A Comparison of Freud and Fromm

A detailed Summary of A Comparison of Freud and Fromm

Sigmund Freud was born in Monrovia on May 6,1856. He entered the University of Vienna in 1873 at the age of 17. He finished his degree in 1881. Freud died in England in 1939. He was an active therapist, theorist and writer to the very end. ( Ewen 19-20)

Erich Fromm was born four years after Freud in 1900 in Frankfurt, Germany. Unlike Freud, Fromm had no medical training in his background. He received his PHD from the University of Heidelberg and later studied at Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute. Erich Fromm died March 16, 1980 in Switzerland. (Ewen 187)

While Freud and Fromm were contemporaries and shared some basic beliefs, their approach to most issues varied greatly. Freud's attitude was purely scientific. Fromm desired to humanize things.

Fromm accepted the importance of unconscious, biological drives, repression and defense mechanisms, but rejected Freud's theory of id, ego and superego. Fromm did not believe in specific developmental stages. "He believed that the growing child slowly learns to distinguish between "I and not I", through contact with the environment, notably those involving the parents."(Ewen 194) Fromm contends that personality d

Another subject that Fromm and Freud had different opinions on was religion. Fromm has been described as deeply religious, but still not believing in God. His childhood included a strong Jewish influence, but he rejected it because he wanted no part of organized religion. The most important aspect of religion for Fromm personally was the hope it offered. "He praised "loving thy neighbor as thyself" as the most important standard for living."( Ewen 202) Fromm did contend that religion could have harmful effects. He felt religious organizations prohibition of birth control, could stifle healthy growth and development. He did not like the idea of so many different religions preaching different beliefs. He preferred to emphasize the commonness of all humanity.

evelopment continues into adulthood. He believes that if a child keeps up with the increasing feelings of isolation, that anxiety can be kept to a minimal and personality development proceeds normally. Freud's well-known theory is that the personality is determined during the first five years of life. He believes we proceed through a series of psychosexual stages: oral, anal, urethral, phallic, a latency period and genital. Freud contends that the genital stage is the goal of normal development and that it represents true maturity. ( Hansen 25-26)

Fromm proposed a broader concept of transference. He believed the analyst represents infantile authority, like the mother who solves all of her child's problems or the father who is never satisfied with his son's accomplishments. Instead of facing reality independently the patient continues to transfer interpersonal struggles and wishes. Fromm's approach tended to strengthen this type of transference and with it the patient's resistance to remembering.

Freud's approach to technique could be more democratic than Fromm's, especially since Freud did not try to force fit the patient into a formula. Freud did advocate rules in the doctor-patient relationship, in part to protect himself. Freud did not like to be stared at all day; thus the pa

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Category: Science