Erich Fromm
Humanistic psychoanalyst, The Art of Loving
Most quoted
"Modern man is alienated from himself, from his fellow men, and from nature. He has been transformed into a commodity, experiences his life force as an investment which must bring him the maximum profit obtainable under existing market conditions."
— from The Sane Society, 1955
"Modern man is alienated from himself, from his fellow men, and from nature. He has been transformed into a commodity, experiences his life as an investment which must bring him a maximum profit under existing market conditions."
— from The Sane Society, 1955
"The mother-child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the mother's side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother, and to become fully independent."
— from The Art of Loving, 1956
All quotes by Erich Fromm (268)
Modern man is alienated from himself, from his fellow men, and from nature. He has been transformed into a commodity, experiences his life as an investment which must bring him a maximum profit under existing market conditions.
The problem of our age is not the atom bomb or communism, but the human heart.
If I am what I have and if what I have is lost, who then am I?
The alienated person is out of touch with himself as he is out of touch with any other person. He, like others, is experienced as a thing.
The most striking phenomenon of modern man is his passivity.
The average man is a conformist, accepting the ideas and values of his society without critical examination.
Freedom is not a state; it is an act. It is not a gift but a task.
Neurosis is the suffering of a soul which has not found its meaning.
The marketing character is the person who experiences himself as a commodity.
The fully developed individual is the person who has realized his potentialities, who has become what he potentially is.
The average person is not aware of the extent to which his thoughts and feelings are determined by the patterns of his culture.
The problem of human existence is that man is a part of nature, subject to its physical laws, and yet he transcends nature by his reason and imagination.
The most profound need of man is to overcome his separateness, to leave the prison of his aloneness.
The 'normal' person in our society is often more sick than the 'neurotic' because he has adjusted himself to a sick society.
The authoritarian character admires authority and tends to submit to it, but at the same time he desires to be an authority and to dominate others.
The essence of love is to 'labor' for something and 'make it grow.'
The alternative to totalitarianism is not chaos, but a society in which man is the center and purpose of all social arrangements.
The goal of life is to live intensely, to be fully born.
The 'having' mode of existence is based on the desire to acquire and possess, while the 'being' mode is based on the desire to experience and share.
The true nature of man is to be free, to be creative, to be loving.
Contemporaries of Erich Fromm
Other Psychologys born within 50 years of Erich Fromm (1900–1980).