Biography of Erich Fromm suggests that his theory is a rather unique blend of Freud and Marx. Freud postulated that our characters were determined by biology. Marx, on the other hand, saw people as determined by their society, and most especially by their economic systems. Fromm makes freedom looks like the central characteristic of human nature.
Biological determinism, Freud says that animals fallow their instincts. They don't need career counseling to decide what they are going to be when they grow up.
Socioeconomic determinism, Marx says, is the traditional society of the Middle Ages. Just like woodchucks, few people in the Middle Ages needed career counseling: They had fate, the Great Chain of Being, to tell them what to do. Basically, if your father was a peasant, you'd be a peasant. If your father was a king, that's what you'd become. And if you were a woman, well, there was only one role for women.
Erich Fromm has an opinion about this days which is true . We might look at life in the Middle Ages, or life as an animal, and cringe. But the fact is that the lack of freedom represented by biological or social determinism is easy. Your life has structure, meaning, there are no doubts, no cause for soul-searching, you fit in and never suffered an identity crisis. Now all of a sudden we were supposed to govern ourselves. And then came the industrial revolution, and instead of tilling the soil or making things with our hands, we had to sell our labor in exchange for money. All of a sudden, we became employees and consumers. You were no longer responsible only for your own well-being, but for fellow workers as well. Freedom is a difficult thing
to have, and when we can we tend to flee from it.
References
The Questioning of Freud’s Concept of Man
Makaleyi özetleyen: Muresan Ioana Codruta
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