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This book is an exposé on Erich Fromm’s rich legacy, his writings on sociocultural phenomena, his religious thinking, his contribution to psychological theory and clinical theory, and his influence on clinical practice. The book also includes chapters on the history of Erich Fromm and the reception of his works, and the organization of the Erich Fromm archive.
My background in reading this book is some 50 years as a practicing psychoanalyst, including supervision, teaching, writing, and organizational work in Stockholm, Sweden. I have written an introduction to the Swedish edition of The art of listening (Stensson, 2000), outlining Fromm’s life with a focus on psychoanalysis, as well as an article on Fromm’s relation to the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) (Stensson, 2002).
Twenty-two authors from nine different countries have contributed to this book, which makes for a great diversity in the content of the articles. There is, however, one concept that stands out in most of the papers: the social character. Its usefulness is exemplified in papers on social psychology, psychoanalysis, theology, and philosophy. The social character is, however, not only a concept – it can be also seen as an icon for a central part of Fromm’s anthropology. In their introduction, the editors, Rainer Funk and Neil McLaughlin (p. 24) already note that “From our perspective, the core of Fromm’s ideas worth building on for the 21st century is his scientifically sound concept of man as a social being and his theory of social character.”
In this review, I will first comment on contributions written by psychoanalysts and articles that may be of more direct interest for the practicing psychoanalyst.
After the introduction, the book opens with a short paper by Fromm, initially called “Institute for the science of man” but renamed here “The humanistic science of man.” This is evidently a rather raw sketch as far as the shaping of an institute goes. The pr