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Erich Fromm has long been regarded by many as a figure marginal to the mainstream of psychoanalysis. The present Festschrift attempts to redress that imbalance and close the gap between Fromm's thinking and contemporary analysis. Cortina and Maccoby, collaborators with Fromm, have drawn together contributions from his students and admirers, drawn mostly from the William Alanson White Institute, the Washington School of Psychiatry, the Maccoby Group, and other institutes particularly open to his thought. Rather than joining Fromm more closely to current analytic thought, the contributions tend more in the direction of drawing current analysis more closely to Fromm.
After a comprehensive introduction to Fromm's thinking, from which it would seem Fromm either anticipated or originated most of the modern developments in analysis, without receiving due recognition, a series of essays explore aspects of Fromm's personality and work. The tension between his analytic and his prophetic voice, his authoritarianism and his intelligent flexibility, is examined, as are his existential humanism and ethics and aspects of his analysis of character. There is in these accounts enough balance between Fromm's pluses and minuses to reveal to readers the eccentricities and maverick quality of his approach, while opening areas in which a further integration of his thought with mainstream psychoanalysis may be possible. In sum, the book provides a valuable perspective on Fromm and his contributions and should serve well those analysts interested in exploring the fringes of discovery in the evolution of contemporary psychoanalysis.