How Erich Fromm Can Help Address the Jordan Peterson Problem in Psychoanalysis

ABSTRACT

The current political climate is marked by polarization, which presents new difficulties for psychoanalysis. Erich Fromm, as a Freudian theorist and clinician, is uniquely positioned to address these issues. Fromm is a politically radical thinker who can help psychoanalysis think about society and social injustice beyond the clinical context while avoiding the dangers of excessively orthodox left-wing thinking that risks taking the field away from its core mission. Fromm can help psychoanalysis avoid what we are calling the “Peterson problem,” which is partly the result of provocative and extreme ideas in institutions and psychoanalytic publications that create reputational problems for the field. The “Peterson problem” brings new attention to the political bias of left-liberal authoritarians inside the profession, who focus on changing society rather than healing individuals and neglect audiences outside the liberal university and highly educated classes and thus create space for polarizing figures like psychologist Jordan Peterson to fill the gap. Peterson’s fame and influence serves as a lightning rod for the wider critique of left leaning political and cultural currents in psychoanalysis. Fromm can act as a role model as well as provide the intellectual resources for responding to these challenges.

KEYWORDS:

• Jordan Peterson
• Erich Fromm
• critical theory
• psychoanalysis
• viewpoint diversity
• political polarization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ 12 Rules for Life was already underway when Peterson published his controversial YouTube videos. While we cannot say whether his publishing contract was locked in, it appears the book was largely written before he skyrocketed into public attention.

² A brief perusal of Peterson’s recent activity on Twitter sees it filled with adjective-loaded insults directed toward individuals and institutions that he opposes (with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau getting special attention), allusions to World Economic Forum (WEF) conspiracies, and more outwardly pro-Trump and pro-populist activity, including a video by Trump originally posted by cultural critic turned conspiracy theorist James Lindsay, where the former suggests a number of legal reforms to eliminate “wokeness” from education – in order to protect free speech, of course.

³ Seen in the expansion of freedoms for women in the workplace and domestic spheres, the extension of civil rights to African Americans, and legal protections for the sexuality and identities of gay and trans people respectively.

⁴ For background on this debate from the gender critical perspective, see Joyce 2021 and Maitlis 2023.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Neil McLaughlin

Neil McLaughlin, Ph.D., is a Professor of Sociology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and has a courtesy appointment at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto. His most recent publications include Erich Fromm and Global Public Sociology (2021 and 2023 paperback: Bristol University Press). He studies public intellectuals, the politics of higher education and Soros conspiracy theories.

Neil Wegenschimmel

Neil Wegenschimmel, M.A., is a graduate student in social psychology at the University of Waterloo where he researches cultural change, radicalism, and authoritarianism. He is broadly interested in belief in different contexts: religion, extremism, radicalism, polarization, nihilism, media, and information consumption, and the effect of digital social life on what we see as being real or true.