Erich Fromm—in Memoriam—Dedication

THIS ISSUE OF CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOANALYSIS is dedicated to the memory of Erich Fromm, one of the founders of the William Alanson White Institute. He was a pioneer in psychoanalysis, focusing his attention on the interaction among intrapsychic, interpersonal and social forces. He went far beyond the orthodoxy of his early training though he considered himself a Freudian until the end. His passionate humanism, which brought him into close contact with Harry Stack Sullivan and Clara Thompson, was an inspiration for many of us. His interest in authenticity in presence, one's sensitivity to one's own feelings as antidote to alienation, his focus on analytic data as reflective of social attitudes and social practice, and indications of the actual way lives were lived, and his emphasis on the dialectic in interpretation were brilliant beacons in a foggy atmosphere. Like all stimulating teachers, those who draw out of us the best we can do, Dr. Fromm was of many facets. His commitment to social humanism, seemed in later years, to have greater priority for him, over his seminal interests in the psychoanalytic process. Our focus, of course, in this Journal, is on psychoanalytic theory and technique. It is in his courageous, pioneering spirit, his assertion of the value of growth and openness to change, that we have gathered this collection of tributes, commentaries and original essays, dedicated to his memory.