Humanistic transformation and the ego-oriented social character

Abstract

This paper explores Erich Fromm’s significant scientific contribution through his development of a theory and method that elucidates the representation of society within the individual through their psychic structure formation, termed the “social character.” Initially, an outline of Fromm’s theory and methodology is presented, highlighting his insights into the formation of various social characters and examining their alienating and pathogenic impacts as “socially patterned defects.” Using the example of the authoritarian character conceived by Fromm, it is relatively easy to understand from a historical distance what the “socially patterned defects” consist of and how a humanistic transformation ought to look. This will be illustrated in a second part. Since the formation of social character is time-related, the third part uses Fromm’s theory and method to analyze the effects of the digital revolution on the formation of social character. The “ego-oriented social character” I have identified distinguishes itself from both the marketing character and narcissistic social character formations. This is reflected last but not least in the “socially patterned defects” of a pronounced ego weakness, which will be discussed in conclusion.

Key words:

• Erich Fromm
• social psychoanalysis
• social character
• humanistic transformation
• socially patterned defect
• authoritarian character
• ego-oriented character
• creativity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Regarding the fate of this essay, which was crucial for Fromm’s development of his theory, only the following should be noted here (see Funk, 2015): the detailed justification of why and in what complicated way a “social-typical” character formation occurs in many individuals in direct dependence on a certain life practice was to be published in the Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung, but was sharply criticized by Horkheimer, Marcuse, and Löwenthal. The reproach was that Fromm no longer grounded the psychic in the biologically anchored sexual drive. However, precisely this would be essential for the program of materialistic social science at the Frankfurt School. Adorno objected by letter and contributed to the refusal to publish Fromm’s second social-psychoanalytic approach – which at the same time marked the waning of Fromm’s collaboration with the Institute for Social Research.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rainer Funk

Rainer Funk (b. 1943) wrote his dissertation on Erich Fromm’s social psychology and ethics (Erich Fromm: The courage to be human; New York, 1982), in 1974 became Fromm’s assistant in Locarno, Switzerland, and after Fromm’s death became his literary executor. Rainer Funk trained at the Stuttgart Psychoanalytic Institute, practiced as a psychoanalyst and now lives in Tübingen, Germany. He is co-founder of the International Erich Fromm Society and director of the Erich Fromm Institute in Tübingen, which houses Fromm’s library and literary estate, and a huge collection of secondary literature on Fromm. In addition Rainer Funk is co-director of the Erich Fromm Study Center at the International Psychoanalytic University, Berlin, which organized the Third International Erich Fromm Research Conference in 2023.