Abstract
Among Erich Fromm’s many contributions to psychoanalysis was his emphasis on the impact of culture and socioeconomic systems on the mind of the individual. The author expands on the religious, cultural, social, and political influences in Fromm’s life and his passion about humankind creating a peaceful and just world. Fromm’s ideas of malignant narcissism and the biophilic and necrophilic orientations to living are also presented. Others have described Fromm’s approach to treatment as both passionate and bordering on the confrontational. The author discusses how this approach is antithetical to working with traumatized individuals suffering with multiple dissociated self-states.
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Sheldon Itzkowitz
Shelly Itzkowitz, PhD, is an adjunct clinical associate professor of psychology and clinical consultant at the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis; guest faculty, the Eating Disorders, Compulsions, and Addictions Program of The William Alanson White Institute; and on the teaching and supervisory faculty of the National Institute for the Psychotherapies program in psychoanalysis. He is an Associate Editor of Psychoanalytic Perspectives and a former President of the Division of Psychoanalysis of the New York State Psychological Association. He is in full-time private practice in Manhattan, where he practices psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and couples therapy, and provides clinical supervision for mental health practitioners.