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Erich Fromm attempts to establish a system of ethics on what he calls a psychoanalytic basis. He aligns himself with the ethical systems of Aristotle, Spinoza, and John Dewey. He reproaches Freud and psychoanalysis for what he calls a 'relativistic position' in ethics. Either he does not know or he neglects to mention the very important contributions made to ethics by such psychoanalysts as, for instance, Pfister, Flugel, Müller-Braunschweig, Heinz Hartmann, Pichon, and Odier. Fromm tries naïvely to distinguish between what he calls authoritarian ethics and humanistic ethics. The latter he summarizes (p. 20): 'Good in humanistic ethics is the affirmation of life, the unfolding of man's powers. Virtue is responsibility towards his own existence; evil constitutes the crippling of man's powers; vice is irresponsibility towards himself.' By the 'unfolding of man's powers' is meant 'living productively'.
No one will disagree with Fromm on the importance of ethical principles, particularly in modern life, but many will take issue with the rather questionable value of the ethical system he establishes. To Fromm the primum movens of the human being is character. Although to some extent his characterology follows psychoanalytic psychology, he takes out of it its real dynamic significance; character