Frommian Therapeutic Practice: "A Few Rich Hours"3

TO ATTEMPT TO SPECIFY "Frommian therapeutic practice" is paradoxical when Fromm rejected any prescriptive ideas. To him, the classical emphasis on technique implied a mechanical, routinized, "doing-to" approach, that aborts the uniqueness and vitality of "being with" an individual patient. Furthermore, Fromm believed no two people are alike any more than two sets of fingerprints; there are no routine cases. Thus, the analyst can achieve understanding only through allowing herself/himself to be "soaked with" (Fromm, 1960) the individual patient's feelings and being aware of her/his own capacity for similar experiences. The analyst's self-awareness and careful observation of the particular patient takes precedence over any standardized set of practices.

For Fromm, the primary goal of psychoanalysis was to enable the patient to become individuated and autonomous, with courage to transcend irrational, constricting cultural values. Since character is in large part shaped by these same values, achieving self-direction in a warped society is a difficult task that is best accomplished through an authentic encounter between analyst and patient. Fromm rejected any dogma, ritualized procedure, or a priori theory-based interpretations that deny the uniqueness and complexity of the individual patient and violate the potential for a singularly vital encounter. He was critical of existing theories, which he believed encouraged adaptation through conformity rather than self-direction, active choice and responsibility.