The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness

Fromm immediately endeared himself to me with this epigraph: "When I look at history I am a pessimist... but when I look at prehistory I am an optimist." (Incidentally, this was taken out of context. The writer, JC Smuts, actually only likes prehistory because he believes it shows how far we've come. Quite contrary to the point Fromm is making.)

The first and shortest part of the book is dedicated to a discussion of psychological theory (Instinctivism vs. Behaviorism), and, not being a psychologist, I honestly have forgotten how exactly Fromm comes down on these issues. In the second part, my favorite, Fromm discusses human psychology and society in an evolutionary context. Here, he is trying to systematically debunk the notion that show more human aggression, most clearly demonstrated in Nazi Germany, is biologically innate or culturally inevitable. Toward the end of this part, in an "analysis of thirty primitive tribes," Fromm classifies each as one of three types: "Life-Affirmative Societies," "Nondestructive-Aggressive Societies," and "Destructive Societies."

In the third part, occupying over half the pages, Fromm identifies two main character traits that lead to "malignant aggression": sadism (the Destructive Character, demonstrated by the cases of Joseph Stalin and Heinrich Himmler) and necrophilia (the Necrophilous Character). The latter is broadened far beyond the usual sexual connotation and seems to be Fromm's most significant innovation. The final chapter is an analysis of "Adolf Hitler, A Clinical Case of Necrophilia."

The underlying theme, which I find most significant, is that Nazi Germany is not so much an historical aberration as an extreme case, and the only solution to this malignant aggression is to change the social conditions which precipitate the development of the character types which cause it. show less

I got this book for 3.5 $ one day as I was walking on the street, and a guy was selling those on the sidewalk. The book called out after me, the title was very attractive, but I never thought it would be such an amazing read! That was back in 2010, I believe. I used this book as a reference for many papers that I wrote, it made me love psychology even more. I shall reread it again this year.

150 FRO 4

9/6/22

Az agresszivitás, a pusztításhajlam, a rombolás vágya ősidőktől fogva sajátja az emberi természetnek - legalábbis így tartja a közhiedelem. Korunk egyik legjelentősebb pszichológusa, e világsikert aratott, számos nyelvre lefordított tudományos alapmű szerzője azonban vitába száll ezzel az önfelmentő vélekedéssel, és elképesztő ismeretanyag felhasználásával, elmés és lenyűgözően logikus érveléssel bizonyítja, hogy a fenti tulajdonságok a modern idők „vívmányai”, a mai ember kevéssé rokonszenves személyiségjegyei.Ahogyan nem ismerünk szadista állatokat sem, a korai ember agresszivitása is csak a védekezést, a túlélést szolgálta, nem volt öncélú, a gyökerei a biológiai show more adottságokig nyúltak vissza, és nem az elme, a tudattalan sötétjéből eredeztettek. show less