Rainer Funk - Erich Fromm's Concept of Social Character

8/13/2019 Rainer Funk - Erich Fromm's Concept of Social Character

1/8

214

Social Thought Research

ERICH FROMM S CONCEPT OF SOCIALCHARACTERl

RAINER UNKErich Fromm rchive TuebingenSocial Thought Research, 1998, Vol . 21, No. 1-2

The tenn social character is at the cen ter of Erich Fromm spsychoanalytical thought. Th e significance of this term inFromm s approach to psychoanalysis, ho w he under st ands it.ho w it is molded an d what its function is will be th e first topic ofthis paper. Since I have already dealt with the concept of socialcharacter elsewhere, I would like to confine myself to asummary an d say some words on the background against whichFromm developed his psychoanalytical approach.The term social character emerges only at the en d of the1930 s. A first systematic descr iption can be found in theappendix of th e bo ok sc pe from Freedom in the year 1941.The idea behind the concept of social character . however. ha dtaken shape in Fromm s mind much earlier.The Fromm literature either connects his ow n psychoanalyticalapproach to the Freudo-Marxism of the Frankfurt School or toHarry Stack Sullivan s theory of interpersonal relationship. It iscertainly true that Fromm formulated his own namelysocial-psychologically-oriented) psychoanalytical approachwithin the context of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research.The argument with the members of the Institute in the latethirties, especially Horkheimer, Marcuse, and to a lesser extentAdorno, was sparked off by Freudian instinct theory Theirargument can only be understood if the specifically Frornrnianapproach connecting sociological and psychological thought istaken into account . It was not developed only in the contex t ofthe Frankfurt School, but ten years earlier in Fromm sdissertation in 1922 (cf. Fromm 1989b).

1 Copyright 1998 by Dr. Rainer Funk, Ursrainer Ring 24, 0-72076 Tuebingen,Germany Tel. 07071-600004; Fax 07071-6qOO49 email: [email protected].

I


2/8

Social Thought ResearchIn his dissertation, romm examined why Jews living in theDiaspora think, feel and act in a certain way despi te the lack ofstate or church institutions. romm s answer to thissocial -psycholog ical quest ion was: it is a certa in way of life ofthese Diaspora Jews that enables them to passionately realize thespiri t of the Torah from within. It was just when romm waswri.ting. his d i s s e ~ a t i o n with Alfred Weber at HeidelbergUniversity that he first came into contact with Sigmund Freud'spsychoanalys is. His own psychoana lytical experi ence as apatient ?f F r i ~ d a Reichmann in Heidelberg, Wilhelm WittembergIn Munich, Karl Landauer in Frankfurt and Hanns Sachs inBerlin, as well as his sociolog ical education , enabled him to

e x p r e ~ s ~ o c i a l p s y c h o l o g i c a l thought in tile language ofFreudian I O s J n c ~ o n e n t e d theory and to develop a theoryof Freudo-Marxlsm. Society, romm realized, cannot beunderstood only in terms of its economic, political and Culturalstructure but primarily in terms of its l ib id inous s truc tu re .W rhoever discerns and examines this libidinal structureunderstands how the socio-economic basis affeas the ideas andideals of a society and that the basis and superstructure areconveyed by a libidinal structure.The fact that Fromm corning from sociology, formula ted hispsychoanalytical approach as a social-psychological one, is metwith resistance by both psychoanalysts and sociologists.Psychoanalysts find the idea of a social unconsciousness hard toaccept. On the other hand, sociologists find no use for theunconsciousness of society and direc t the ir interest towards theexternal support and the bindingpower of institutions and notso much towards the internal structure. Fron101 however,speaks of such a psychic structure of society and of the

u n ~ o n s i o u s n e s s of society and thereby makes an extremelyfruitful new approach to psychoanalysis possible.If one takes seriously the basic sociolog ical p remise that thereare forces and patterns that are rooted in society itself- apremise that is difficult for most psychoanalysts to accept- - thenthe question can be raised as to whether or not there issomething like an unconsciousness of society and if soaccording to what patterns it develops and whether or not it canbe investigated like the unconscious of an individual. If one firstaccepts the possibihty that society has an unconsciousness,w h i ~ h can be cal led the social unconscious , then the next s tep isto tree oneself from a misgu ided unde rst anding of society. romm enlphasizes in his short but Important work,216

rich Fromm s oncepto f Social haracterPsychoanalyse und Soziologie (1929), that the subiect ofsociology, society, in reality cons is ts of individuals.. . Humanbeings do not have one ' individual psyche ,' which funct ionswhen a person pe rforms as an individual and so becomes theobjec t of psychoanalys is , con tr as ted to a completely separate'mass psyche' with all sons of mass instincts, as well as vaguefeelings of community and solidari ty, which spr ing into actio,nwhenever a person performs as part of a mass (1929; GA L p. 3 .Rather, the individual must be understood as socialized a pr orand thus the psyche is to be understood as being developedand de te rm ined thr ough the rel at ionship of the individual tosociety (1929, p. 5).As the basis for his approach, Fromm refers to s ta tements ofFreud's in roup Psychologyan d the nalysis of the go (1921) inorder to direct his hypothesis of the socialized individual back atFreud himself, who wrote (Freud 1921, p. 73): In the individual smental life someone else is invariably involved, as a model, as anobject, as a helpe r, as an opponent; and so from the very first.individual psychology, in this extended but entirely justifiablesense of the words, is at the same time social psychology aswell.The d ifference between personal psychology and socialpsychology can for this reason only be quanti ta tive . Socia lpsychology, just as individual psychology, tries to comprehendpsychic structure from the individual-s life exper iences. So itp roceeds according to tile s ame methods: Social psychologywishes to investigate how certain psychic attitudes common tomembers of a group are related to their common lifeexperiences (E. Fromm 1930; GA VI, p. 17).The idea of common life exper ience is distinguished from theindividual life experience. In the latter it is important toknowthe sibling order or if someone is the only child, s icknesses an dchance occurrences of an individual sort are significantbecause of their s trong inf luence on l ibidinal structure. On theother hand , the common life experience of a group mainlyrefers to the economic, social and political conditions whichdetermine the way of life for the group . Still completely rootedin the metapsychological concept of Freud's instinct theory ,Fromm expla ined , in probably his bes t-known essay by the t it leof The Method and Function of an Analytic Social Psychology(1932; GA I, p. 46), that ...the phenomena of social psychology

217


3/8

Social Thought Research Jare .to be u n d e ~ s t o o d as proces se s involving the aaivepassive adaptation of the instinctual apparatus an d f~ o c ~ o - e c o n o m i c si tua tion. In cer ta in fundamental res t i i O s u ~ ~ t u a l apparatus t s ~ l a biological given; but it hi Jmodifiable, The role of prim ry formative factors goes g hYeco . di to t~ h r o ~ ~ ~ l c w ~ ~ ~ I ~ ~ ; s e c o ~ ~ ~ i a ~ ~ ~ ~ a t ~ ~ n t h x ~ e n i ~ l f : e d i ~ m

m ~ u e n c e the individual's psyche. The task o t ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ tchology IS to expl ain the shared, socially relevant psych'a U l t ~ d e s ideologies and their unconscious ~ O o t s ~ ~ ~ ~ u ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ g ~ ~ ~ S of the inf luence of economic conditions On iFromm had just formulated his psychoanalytical-soCiological r:theory and method between 1929 an d 1932 and exemplified 't b 11of .audlorhitarian character when the dtscomenr ~ i t hreu Ian t n S ~ t n c t t eory. arose in him. It was above all lconcerned with th e q u ~ s t l o n of the significance of the Oedipus .

~ m p l e x Whnd the p ~ t n a r c h a l determinism of Freudian libido : : , , ~ , . ~,e o ~ at o c c a ~ I o n e d such criticism wa s mainly Fromm s Ifquesuomng, of the Issue of mothers rights, as interpreted by f;M o ~ a n B n f f a ~ l t . an d above all Bachofen. It is precisely th e It

~ O C t a ] d ~ t e r m l n l s n l of the Oedipus complex in Freud's HI n t ~ r p r e t a t 1 o n namely as a typical product of a patriarchal [

s o ~ l e t y that m a ~ e s th e necessirv of a dif ferent instinct theory t : : ~.eVI?em--one which t ~ ~ e ~ th e individual as a social being ,sen.ously an d . r e g ~ r d s .hbidtnal Structure as independent from theSOCto econonl1C situation of the individual.

~ o m m 's criticism an d formulation of psychoanalytic theorydid not c ome about WIthout other influences. In the grouparound ~ e o r g Groddeck, to which besides FriedaFJ?mm-ReIchmann an d Erich Fromm also Karen Homey an d

~ a n d o r F e r e ~ ~ z i belonged, there was hardly any doubt about th emsupporrabilny of th e Freudian formulation of the Oedipuscomplex early.as the late twenties. Th e thinking of HarryStack Sullivan, with whom Fromm was friends from 1935proved esp.ecially helpful to Fromm's formulationp s y c h o a n a l ~ u c ~ e o l } . Fromnl's attempr to regard humans no tonly as P?mart ly l ~ u e n c e d by the unconscious, bu t also

~ o r r e s p ? n d i ~ g l ~ ~ as being a reflect ion of society found expressionIn SUlhva n s theory of interpersonal relationships. HerepsychologIcal development takes on t he s am e significance as the~ h a n g e from forms of primary ties to forms of subjectiveIndependent relatedness.218

rich romm S oncept o Social haracterAt the en d of scape from Freedom (1941) romm summarizeshis ne w formula tion with these words: uWe believe that man isprimari ly a social being . an d not, ' as Freud assumes, primari lyself-sufficient an d only secondarily in need of othe rs in order tosatisfy his instinctual needs. In this sense. we believe thatindividual psychology is fundamentally social psychology or. inSullivan's terms, the psychology of interpersonal relat ionships;the key p robl em of psychology is that of the particular k ind ofrelatedness of the individual toward the world, not that ofsatisfaction or frustration of single instinctual desires (1941. p.290; GA I p. 387).It may appear that Fromm rejects all instinct-theoretical thinking.But that is not his point. To be sure, the closer psychoanalytictheory came to being identical to l ibido theory the more Frommtended to formulate his cri ticism of the libido theory as criticismof Freudian inst inct theory in general. Fromm's primary interestof study was also quasi-instinctive needs, namely, those whichmotivate the thoughts, feelings and behavior of humans as socialbeings. The appl icat ion of Freud's instinct theory to socialgroups permitted Fromm to recognize the limited validity of th eli bido theory and, in 1935, b rought him to the recognition tha tbasical ly two kinds of drives must be distinguished. He wa saware that this distinction introduced a principal disagreementwith Freud's instinct theory.In an unpublished let ter of December 18th, 1936 to Karl AugustWittfogel, the cent ra l idea of Fromm's re-vision of the ins tinc ttheory can be discerned clearly. He writes: The central point ofthis fundamental disagreement is that 1 try to show that driveswhich motivate social behavior are not, as Freud assumes,sublimations of sexual instincts . Rather, they are the products ofsocial processes, or, more precisely, reactions to ce rt ainconstellations u nd e r w hi ch the individual has to satisfy his/herinstincts. These drives, which I divide into those having to dowith human relations (love, hate, sadomasochism) an d thosehav ing to do with methods of acquisition (instincts of receiving,taking away, saving, gathering, producing), are fundamental lydifferen t from natura l factors, namely the instinc ts of hunger,thirst, sexuality. Whereas these ar e common to all human beingsan d animals, the former are specifically human products an d no tbiological; they are to be under stood in the con text of the socia lway of life...

219

p


4/8

oci l hought esearchFromm attempts to apply Freud s insight that libidinal structureis molded by life experience to the acknowledgment of thesocial unconscious. In other words, he comprehends the humanbeing as primarily a reflection of society. In doing this he runsup against the inadequacy of the l ib ido theory explanation. Hisadherence to the perception that libidinal structure results fromadaptation to life experience led him to a new conceptualizationof the drive theory, according to which psychologicalphenomena are disconnected from their physical source, the sexdrive, and acquire independence as psychological drives asopposed to physiological drives, among which Frommincludes the drives of self-preservauon as well as sexuality.This re-vision of psychoanalysis also manifests itself in newternlinology. Since Fromm used the concept of character for hissocial-psychological insights, he called drive theorycharacterology; drive st ructure became charac ter s tructureinstinctual impulses became character traits or simply p s s i o n t ~strivings; drive itself is conceptualized as psychological needlibidinal instinct is now called psychological or existential need(in contrast to instinctive or physiological needs); the libidinousstructure of a society became the social character, and instead oflibido, Fromm, similarly to jung, now spoke of psychic energy.Due to his contacts with Harry Stack Sullivan, Fromm himselfrepeatedly connected his re-vision of psychoanalysis to Sullivan stheory of interpersonal re lat ionship. It is true of both that th ekey problem of psychology is that of the particular kind ofrelatedness of the individual toward the world, not that ofsatisfaction or ~ s t r t i o n of single instinctual desires (1941, p.290; GA I, p. 387). In the meantime- it has become customary-especially in the American reception of Fromm--to understandFromm as a representat ive of objec t re lat ion psychoana lysisand to accordingly include him in the Interpersonal School of .Psychoanalysis . (cf e.g. D. H. Ortmeyer, 1995). As much as ittrue that Fromm was a central figure in the development of theinterpersonal approach to psychoanalysis (I. c., p. 18), as littlejustice is done to the specifically Frommian approach topsychoanalysis because Fromm does not only look at theindividual as being related to others and to society but as aprimarily social being.

In 1991 I found the manuscript of an essay dat ing from 1937was never published by Fromm because of criticism byHorkheimer, LOwenthal, and Marcuse. This manuscript clearlydemonstrates the specifically Frommian approach220

HII,.rich romm S oncept of Social haracter

psychoanalysis--also in contrast to the approach of InterpersonalPsychoanalysis. Above all, this difference can be elucidatedconcerning the view of the individual. In this paper Frommexplains:Society and the ind iv idua l do no t stand opposite each other.Soc ie ty is nothing bu t living, concrete individuals, and theindividual can live only as a social human being. Hisindividual life practice is necessarily determined by the lifepractice of his society or class an d in the last a na ly si s, by themanner of production of his society, that means, by how thissociety produces, how it is organized to satisfy t he n eeds of itsmembe rs . The d if fe re nc es in the manner of production andlife of various societies or classes lead to the development ofdifferent character structures typical of the particular society.Various societies differ from each other not onl y in differencesin their manner of production an d their social and politicalorgan iza tion but also in that their people exhibit a typicalcharacter structure despite all individual differences. We callthis the ocially typical character (Fromm 1992b, p. 222).

Fromm s main interest in looking at the individual is alwayswhat here he calls the socially typical character and later thesocial character . The point is that if you look at any particularperson you are primarily confronted with those psychic str ivingsand impulses , both consc ious and unconscious. which thi sspecific person has in common with other persons living underthe same soc io-economic c ircumstances; on the other hand, allthat makes this person different from. and unique among. otherpersons living under the same circumstances (his or her specialand often traumatic childhood experiences) is--in this respeet--ofsecondary interest. Of course these character orientations andtraits were mediated by parents and other obiects to whom theperson was and is related. But these object relations are to beunderstood as representat ives of socially given and moldedorientations and expectations.Doubtless, this way of looking at people is plausible if you studysociety by analyzing the social character of persons living undersimilar conditions. But the attraction of this specificpsychoanalytic approach is not diminished by looking at anindividual or a patient: here you are. in the first instance.acquainted with the social cha rac te r o rientation of a specifi cperson- -and it is the social character of a specific person thatFromm is always primarily interested in. We are used tothinking just tile opposite, namely that one can only understand

221


5/8

When Fromm embraced the idea of a socially moldedunconscious or an unconscious of society by which eachindividual is predetermined, he defined the Freudian correlationof individual and society anew. After that, it was no longer val id222

in all type fornU.ng, in .socially typical character onlycertain fundamental traits are distinguished and these a re suchthat. a c c o r ~ ~ l l g their dynamic nature an d their uieight theyare of ~ e c l S l l e 1 1 l l p o J t ~ l l c e for all individuals of this society.The fruitfulness of this category is proved in the fact...thatanalysis traces back the ind iv idua l s cha racter wi th all hi sindividual traits to the elements of the socially typical characteran d that an unders tanding of socially typical character isessential to a full understanding of ind iv idua l cha racter(Fromm 9 9 b ~ p. 22.3; italics added).

This is not Fromm s way of looking at a pe rson or a patient. Inhis d ~ s s e n a t i o ~ a ~ o u t the function of Jewish law, in encounteringa patte.nt, .or In his analysis of political events, Fr0010l is alwaysprimarily Interested in those fundamental traits and orientationst h a ~ result frorn a practice of life common to many people, and~ h ~ c l ~ are therefore of decisive importance for this specificindividual or patient. This is the meaning of his sta tement thatthe individual can only live as a social being. This is, as far as Iunderstand Fromm. the real meaning of his concept of socialcharacter and the essence of his social psychological approachto psychoanalysis.

Fromm sees the ongm and differentiation of psychic energycompletely differently. For him, the passionate strivings do not223

Erich Fromm s onceptof Social haracter

Where the psychic energy comes from if it is not the ou tcome ofinnate instinctual drives -a s Freud explained psychic energy? Itwas Freud s ingenious idea to see the whole spectrum of humanbehavior as motivated by libidinal strivings and to understandinnate physiological inst incts as the source of human passions.The drives (firstly the sexual instinct with its libidinous energy,later on life and death instinct) undergo a certain development,in which partial instincts and instinctual impulses develop,which express themselves in completely different passionatestrivings (sadism, masochism, envy, love etc.).

Fromm s specific psychoanalytic approach shows its fruitfulnessboth in the analysis of sodal phenomena and in. theunderstanding of and tile therapeutical contact with theindividual human being. .Concerning this, the individual canonly be understood in his and her normal and neurotic strivingsand drives, if these are discovered as traits and orientations ofthe social character. Thus the underst anding of the ind iv idua lpresupposes the psychoanalysis of society.

In my own interpretation of Fromm, I tt y to understand himfrom his Jewish origin and t he mental sources shap ing him asthey are most clearly visible in his dissertation. With theunderstanding of the relation of individual and society displayedthere, Fromm received Freudian psychoanalysis and modified hisunderstanding of psychoanalysis until not only thedetermination of the psychic structure by the way of life, i.e. thesocial-economic situation, was taken into account, but also theindividual as a social being, i. e primarily as a representation ofsociety, and not only as being primarily related (as is claimed byInterpersonal psychoanalysis).

to say here I am and ther e is society ; but rather, I amprimari ly a reflection of society, in that my unconscious issocially determined and I therefore reflect and realize the secretexpectations and wishes, fears and strivings of society in my ownpassionate strivings. In reality neither the real separation ofsociety and individual nor the real separation of conscious andunconscious, nor the real separation of society and unconsciousexist. Both dimensions are in the social unconsc ious of everysingle human being.

andSocial Thought Researchan individual by looking at tile unique conditionscircumstances specific [0 im Not so with Fromm:

I want to emphasize that for Fromm it is rile orientation and thetraits shared with others that assume decisive importanceaccording to their dynamic nature and weight. This focus oncommon traits and orientations is just the opposite of Ournormal way ?f looking at people and also opposite to the waypsychoanalysis looks at patients. Especially in psychotherapy weprefer the individualistic point of view and thereby overestimatewhat .. is most individual. We fixate on the highly specificconditions and events in tile patient s childhood, what happenedthere with tile object relations and so on. We are used tolooking at the individual as an ent ity clearly dis tinguished andseparated from society, though perhaps endowed with

i n t ~ r n a l i z e d aspeas of society (by the Super-Ego or by innerobjects); or we see the individual as only secondarily influencedby society, but principally separated from it.


6/8

Social Thought Researchresult from innate instincts, but are roo ted in the specific humancondition, which expresses itself in specific human needs--as forinstance the need for relatedness. Depending on the respect iveeconomic and social requirements, these psychic drives can besatisfied completely differently. Just because the psychic needsdo not have an instinctual source with Fromm, he cannot ascribethe development and differentiation of passionate strivings to themomentum of a drive as Freud did in his theory of oral, analphallic and genital phases and l ib id inal stages). Instead, theeconomic and social requirements determine which passionatestrivings are developed or not. Thus, with Fromm the respectivecontemporary historical si tua tion receives a direct moldingfunction: if, in order to function smoothly, a society needspeople who are readily submissive, then the passion ofsubmissiveness is the result of this social necessity acquired byidentification with this necessity or requirement.If for Fromm not instinctual drives, but, rather, thepsychological drives which lie beyond the physiological needsand are peculiar to human beings - if these psychological needsare the source for our psychic energy, then the question arises ofhow they originate. The fa a that psychic needs are onlyobservable in humans suggests that they should be grounded inthe special placement of the human being his/her conditiohurnana), and not in the physically-anchored sex drive, whichhumans have in common with animals. (That does not meanthat sexuality is not a very important physiological need for romm But sexuality receives its particular significance becauseof the fact that sex drive can play an essential role in thesatisfaction of the need for relatedness. It is therefore anexpression of an ever different kind of obiect-relaredness and notthe other way around, namely that object -relat edness is anexpression of an ever dif ferent kind of sex drive.) What is thepassionate striving of man the result of, i not of instincts rootedin the body? Empathy for the original psychological state of thehuman being makes the answer evident.In contrast to instinct-guided animals, man is a contradictorybeing, character ized namely by the d icho tomy of existing innature and being subject to all her laws and, at the same time,transcending nature through his reason, by means of hiscapacity for imagination and because of his self-consciousness(1977; GA VIII, p. 244). This pecul iarit y of the human beingcreates existential dichotomies with which he must live and towhich he must try to answer, without ever being able to resolve224

rich rromm s oncept of Social haracterthe contradictions. Man is thrown into this world without anysay and his life is usually ended without. his .say;.he d o ~ s notknow where he carne from or where he IS gOing; In his hfe healways lags behind wha t he can envision as better and moreperfect.These existential d icho tomies are the source of psychic energy.TIley create psychic needs which are specific to man and forwhich each person must take responsibility. So, for Fromm, thereare not only physical or physiological needs on th.e one handand mental needs on the other. There are also independentpsychic needs which are g o v e ~ e d their r u l ~ s and aretherefore not reducible to physiological needs or dnves. Thes.epsychic needs always have to be satisfied in some way. Theirsatisfaction replaces the lost instinct-relatedness to the world. Toquote Fromm 0977; GA Vlll, pp. 245ff.): The specifically humaninterest in replacing the lost instinct relatedness .to. tile w o ~ l dwith new affective-intellectual forms of relatedness Just as Vitalas the interest in self-preservation and the sexual i n ~ e r e s t thathumans share with all living beings; it follows from this t l ~ thevarious solut ions for the existential con tr ad ic tions are Just asenergy-loaden , i.e., passionate, as the mani festat ions of the egodrives and the libido.romm specified different psychic needs, most i ~ p o r t ~ n t l y thepsychic need for relatedness. The questi?n as to In which aperson satisfies this need, in a productive r a non producuveway. essentially depends on what life expenence he has had toadapt to and with which socio -econormc s tructure he must

identify with. Even if a person adopts p t ~ e m s of ~ e ~ a ~ ~ d n e s s thathinder the development of his psychological possibilities, .weattempts at solut ions in which the person reaas to existentialdichotomies and produces new patterns of r e l a t e d n e s ~ to thehuman and natural environment. Even the psychotic, whohallucinates his world, nonetheless satisfies the need forrelatedness that is found only in human beings.The question of productive or n o n p r o d u c t i ~ e orientation in thesatisfaction of psychic needs determines g ~ o w t h anddevelopment of psychic possibilities as w ~ l l as psychic health .o rsickness. The alternatives of a product ive or n o n p ~ o d u c t t v esolution-cor, as Fromm later expressed it, the a l t e r ~ a t 1 v e ~ of abiophi lic or necrophi lic, bemg onented or h v ~ n g o n e n t e dsolution - determine the progression or regress ion of the

225


7/8

Social Thought Researchpsychi c system. Psychic heal th or sickness depends on theorientation one identifies with. A person who has adapted wellto the non-productive e conomic and social s tructure , whofunctions well and is capable of working and carrying a load, isin reality the one who is suffering from the pathology ofnormalcy, the one who is psychologically crippled.Psychic needs must be satisfied. TIle way they are satisfied is,however, socially conditioned and is internalized via the familyas the agent of society . F romm expressed the a lt erna tiveorientations in the sat is fact ion of needs in terms of r espectivetypes and named them according to their objectives. The psychicneed for relatedness for instance can either be satisfiedp roducti vel y by a loving orientation or non-productively by anarciss is tic orientation. All forms of non-productive relatednessare character ized by the fact that the person stays fixated on thep rimary ties fixations) or reg resses to t hem and t he re fore isalienated from his own forces, whereas the loving sat is fact ion ofthe need for rel at edness is characterized by the fact that theloving person increasingly becomes the active part in therelationship and c reates relat edness to his human and naturalenvironment from his own psychic energies.Last, but not least, we have to clarify the role that the socialcharacter has in social and cul tural processes . If we assume thatcharacter has the subject ive funct ion for each person of leadingthat person to act according to what is necessary for him from apractical standpoint and also to give him satisfaction from hisactivity psychologically 1941, p. 283; GA I. p. 382f.), then we canmaintain that, by function, the social character internalizesexternal necessities and thus harnesses human energy for thetask of a given economic and social system loc. cu., p. 383).The ind ividua l likes to behave the way it has to according toe conomic and social requirements and expectations. If aneconomic system is directed toward maximization andquantitative growth one has to make new investments by whichnew products are created in order to safeguard its funct ioning.Thus this system needs the individual that loves to consume.What it enjoys doing and what its COOlfilon sense undoubtedlytells it is reasonable to do- -for example , to buy the bes t bargainsat the supermarket and at going-out-of-business sales - that iswhat it really must do.

226

Erich Fromm s Concept of Social CharacterAs long as the objective conditions of the society and theculture remain stable, the social character has a predominantlystabilizing function. I f the external conditions change in sucha way that they do not fit a ny mor e with tradition and socialcharacter a lag arises which often makes the characterfunction as an element of disintegration instead ofstabilization, as dynamite instead of soc ia l morta r, as it wer e.1949, p. 6; GA I, p. 211)

In researching social character as e p e n d e n ~ .on economic andsocial requirements, essential passionate stnvings of man, e v ~ nunconsdous ones that thus originate from. the socialunconscious, can be recognized and put to profitable . asmeans of social change. Just how necessary such recognition ofthe social character as a productive force F r m ~ .hasdemonstrated in t he thirties by the analysis of a u t h O r l t a n a n l ~ mIn the forties he discovered and described marketingcharacter orientation E. Fromm, 1947; 1976) .and U1 the SIXtiesthe narcissistic character E. Fromm, 1964a) as well as thenecrophilic character E. Fromm, 1964; 1973).

ReferencesFreud, S. 1921. Massenpsychologie un d Ich Analyse Pp. 71-161 inG.W. 13; r up Psychology an d the Analysis of the go Pp.

65-143 in S.E. Vol. 18. ..Fromm, E. 1989. GA) Gesamtausgabe in 10 Banden,herausgegeben von Rainer Funk, Stuttgart DeutscheVerlag-Anstalt) 1980-1981 Miinchen Deutscher TaschenbuchVerlag). .. R .. Gesamtausgabe in 10 Banden, herausgegeben von ainer~ u Stuttgart Deutsche Verlag-Anstalt) 1980-1981,

M i i n ~ h e n Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag). .. 1929. Psychoanalyse und Soziologie. PI 268-70 In Zeitschrift fu r psychoanalytische Pddagogik Wien Internat.psychoanalytischer Verlag), Vol. 3 O?28129 ; I, 3-5.translated into English: psychoanalysIs and SOCiology, Pp.37-9 in S. E. Bronner and D. M. Kellner, eds., Critical Theoryand Society: A Reader, New York and London: Routledge1989. d E. 1930. Die Entwicklung des Chrisms ogmas. me

--psychoanalytische Studie zur sozialpsychologischenFunktion der Religion. Pp. 305-73 in Imago. Zeitschrift fu rAnwendung de r Psychoanalyse auf die Natur un d227


8/8

:1

Social Thought Research

228

rich Fromm s Concept of Social Character. 992a Gesellschajt und Seele eitrageozialpsycho logi e und zur p s y c h o a n a l y t i s ~ h e n PraXlSSchriften aus em Nachlais, Vol. 7), Wemhelm n Basel:

Beltz.. 1992b. UDie Determiniertheit der psycllischen S t r u ~ t u r ciurch die Gesellschaft. Zur Methode und Aufgabe emer

Analytischen Sozialpsychologie. Pp. 23-97 in E ~ r o m m1992a. The page references refer to the G e r m ~ n e l t ~ o n thequotations are taken from the English typoscnpt w h l ~ h w stranslated by Erich Fromm himself. Confer the Enghsh .textin the homepage of the International Erich Fromm Society:http://fromm.home.mc.org . .Ortmeyer, D. H. 1995. History of the Founders of Interpersonalpsychoanalysis. Pp. 11-27 in H a n ~ b o o k nterpersonalpsychoanalysis Hillsdale: The Analytic Press.

229

Documents

Rainer Funk - Erich Fromm's Concept of Social Character