in interpersonal relationships. He decided to put his thoughts on this in a separate book, The Art of Loving. Fromm writes about many aspects of a he althy and strong relationship.

He first mentions love in "Escape from Freedom", when he writes about such a phenomenon as selfishness. Fromm believes that because of the lack of self-love, a person becomesselfish, because he is not confident in his own abilities, has no internal support and tries to find approval from others, the only way a person can exist.

It is the lack of self-love that gives rise to selfishness. Whoever does not love himself, who does not approve of himself, is in constant anxiety for himself. It will never develop that inner certainty that can only exist on the basis of true love and self-approval. The egoist is simply forced to deal only with himself, spending his efforts and abilities to get something that others already have. Since in his soul he has neither inner satisfaction nor confidence, he must constantly prove to himself and others that he is no worse than the rest.

Other love quotes from Erich Fromm originate from this statement.

The Art of Loving Book

This work contains not only thoughts about interpersonal relationships, but also other reflections on human nature. But let's focus on the first question for now.

Immature love says, "I love you because I need you." Mature love says, "I need you because I love you." ("The Art of Loving")

This quote by Erich Fromm from The Art of Loving shows the fine line where love begins and ends. Needing another person because he can make life easier, help in something, and the like is not love, but the usual consumer attitude.

Love is an active interest in the life and development of what we love. Where notactive interest, there is no love.

Loving people know everything about each other. There are no unspoken words, secrets, or envy of the other's success between them.

From this quote from the book "The Art of Loving" by Erich Fromm follows the author's statement:

There is a paradox in love: two beings become one and remain two.

In the modern world, everything is so mixed up that as soon as a person meets someone who treats him more or less kindly, he dissolves in it and forgets about his own life and his own goals.

As a result, this behavior spoils life for both: the one who gives loses precious time and may end up with nothing, and the one who receives will feel obligated.

Love begins to show only when we love those whom we cannot use for our own purposes.

Tips

In the "Art of love" you can find some more useful recommendations, for example:

As important as it is to avoid empty talk, it is equally important to avoid bad company. By "bad society" I mean not only vicious people - their company should be avoided because their influence is oppressive and pernicious. I also refer to the "zombie" society, whose soul is dead, although the body is alive; people with empty thoughts and words, people who don't talk but chat, don't think but express different opinions.

The author notes that the environmentaffects a person in all aspects of life. Man is a social being, therefore he will always reach for the majority. It will change its mind, behavior and even the level of intelligence will increase or decrease depending on who is nearby. It is also worth paying attention to quotes about time and knowledge:

He who, having knowledge, pretends not to know, is above all. Who, having no knowledge, pretends to know, he is sick. ("The Art of Loving")

Modern man thinks he's wasting time when he doesn't act quickly, but he doesn't know what to do with the time he's gained other than kill it.

"To have or to be?". Erich Fromm quotes

The author continued his reflections on human nature in the work "To have or to be?". We can say that in this work he summarizes everything that was written earlier (or it all started from it). In any case, there are reflections here about freedom, and about love, and about humanity in general:

Modern man is a realist who invented a separate word for each type of car, but only one word "love" to express a wide variety of emotional experiences.

It's not even weird anymore. It seems that in modern society there are only two kinds of emotions: love and hate. The rest of the spectrum of feelings is left without attention, and therefore interpersonal relationships become more complicated.

Every new step can end in failure - this is one of the reasons why people are afraid of freedom.

A person is so afraid of failure that he is ready to live as he does not likeand do what has long been hated. He is even ready to be in a relationship where he is used, just not to admit to himself that he lost.

Sorry, a lot of people don't understand that failure is an integral part of development. The hardest thing is when a person is going to reach a new level. Without failure, it is simply impossible to achieve something. In Fromm's words, we can say that a person is afraid of his own happiness, because it cannot be obtained just like that.

Our society is a society of chronically unhappy people, tormented by loneliness and fears, dependent and humiliated, prone to destruction and experiencing joy already from the fact that they managed to "kill time", which they are constantly trying to save.

Summing up, only one thing can be said: a person has only one real choice - between a good life and a bad one. A person himself gives meaning to his life and it depends only on him how happily he will live the decades allotted to him. Erich Fromm shared his thoughts, and it depends only on the person whether he accepts them or dismisses them like an annoying fly.