Fromm's Concept of Biophilia

The words biophilia and necrophilia do not invite or appeal. They bring to mind words like hemophilia and carry an aura of the weighty claim of scientific authority. They are alienated words. Biophilia means, of course, love of life. For Fromm biophilia was the essence of humanitarian ethics, which was the central theme of every one of his books. He believed that a productive, creative, caring attitude toward life was crucial to our notion of the mental health of ourselves, our patients, and humankind, if it was to survive. Since Fromm devoted his life to fighting any form of alienation, I was curious about the when and wherefore of his adopting these terms. He explained his choice of the term necrophilia and his explanation illuminates. Biophilia corresponds to necrophilia as its opposite. Fromm (1973) wrote that the term necrophilous was first used by the Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno in 1936 when he responded to a speech made during the Spanish Civil War by General Milan Astray, whose motto was “Viva la muerte” (“Long live death”). Unamuno replied: “Just now I heard a necrophilous and senseless cry: ‘Long live death!' … It pains me that General Milan Astray should dictate the pattern of mass psychology. A cripple who lacks the spiritual greatness of a Cervantes is wont to seek ominous relief in causing mutilation around him” (p. 331). This story and thus the word had profound meaning for Fromm. It referred to a character trait that was psychodynamically motivated in a sociopolitical confrontation between brute force and a courageous spiritual leader. There is no alienation in Fromm's adoption of the term, which he did in 1961.

Fromm rarely wrote in the conventional style of psychoanalysis, and he rarely spelled out the relevance of his writing to psychoanalysts. But relevance is everywhere. I will place his concerns with humanitarian ethics in the context of the history of psychoanalytic interest in moral values in order to highlight his beliefs. The relat