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Our view of human nature has always oscillated between two extremes, one optimistic, the other pessimistic. The optimistic end is well represented by Rousseau, according to whom man is basically good, but corrupted by society. The opposite end is represented by Hobbes, who believed in man's innate aggressiveness (“homo homini lupus”). Man's violent history seems to bear out the Hobbesian view. Until recently, Darwin's theory of evolution also seemed to confirm this view, with its emphasis on the struggle for survival. Freud, too, was basically pessimistic in his view of human nature. Fromm, instead, was committed to the alternative view. He acknowledged the widespread occurrence of destructive aggressiveness (Fromm, 1973), but saw it as the effect of an unnatural cultural environment. Bowlby (1984) held a similar position.
Riane Eisler (1987) pointed out that the two polarities have a gender connotation. She distinguishes between a dominator model of society, which is characterized by male dominance, and a partnership model, typical of gynocentric societies. In this article I point out that Fromm, following Bachofen, was a pioneer in emphasizing the gender connotation of the two alternatives.
Fromm showed his interest in feminine culture with his 1934 paper on Bachofen's Mother Right. He went back to this theme in Chapter 7 of The Forgotten Language (1951) and in Chapter 6 of The Crisis of Psychoanalysis (1970). Finally, in The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973) he discussed at length the excavations at Çatal Hüyük, which provide empirical support for the existence of a Neolithic culture characterized by feminine values. The existence of a female culture has been upheld by several feminist writers, notably by Riane Eisler in The Chalice and the Blade (1987), in which, however, Fromm's contributions are not acknowledged.