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Reading Fromm's book leaves me with a very ambivalent feeling. The author certainly has something to say but the way he says it gives it a very different meaning from what I think it really signifies.
Humanistic ethics should be based not on taboo but on the principle of productivity. The building of the tower of Babel or Prometheus stealing fire are the symbols of human productivity (p. 149). That of course is the style that characterizes this way of thinking. A myth is taken at its face value, it is not analysed, the Unconscious has sunk into oblivion. If we analyse the myth we see that the Tower of Babel is an erection symbol, the stealing of fire myths mean stealing 'heat' from the gods and both symbolize Eros.
'Genuine love is an expression of productiveness' (p. 129) the author says, whereas of course love is derived from the sexual impulse and the sexual impulse is really 'productiveness' in a biological sense.
One dream analysis will suffice to show how the author arrives at his 'anagogic' (Silberer, Jung) constructs.
A well known writer was offered a position where he would have had to sell his integrity as a writer for a lot of money and fame while considering whether or not to accept the offer he had this dream.
At the foot of a mountain he sees two very successful men whom he despises for their opportunism, they tell him to drive up the narrow road to the peak. He follows their advice and when almost at the top of the mountain his car falls off the road and he is killed (p. 165).
Fromm says the message of this dream needs little interpretation; while he slept he knew that the acceptance of the offered position would be equivalent to destruction, not of course to his physical death …, but to his destruction as an integrated, productive human being.'
All that is needed nowadays in 'psycho-analysis' (?) to write a new book is to forget about the unconscious.
The position offered and the mountain peak (narrow passage!) both mean coitus with mother (driving!) a