Rainer Funk, Erich Fromm’s last scientific collaborator and administrator of his literary estate, answers a total of 100 questions posed by Hamid Lechhab. The conversation introduces the wide spectrum of Erich Fromm’s scientific and humanistic thought in order to make his findings meaningful to the present. The focus is on the social psychology developed by Fromm, with which it is possible to explain how technical, economic, and social changes affect the mental striving of human beings and lead either to more freedom and self-determination or to more dependence and being determined by others.
A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year Erich Fromm (1900-1980) is known to most readers as the author of the international bestseller The Art of Loving (1956). What may be less widely known is that Fromm was a social psychoanalyst whose psychoanalytic theories, developed around a humanistic concept of man and society, have had a profound impact on many fields and disciplines: on social life and societal organization, on politics, on religion, on psychotherapy and, last but not least, on the practice of mindfulness. Rainer Funk was Erich Fromm's last assistant. He wrote his dissertation about Fromm, was designated by Fromm's last will to be his sole literary executor, and is the editor of Fromm's writings. From his very intimate knowledge of Fromm's life and ideas, and his access to an archive that includes 6,000 letters, Funk introduces Fromm's central concepts and examines them in relation to Fromm's lived experiences and to his idea that life itself is an art. The question of "the art of living" runs through all of the chapters, from the Introduction, in which Funk describes meeting Fromm for the first time in 1972, to the last chapter, in which Funk reflects on the impact of Fromm's social-psychoanalytic writings and his efforts to live well.
Erich Fromms Sozialpsychologie und sein Konzept des Sozialcharakters bilden das Herzstück seines wissenschaftlichen Erbes. Sein Ansatz verdeutlicht, wie wirtschaftliche und gesellschaftliche Anforderungen in psychischen Strebungen zum Ausdruck kommen, die das Denken, Fühlen und Handeln der Menschen prägen. Die Beiträge in diesem Buch beleuchten den aktuellen Forschungsstand zu Fromm und bieten einen Überblick über die weltweite Entwicklung seines Denkens in den Human- und Sozialwissenschaften. Ein programmatischer Beitrag Fromms zu einer „Humanistischen Wissenschaft vom Menschen“ leitet die Sammlung ein.
Das Buch dokumentiert die internationale Rezeption von Fromms Ideen und bietet eine kritische Neubewertung seiner Arbeit, die in seiner Philosophie der Wissenschaft verwurzelt ist und die zeitlich begrenzte Natur aller theoretischen Systeme betont. Es beginnt mit der Wiederveröffentlichung eines Essays von 1957, der die humanistische Wissenschaft des Menschen behandelt. Die meisten Beiträge stammen von der ersten Internationalen Erich Fromm Forschungs-Konferenz in Berlin (Juni 2014).
Das Werk thematisiert Fromms anhaltende Relevanz und setzt sich direkt und kritisch mit seinem theoretischen System auseinander, insbesondere seiner Theorie des Sozialcharakters. Es eröffnet neue Forschungsansätze in Neurowissenschaften, Evolutionspsychologie, Soziologie, Philosophie, Religionswissenschaft und radikaler humanistischer Publizis
Discusses the influences of Erich Fromm, examines his conception of the nature of man, and analyzes his views of social psychology, philosophy, ethics, and religion
