The Sane Society (1955)

421 Pages·2001·13.44 MB·English

by  Erich Fromm

The Sane Society
`Erich Fromm speaks with wisdom, compassion, learn-
ing and insight into the problems of individuals trapped
in a social world that is needlessly cruel and hostile.'
Noam Chomsky
'Dr Fromm is deeply concerned with the most important
unifying questions that can be asked about contem-
porary western society - is it sane? He criticises very
sharply those social psychologists who act as expert
apologists for the status quo.'
Asa Briggs, The New Statesman
'He has enriched our understanding of man in humanity,
compassion and love.'
The Sunday Times

Erich
Fromm
The Sane Society
With an introduction by David Ingleby
L
os. )g
re
London and New York
• •
(
s s
First published in the United Kingdom 1956
by Routledge & Kegan Paul
Second, enlarged edition published 1991
First published in Routledge Classics 2002
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX144RN
Reprinted 2005, 2006 (twice), 2007, 2008 (twice)
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor az Francis Group,
an informa business
© 1955 Erich Fromm
Introduction © 1991 David Ingleby
Typeset in Joanna by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN10: 0-415-27098-7
ISBN13: 978-0-415-27098-4
And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong
nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plow-
shares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not
lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any
more.
But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig
tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the
Lord of hosts hath spoken it.
MICAH
There exists no more difficult art than living. For other arts
and sciences, numerous teachers are to be found everywhere.
Even young people believe that they have acquired these in
such a way, that they can teach them to others: throughout
the whole of life, one must continue to learn to live and, what
will amaze you even more, throughout life one must learn to
die.
SENECA
This world and yonder world are incessantly giving birth:
every cause is a mother, its effect the child.
When the effect is born, it too becomes a cause and gives
birth to wondrous effects.
These causes are generation on generation, but it needs a
very well lighted eye to see the links in their chain.
Rum!
Things are in the saddle and ride mankind.
Em ERSON
The human race had the wisdom to create science and art;
why should it not be capable to create a world of justice,
brotherliness and peace? The human race has produced
Plato, Homer, Shakespeare, and Hugo, Michelangelo and
Beethoven, Pascal and Newton, all these human heroes
whose genius is only the contact with the fundamental truths,
with the innermost essence of the universe. Why then should
the same race not produce those leaders capable of leading it
to those forms of communal life which are closest to the lives
and the harmony of the universe?
LEON BLUM

CONTENTS
FOREWORD X
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS XiV
INTRODUCTION BY DAVID INGLEBY XVi
A Biographical Sketch xx
The Argument of the Sane Society xxiv
Critical Commentary On Fromm's Argument xxxviii
The Significance Of Fromm's Work Today I

1 Are We Sane?
3
2 Can a Society be Sick?—The Pathology of

Normalcy 12
3 The Human Situation—the Key to
Humanistic Psychoanalysis 21
The Human Situation 21
Man's Needs—as They Stem From the
Conditions of His Existence 26
A. Relatedness vs. Narcissism 28
Vill CONTENTS
B. Transcendence—Creativeness vs.
Destructiveness 35
C. Rootedness—Brotherliness vs. Incest 37
D. Sense of Identity—Individuality vs. Herd
Conformity 59
E. The Need for a Frame of Orientation and
Devotion—Reason vs. Irrationality 61
4 Mental Health And Society 65
5 Man In Capitalistic Society 76
The Social Character 76
The Structure of Capitalism and the Character
of Man 8i
A. Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century
Capitalism 8i
B. Nineteenth-Century Capitalism 83
C. Twentieth-Century Society loo
1. Social and Economic Changes loo
2. Characterological Changes 107
a. Quantification, Abstractification io7
b. Alienation 117
c. Various Other Aspects 147
i. Anonymous Authority—
Conformity 148
ii. The Principle of
Nonfrustration 159
iii. Free Association and Free Talk 162
iv. Reason, Conscience, Religion 164
v. Work 172
vi. Democracy 178
3. Alienation and Mental Health 185
CONTENTS iX
6 Various Other Diagnoses 202
Nineteenth Century 202
Twentieth Century 210
7 Various Answers 226
Authoritarian Idolatry 230
Super-Capitalism 233
Socialism 239
8 Roads to Sanity 263
General Considerations 263
Economic Transformation 269
A. Socialism as a Problem 269
B. The Principle of Communitarian Socialism 275
C. Socio-psychological Objections 279
D. Interest and Participation as Motivation 292
E. Practical Suggestions 314
Political Transformation 331
Cultural Transformation 335
9 Summary—Conclusion 345

INDEX 357