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Brief History of WAWI Harry Stack Sullivan Bio Frieda Fromm Rerichmann Bio Clara Thompson Bio Erich Fromm Bio Rollo May Bio Edgar Levenson Bio Otto Will Bio Steven Mitchell Bio Marylou Lionells Bio |
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"Central to my work is the relationship of one human being to another, and to the specifically human emotions that are rooted not in instinct but rather in man's existence as a human being." |
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-Erich
Fromm
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| Erich
Fromm died in Switzerland on March 18, 1980. It was five days before
his 80th birthday. Thirty-seven years earlier, in the spring of 1943,
Dr. Fromm along with with Harry Stack Sullivan, Clara Thompson, David
and Janet Rioch, and Frieda Fromm-Reichmann began a new teaching and
training facility which was shortly to become the William Alanson
White Institute of Psychiatry. The defection of these six from the
more orthodox organizations to which they had belonged was attributed
to an issue involving Dr. Fromm's status as a Ph.D. among M.D.'s.
It was in fact the result of an ideological schism in which these
six (and others) attempted to move from the more confining preoccupations
with libido theory of early psychoanalysis to a more open and dynamic
approach to personality and culture. Erich Fromm came to psychoanalysis from Philosophy, and his life was a search for truth, which transcended the boundaries of psychoanalytic inquiry. He was a psychoanalyst, social critic, anthropologist, moral philosopher, and above all an activist who felt one must act to influence society. And influence he did. In 1957 Fromm founded SANE, The National Committee For a Sane Nuclear Policy, as a part of his active engagement in the cause of peace. Many of his twenty books were read avidly by the general public, among them: Escape From Freedom, The Sane Society, The Art of Loving, The Heart of Man. His work was an uncompromising critique of all individual and social factors that impede the development of man and man's possibilities "to become what he could be." His teachings greatly influenced the human potential movement. Fromm was a world wide lecturer and held formal faculty appointments at six universities. It was this spirit that pervaded what was sometimes see as Fromm's radical approach to psychoanalysis. He stressed the importance of growth and stated that sanity was achieved through one's effort to be authentically oneself and that it was never to be found in power oriented security operations. Of major significance in the history of psychoanalytic theory has been Fromm's insistence that human passions arise mainly through the vicissitudes of man's search for relatedness and identity rather than through instinctual thrust. Fromm did not dismiss the significance of man's biology but combined the biological viewpoint with the sociological one, and in this made a signal contribution to a theory of man. Fromm believed in the value of psychoanalysis for everyone and he promoted this activity at the White Institute. During his tenure as Chairman of the Faculty, The White Institute established a low cost psychoanalytic clinic, the fourth such clinic in the United States. The clinic's primary purpose was service to the community. Fromm also believed that White should train Psychologists, which the Faculty voted to do in 1948. Erich Fromm had the rare ability to convey profound human truths with clarity and grace. While he found society decisive in shaping man's character he made it clear that man is responsible for his own actions. Above all Erich Fromm was a humanist and his teachings are reflected in the philosophy and curriculum of the White Institute. Perhaps no more so than in the firm belief that every man carries within himself all of humanity. |
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 Erich Fromm aged 11 with his father in the Black Forest |
 Erich Fromm with his mother Rosa Nee Krause |
 Erich Fromm with his parents about 1918 |
 Erich Fromm recovering from TB in Davos, Switzerland between 1931 and 1934. Ernest Schachtel visiting. |
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 Erich Fromm marries Henny Gurland in 1944. In 1950 they moved to Mexico because of her illness. |
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 Erich Fromm marries Annis Freeman in December. |
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 Erich Fromm with Suzuki, Annis Fromm, Ancieto Aramani - front Suzuki's secretary Okamura in 1957. |
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 Fromm was cofounder of IFPS. Talking here with Fritz Riemann in Dusseldorf. |
 Diane Amato - Secretary WAWI |
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