75 phrases by Erich Fromm to understand his thinking
Erich fromm he is undoubtedly one of the most notable figures in psychology, and was a psychoanalyst and social psychologist. His thinking is far from the conception of classical psychoanalysis, whose greatest exponent was Sigmund Freud.
The latter had a pessimistic view of the human being, in which behavior and thoughts are governed by unconscious forces that we cannot control and that make us slaves of our own past.
- Related text: "Sigmund Freud: life and work of the famous psychoanalyst"
The best phrases of Erich Fromm
Fromm, therefore, fits within that of humanist psychoanalysis, in which the human being has the ability to become free and decide his own life path. Furthermore, Fromm was influenced by Karl Marx, and he especially studied the influence of society and culture on the individual. In today's article, we review the best phrases of this important psychologist.
- Related text: "Erich Fromm: biography of the father of humanist psychoanalysis"
1, Greed is a bottomless pit that exhausts the person in an eternal effort to satisfy the need without even achieving satisfaction
Greed is one of the evils of the human being. It is a vicious circle in which you always want more and more.
2. Fair means not resorting to fraud and deception in exchange for comforts and services or in exchange for feelings
Justice is closely related to honesty, integrity and selflessness.
3. It is not rich who has a lot, but who gives a lot
Giving can make you happier than receiving, because when you feel good about yourself, there is no money that can pay for that.
4. The human being always dies before being fully born
A phrase by Erich Fromm that will make you reflect and think.
5. The meaning of life consists only in the very act of living
Living in the moment and being in the present is what makes us live.
6. Dying is tinged with poignant bitterness, but the thought of having to die without having lived is unbearable
If you do not take advantage of your life and do what you really want, in the long run it will be your death.
7. In the same way that mass production requires the standardization of goods, the social process requires the standardization of the human being, and this standardization is called equality
A thought by Erich Fromm about society and the concept of equality.
8. Selfish people are incapable of loving others, and neither are they capable of loving themselves
Selfishness is another of the sins of the human being and brings with it negative consequences for the person. To know what selfish individuals are like, click here.
9. Love does not come naturally, but requires discipline, concentration, patience, faith, and the defeat of narcissism. It is not a feeling, it is a practice
A reflection by Erich Fromm on love, and expresses what are the requirements to achieve it.
10. Nationalism is our form of incest, it is our idolatry, it is our madness. Patriotism is your sect
Fromm expressing his idea of nationalism, and how this is related to insanity. It is still a prejudice.
11. Paradoxically, being able to be alone is the condition for being able to love
Love is one of the most beautiful sensations that human beings can feel.
- If you want to know more phrases about love, you can read our post: "100 phrases about love and romance (unforgettable)"
12. It is paradoxical in love that two beings become one and at the same time remain two
When two people decide to be together, their world becomes one world: that of love.
13. Only the person who has faith in himself is capable of having faith in others
Self-confidence is key to being able to relate positively with others.
14. Both dreams and myths represent important communications from ourselves to ourselves.
A phrase by Erich Fromm about dreams and how they affect us.
15. One cannot be fully sensitive to the world without being saddened often
You can be sensitive and reflect on your surroundings without the need to always be sad.
16. Perhaps there is no phenomenon that contains a destructive feeling greater than moral outrage, which leads to envy or hatred acting disguised as virtue
Moral outrage can bring envy and hate seemingly justified.
17. If I perceive in another person mainly the surface, I perceive mainly the differences, that which separates us. If I enter inside, I perceive their identity, our brotherhood relationship
This thought by Erich Fromm speaks of superficiality and how we can connect with someone if we connect with their interior.
18. There is hardly any activity or project that starts with such high hopes and expectations, yet fails so often, like love.
Love can go right or wrong, but when we fall in love, everything is rosy. Sometimes unrealistically.
19. In romantic love, two people who were apart become one. In maternal love, two people who were one part
Erich Fromm, with this phrase, compares romantic love with maternal love.
20. Longing means being prepared at all times for what has not yet been born and at the same time not despairing if there is no birth in our life
A deep reflection of the father of humanist psychoanalysis on longing.
21. The search for a narcissistic satisfaction derives from the need to compensate for material and cultural poverty
Narcissism is the result of the interaction between genetic and cultural variables. If you want to know how to spot narcissistic individuals, click here.
22. There is no word in the language that has been prostituted more than the word love
Love is a word that poets or authors of great novels have used, because it is a subject that interests us all.
23. That millions of people share the same forms of mental illness does not imply that these people are sane
Fromm gives us a fine irony about collective schizophrenia.
24. Society would have to be organized in such a way that the social and loving nature of the human being was not separated from its social existence, but rather joined together.
Love is a human being's own feeling and has a great cultural and social component.
25. There can be no freedom without the freedom to fail
Perfection does not exist, nor does it exist in freedom.
24. Life has no meaning, except the very meaning that each one gives to their own life by revealing all their powers.
We perceive reality based on our mind maps and our learning from the past. The reality is our reality.
25. The human being has two basic orientations: to have and to be. Having implies acquiring and owning things, even people. Being focuses on experience: exchanging, engaging, sharing with other people
For Fromm, people have two basic characteristics: having and being
26. The history of humanity began with an act of disobedience and it is very likely that it ends with an act of obedience.
A reflection by Fromm on the beginnings of humanity.
- Related article: "The Milgram Experiment: the danger of obedience to authority"
27. The fundamental alternative for the human being is the choice between life and death, between creativity and violence. destructive, between reality and illusions, between objectivity and intolerance, between brotherhood and independence and domination and submission
One of the great reflections on human beings and their choices.
28. Immature love says: "I love you because I need you." Mature love says: "I need you because I love you"
The mature love It is the one that lasts, because even though the flame of irrational love can be very intense, it dissolves in its own fire.
29. The mature answer to the problem of existence is love
Mature love is a love that feeds on understanding and respect on the part of the two members of the couple
30. If I am what I have and if I lose what I have, then who am I?
The problem with valuing oneself or being valued for the material is that, when one ceases to be a subject, one becomes an object.
31. The main task of the human being in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he really is. The most important product of your effort is your own personality.
A typical humanistic reflection on one's own personal development.
32. In the 19th century the problem was that God had died. In the twentieth century the problem is that the human being has died
A phrase that refers to the modern human being, the one who lives immense in the capitalist world.
33. We are a society of deeply unhappy people: lonely, worried, depressed
Again Fromm referring to capitalist society that promotes selfish and non-supportive values.
34. We live in a world of things and our only relationship with them is that we know how to manipulate or consume them
Again, Fromm refers to the capitalist and materialistic society.
35. Love is normally a favorable exchange between two people who get the most of what they can hope for, taking into account their value in the market of personalities.
Fromm was always a philosopher of love, as this sentence shows.
36. The revolutionary and critical thinker is always somehow outside of society and, at the same time, is part of it
When someone is not comfortable with society, he is a revolutionary. Your mind is outside of society, but your body is inside.
37. Who could say if a happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a sunny morning and smelling the fresh air is not worth all the effort and suffering intrinsic to life.
At the end of the day, for many, happiness is a great motivation.
38. Accept life's difficulties, setbacks, and tragedies as a challenge that, by overcoming it, makes us stronger
Overcoming the adversities that life presents you makes you a more prepared person for tomorrow.
39. Why does society feel responsible only for the education of children and not for the education of adults of any age?
A thoughtful phrase about the education of children and adults.
40. The human being is the product of natural evolution that arises from the conflict of being a prisoner and separating from nature and the need to find unity and harmony in it.
The human being is constantly looking for balance.
41. The conditions to be creative are to be bewildered, to concentrate, to accept conflict and tension, to be born every day, to feel the reason for oneself.
Fromm expresses what are the conditions to be creative.
42. Creativity means being born before you have died
Another reflection on creativity. Do you know the keys to creativity? If you are interested in this topic, click here.
43. Sanity is simply what is found in the frame of reference of conventional thought
Thinking like the rest of society is synonymous with being sane.
45. If one is not productive in other respects, one is not productive in love either.
Feeling good with yourself has a positive effect when it comes to loving.
46. If a person loves only one person and is indifferent to all the others, then his love is not love, but symbolic attachment or extended egotism.
Love can be a very selfish experience.
47. Not enough attention is paid to the word boredom. We talk about many horrible things that happen to people, but we do not usually talk about one of the worst: feeling bored, either alone or, worse, in company.
Boredom is considered one of the worst things, according to Fromm
48. The biological weakness of being is the condition of human culture.
Fromm, making clear his perspective on human culture.
49. Only those who do not want more than they have are prosperous
The key to happiness is settling for what you want.
50. The task we must set ourselves is not to feel safe, but to be able to tolerate insecurity
People have a huge fear of insecurity and uncertainty.
51. There is nothing inhuman, evil or irrational that does not produce some kind of comfort if done in a group
Group pressure and intergroup relationships often determine our behavior within the group.
52. Is love an art? So it takes knowledge and effort
"The art of loving" of loving is one of Fromm's great works of art and a highly recommended book.
53. Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.
Without a doubt, love makes us experience extraordinary sensations.
54. Authority is not a quality that a person has, in the sense of having physical properties or qualities. Authority refers to an interpersonal relationship in which one person looks to another with superiority
Authority and obedience go hand in hand, and they are a relationship of power.
55. Love is an energy that produces love
There is nothing that arouses emotions as strong as those of love.
56. The mother-child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the part of the mother, but precisely this love should help the child to distance himself from the mother and to achieve total independence.
The mother-child relationship is a unique relationship, in which the child needs the mother to develop but, at the same time, the child needs to explore on her own.
57. The danger of the past was that humans would become slaves. The danger of the future is that those humans could turn into robots
The modern human being lives on automatic pilot.
58. Freedom does not mean license
A phrase about freedom in the tone of a humanist philosopher.
59. Love is the union with someone or something outside of oneself, under the condition of preserving one's individualism and integrity.
Despite the fact that in love we give ourselves to others, we can never lose our own identity.
60. We are what we do
Our behavior is a reflection of our mind.
62. We all dream; we don't understand our dreams, and yet we act as if nothing weird is happening in our minds asleep, odd at least about what our minds logically and decisively do when we're awake.
The relationship between reason and dreams is reflected in this sentence.
63. Mother's love is peace. It doesn't need to be acquired, it doesn't need to be earned.
Mother's love is without a doubt the purest love that exists.
64. The human being is the only animal whose existence is a problem that he has to solve
The human being is continually looking for answers to his own existence.
65. The search for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the only condition that prompts humans to reveal their powers
Truths are relative, and the search for truth keeps us moving.
66. What most people in our culture understand by being loved is basically a mixture of popularity and sex appeal.
A reality of our culture is that sexual attractiveness and popularity are two highly valued traits in our society.
67. Child love follows the principle: I love because I am loved. Mature love obeys at the beginning: They love me because I love. Immature love says: I love you because I need you. Mature love says: I need you because I love you.
There are different types of love, as can be seen in this reflection.
68. What does one person give to another? She gives of herself the most precious thing she has, of his own life. This does not necessarily mean that he sacrifices his life for the other, but that he gives what is alive in him, gives from his joy, from his interest, understanding, knowledge, humor, sadness, all expressions and manifestations of what is I live in the.
Love, without a doubt, makes us feel alive and motivates us to keep going.
69. You are born alone and you die alone, and in the parenthesis the loneliness is so great that you need to share life to forget it
As long as we live, love is one of our primary goals.
70. In a culture in which the mercantile orientation prevails and in which material success is the predominant value, there is no reality reasons to be surprised that human love relationships follow the same scheme that governs the market for goods and job.
Capitalist society has influenced all spheres of our life, especially love. Interpersonal relationships have become commercialized.
71. Hope is paradoxical. Having hope means being ready at all times for what is not yet born, but without despairing if the birth does not occur in the span of our life.
A phrase by Erich Fromm to reflect on.
72. Human nature, even though it is the product of historical evolution, has certain inherent mechanisms and laws, the discovery of which is the task of psychology.
A reflection on the psychological mechanisms that underlie human behavior.
73. Closely related to the development of the capacity to love is the evolution of the love object. In the first months and years of life, the child's closest relationship is the one he has with the mother.
This thought of Fromm refers directly to Oedipus complex, a concept developed by Sigmund Freud.
74. Sex without love only bridges the gap between two human beings momentarily.
According to Fromm, having intimate relationships with no pretense other than enjoyment can be a double-edged sword.
75. Chess: An activity where problems must be solved: with reason, with imagination and with conscience. A need to carry out, for what is done to have an impact, arouse interest and be the object of a response from others. The principle of effectiveness is made present by love and productive work.
An allegory between chess, consciousness and productivity.