Erich Fromm’s career as a psychotherapist, academician, author of influential studies on individual and social psychology, peace activist and proponent of humanist socialism spanned five decades and two continents. With his popular writings Fromm reached out to millions of readers and probably touched more minds than any other sociologist or psychologist in the postwar years. Not only did he bring a bright awareness of the human condition to his readership, he fostered the notion of constructive dissent at a time when conformism overtook the West and dissent was stifled in the post-Stalinist East. Dissent was the propelling force in Fromm’s own thought: he distrusted orthodoxy in every incarnation as much as all intellectual and ideological “systems”. Much of his work is dedicated…
2288 words
Citation: Knapp, Gerhard P.. "Erich Fromm". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 November 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1643, accessed 21 November 2024.]
