The functions of negativity and benign aggression in the development of humanistic values: A Frommian clinical journey

Abstract

In this paper I present an analysis of a personal journey, based on Erich Fromm's concept of benign aggression, part of The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973). I analyze its role in the dynamics of change based on the interaction between the psyche and the social. In Fromm's conceptual framework, benign aggression results from an unlived life, shaped by limitations on individuals' freedoms, supported by institutional and oppressive structures in a neo-capitalistic society. I explore how benign aggression, replayed between patient and therapist, can bring about changes in the self and modes of relatedness, leading to the recognition of humanistic values. In my practice, projective identification and attachment -detachment dynamics were experienced as forms of benign aggression, while anger and conflict became a way to acknowledge them. Fragments of two clinical cases illustrate how needs for relatedness-through-conflict are experienced. Relatedness expressed through a negative form of attachment can lead to the co-creation of a psychic space, a “Social Third” where ethical values are experienced and shared. This Frommian conceptual framework and methodology require total connectedness with a subject, together with the recognition and acceptance of an “Other” unto oneself. In my experience, such recognition encourages the emergence of humanistic values.

Key words:

• benign aggression
• Erich Fromm
• therapy
• negativity
• transformation of self
• social unconscious
• symbolic spaces
• ethical values
• social third

Acknowledgements

I thank Dr. Rainer Funk, director of the Erich Fromm Study Center (Tübingen), part of the International Psychoanalytic University (Berlin), and his team Dr. Thomas Kuhn, Dr. Katrin Voigt, and Dr. Sebastian Bobeth for having provided support and inspiration from a community of researchers with invaluable information about Fromm's clinical ideas and experiences, together with long-lasting friendships.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Benign aggression covers a number of other mild forms of aggression. It is used as a generic term. In this text, all references to aggression mean benign aggression.

2 Fromm created the William Alanson White Institute together with Harry Stack Sullivan in 1943. He taught and supervised there for several years.

3 Fromm defines a number of sub-types, stressing for each the impact of local social factors in defining distinct social character types (Funk, 1996).

4 This type of malignant aggression was used primarily to analyze historical events such as wars, dictatorships, authoritarianism, the destruction of ethnic/religious communities, and genocide (Shoah).

5 Others include Aron (2006); Bacciagaluppi (1996); Benjamin (2011); Bion (1965/1984); Cavalletto and Silver (2014); Durkin (2014); Funk (2000); Funk and McLaughlin (2015); Layton (2006, 2020); Lesser (2000); McLaughlin (2023); Silver (2020).

6 My observations are based on my therapy work over 15 years. The two cases that I discuss in this paper are composites of several patients, and fragments of their analysis are used to illustrate specific techniques. Patients’ backgrounds have been altered to protect their identity.

7 These ideas around the use of power and the need to challenge the power structure of organizations have been expanded by psychoanalysts and sociologists familiar with Fromm and sociological approaches (Benjamin, 2018; Chancer & Andrews, 2014).

8 Before I present fragments of two clinical cases I need to remind the reader that the two patients discussed are composites of a number of other patients, done in order to protect their identity. Fromm never published clinical cases because he felt it was impossible to capture all the verbal and non-verbal nuances of the interactions and modes of interpretation. The issue of data collection and analysis is very complicated and always biased in some way. However, in a profession where the actors are so isolated from one another, the sharing and discussion of cases is very important as a lived complement to existing written information.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Catherine B. Silver

Catherine B. Silver was born in Mexico and raised in France. She attended the Sorbonne (Paris) and earned a Master's under Raymond Aron. On a Fulbright, she completed her Ph.D. at Columbia University and worked at the Bureau of Applied Social Research. She taught at Brooklyn College and is now Emerita Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She has written books, chapters, and articles on gender, aging, identity, and organizations from cross-cultural and socio-psychoanalytic perspectives. Trained as a psychoanalyst in New York City (NPAP) and currently a training analyst and senior faculty member, she focuses on the links between sociology and psychoanalysis, drawing on clinical insights to sharpen theoretical perspectives in both disciplines.