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Erich Fromm's voice is a vocal one in the written and spoken word of psychoanalysis and related fields and in clinical work through much of the 20th century. His views and their creative use are excellently presented in this edited book by international contemporary thinkers and psychoanalytic clinicians who worked closely with Fromm or who were influenced by him. The writing is an outgrowth of the Erich Fromm International Symposium that took place May 6-8, 1994 at the Washington School of Psychiatry in Washington, DC. The event was cosponsored by the Washington School of Psychiatry, the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology in New York City, the Instituto Mexicano de Psicoanálisis in Mexico City, and the International Erich Fromm Society, based in Europe. The editors were two of the major organizers and presenters at the symposium. On the flyleaf, the editors offer their aim: “This book … summarizes Fromm's main contributions to psychoanalysis, assessing their strengths and weaknesses and considering their utility in light of contemporary developments in psychoanalysis and related fields. It shows the vitality and relevance of Fromm's ideas for today's clinical and social problems.” They fulfilled their aim.
The editors give a thorough and thoughtful introduction to their own views and an overview of the thinking in the book in their introduction of over 50 pages. It should not be overlooked. They concentrate on the reasons for the neglect of Fromm, his prophetic and analytic voices, and his major conceptual and clinical contributions to psychoanalysis. I would highlight their assertion that Fromm tried to understand how social norms become internalized as character syndromes. His complicated motivation, in my estimation, was to differentiate pathological from humanistic social norms and internalized character traits and develop ways to alter