Erich Fromm - Fascism, Power, and Individual Rights: Escape from Freedom, To Have or To Be?, and The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness

Fascism, Power, and Individual Rights

Escape from Freedom, To Have or To Be?, and The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness

Erich Fromm

CONTENTS

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Escape from Freedom

Copyright 1941, 1969 by Erich Fromm

Foreword II 1965 by Erich Fromm

First published by Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., New York, 1941

To Have or To Be?

Copyright 1976 by Erich Fromm

Copyright 2013 by the Estate of Erich Fromm

First published as volume 50 of World Perspectives, planned and edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen, (Harper and Row, New York) 1976.

In his personal copy of this book Fromm brought in some corrections and improvements of the text which are included here.

The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness

Copyright 1973 by Erich Fromm

Copyright 1992 by the Estate of Erich Fromm

First published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1973.

The text follows the revised edition as Owl Book, (Henry Holt and Company, New York) 1992.

Cover design by Amanda Shaffer

ISBN: 978-1-5040-4550-6

This edition published in 2017 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

180 Maiden Lane

New York, NY 10038

www.openroadmedia.com

If I am not for myself, who will be for me?

If I am for myself only, what am I?

If not nowwhen?

Talmudic Saying

Mishnah, Abot

Neither heavenly nor earthly, neither mortal nor immortal have we created thee, so that thou mightest be free according to thy own will and honor, to be thy own creator and builder. To thee alone we gave growth and development depending on thy own free will. Thou bearest in thee the germs of a universal life.

Pico della Mirandola

Oratio de Hominis Dignitate

Nothing then is unchangeable but the inherent and inalienable rights of man.

Thomas Jefferson

This book is part of a broad study concerning the character structure of modern man and the problems of the interaction between psychological and sociological factors which I have been working on for several years and completion of which would have taken considerably longer. Present political developments and the dangers which they imply for the greatest achievements of modern cultureindividuality and uniqueness of personalitymade me decide to interrupt the work on the larger study and concentrate on one aspect of it which is crucial for the cultural and social crisis of our day: the meaning of freedom for modern man. My task in this book would be easier could I refer the reader to the completed study of the character structure of man in our culture, since the meaning of freedom can be fully understood only on the basis of an analysis of the whole character structure of modern man. As it is, I have had to refer frequently to certain concepts and conclusions without elaborating on them as fully as I would have done with more scope. In regard to other problems of great importance, I have often been able to mention them only in passing and sometimes not at all. But I feel that the psychologist should offer what he has to contribute to the understanding of the present crisis without delay, even though he must sacrifice the desideratum of completeness.

Pointing out the significance of psychological considerations in relation to the present scene does not imply, in my opinion, an overestimation of psychology. The basic entity of the social process is the individual, his desires and fears, his passions and reason, his propensities for good and for evil. To understand the dynamics of the social process we must understand the dynamics of the psychological processes operating within the individual, just as to understand the individual we must see him in the context of the culture which molds him. It is the thesis of this book that modern man, freed from the bonds of pre-individualistic society, which simultaneously gave him security and limited him, has not gained freedom in the positive sense of the realization of his individual self; that is, the expression of his intellectual, emotional and sensuous potentialities. Freedom, though it has brought him independence and rationality, has made him isolated and, thereby, anxious and powerless. This isolation is unbearable and the alternatives he is confronted with are either to escape from the burden of his freedom into new dependencies and submission, or to advance to the full realization of positive freedom which is based upon the uniqueness and individuality of man. Although this book is a diagnosis rather than a prognosisan analysis rather than a solutionits results have a bearing on our course of action. For, the understanding of the reasons for the totalitarian flight from freedom is a premise for any action which aims at the victory over the totalitarian forces.

I forego the pleasure it would be to thank all those friends, colleagues and students to whom I am indebted for their stimulation and constructive criticisms of my own thinking. The reader will see in the footnotes reference to the authors of whom I feel most indebted for the ideas expressed in this book. However, I wish to acknowledge specifically my gratitude to those who have contributed directly to the completion of this volume. In the first place, I wish to thank Miss Elizabeth Brown, who both by her suggestions and her criticisms has been of invaluable help in the organization of this volume. Furthermore, my thanks are due to Mr. T. Woodhouse for his great help in editing the manuscript and to Dr. A. Seidemann for his help in the philosophical problems touched upon in this book.

I wish to thank the following publishers for the privilege of using extensive passages from their publications: Board of Christian Education, Philadelphia, excerpts from Institutes of the Christian Religion, by John Calvin, translated by John Allen; the Columbia Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law (Columbia University Press), New York, excerpts from Social Reform and the Reformation, by Jacob S. Schapiro; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Mich., excerpts from The Bondage of the Will, by Martin Luther, translated by Henry Cole; Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, excerpts from Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, by R. H. Tawney; Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, excerpts from Mein Kampf, by Adolf Hitler; the Macmillan Company, New York, excerpts from The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, by Jacob Burckhardt.

E. F.

Almost twenty-five years have passed since the first edition of this book was published. The twenty-four editions which have been published since then have been read by professionals, laymen, and especially by students, and I am happy that this publication in the Avon Library will make it more easily available to many more readers.