According to Erich Fromm, the human condition needs change, the German social psychoanalyst and philosopher who dared, in his time, to challenge Sigmund Freud, reformulated the concept of freedom and even tried to emphasize something very current in an increasingly technical, cold and structured way. society: we lose our happiness.
In his indispensable book Ter o Ser ?, he left us timeless messages that continue to convey incredibly transformative ideas, among them there is one that can be very familiar: people have become accustomed to living under a premise that says that those who do not have it are not.
However, true human well-being and realization lies precisely in being, defining itself above our property.
Erich Fromm is gone thirty years ago, but his thoughts, thoughts and legacy remain indispensable. We need a change, a reformulation to be able to work in true freedom, without measuring ourselves for what we have and valuing ourselves for who we are.
“Economic production should not be an end in itself, but a means to a richer human life. Is it a society in which man will be a lot, not a society in which man will have a lot or consume a lot? -Erich Fromm-
According to Erich Fromm, the human condition needs several aspects that we will then analyze. To understand its purpose and perspective, we must first remember that the center of its philosophy has always been based on almost radical humanism.
What does that mean? This means that this social psychologist sought mainly to free the person from his chains, each dragging, almost without realizing it, different ballasts.
The industrial, social and political structure places us with a myriad of molds and screws that hinder our realization, our ability to choose, our thoughts and our desires, but we also limit our own happiness in different ways.
We do this by choosing conflict and violence over peace, we also do so by letting ourselves be guided by instincts, not reason and emotion and, above all, not by not loving ourselves as we deserve.
Thus, in his book Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, Fromm states that humanity’s current situation is very serious and that it is therefore necessary to create new mental frameworks, new scenarios of reflection in which to generate change.
So let’s see what the human condition needs to invest in well-being and freedom.
In Fear of Freedom (1941), Fromm talks about something inspiring. In his opinion, people put too much emphasis on rational thinking. The human being is a perfect combination of emotion and reason, between feeling and self-control.
Therefore, when it comes to freely expressing our true personality, we must be more spontaneous, that is how we break the chains, we abandon all our essence to free ourselves from the conventionalism that society imposes on us.
“It is through spontaneous acts that we can have a vision of what life could be like if such experiences were not so rare and so un cultivated. “-Erich Fromm-
In his book Ter o Ser ?, Erich Fromm shared several ideas that he believed were critical to preventing humanity from hurtling toward a catastrophic fate.
Not only did he face the darkness of World War II, but he also witnessed the Cold War and the whole context in which the arms race left the world in a scene of constant anguish.
The current times are different, but the essences, in a way, remain similar. Is that why the suggestions Have or Be left us?They remain valuable and inspiring. Are:
For Fromm, the human condition must first and foremost move away from narcissism. This premise is so recurrent in his work that he has introduced a term that is important to remember: evil narcissism.
For him, this constant search for personal satisfaction, ego strengthening and bombast is the true essence of evil.
We must cultivate humility, respect for others and also for ourselves, but from a healthy, loving environment and in harmony with society itself. Selfishness would be the worst germ, something we must avoid at all costs because it perpetuates ignorance and submission.
In conclusion, even though Erich Fromm’s works were written decades ago, they remain extremely valuable, immersing them is an invitation to think about the things worth working on.