Fear of Freedom - A Book Review
Author : Erich Fromm
Publisher : Rouletedge
Fear of Freedom – What caught my eye when I saw the review of this book on my ‘British Council Recommends’ email was indeed the title. We humans live with all kinds of phobias. But do we fear freedom? That intrigued me…and as it normally happens… I then decided to get into the skin of it… and that’s what I did… it took me a while, for no bookstores in Delhi had this book in its stock. But thanks to a very close friend of mine, I got the same as a gift…out of the blue. It was a pleasant surprise, indeed.
Well, Fear of Freedom is a great book and as it always happens with such great books, it takes a hell of a time to finish them…(to get into the depths I mean)…I am still reading it and is yet to finish the book (figuratively)…though I had covered the ‘finis’ twice!
The main topic that is covered in this book is that ‘Man’, being the most ‘Deformed’ creature in the universe and freaky, and is only because of his power of thinking. Self awareness, reason and imagination helps man emerge from the dependent child he was... and as he becomes the Independent Adult... he becomes an anomaly...cut off from nature and urniverse...he is then left with no choice but to define himself with the world with human relationships and creative work or else seek a ‘false’ security with the environment by destroying his freedom and the integrity of the self that he proudly acquired during his formative years. It is a fact that men cannot live without the cooperation of others.
Thus is born his intense need to escape this terrifying sense of helplessness and aloneness that the ‘individuation’ (which he calls as freedom) lands him with. The psycologist that he is, the author is of the view that it’s only through “reason, productiveness and love” that man can solve the problem of this aloneness and achieve a new ‘Union” with the world around him. Because when one becomes the individual, he stands alone and faces the world in all its perilous and overpowering aspects. The only alternative he then has is to either get away this burden into new submissions and dependencies – escape mechanisms – we humans look for when we are confronted with solitude. Detailed chapters are devoted to explain ideas like ‘Oedipus complex, Nazism, and even ‘Narcissistic personality disorder, etc in this context.
The point to ponder over here is the fact that humans are so concerned and so alone that they completely lose themselves in relationships of dependence that take away their freedom. we can see this tendency of the individual to go to the extent that limits their own growth and freedom.
In this book, the author does emphasis that capitalism has been quite disastrous in this regard : far from solving the problem on man’s alienation, it worsens it to a large extent. Capitalism and individualism thrust upon man an unprecedented freedom that was “bound to create a deep feeling of insecurity, powerlessness, aloneness and anxiety”.
Thus, Fromm fills the book with a prognosis of how the idea of freedom has developed since mediveal ages and reformation periods. There are chapters on the "Psychology of Nazism", 'Freedom and Democracy" and "facets of freedom for modern man", most importantly, there is an investigation into how people seek to escape freedom through "authoritarianism", "Destructiveness" and 'Automation Conformity" (escape mechanisms according to the author)
Personally, I could find answers on what is the ‘self’. And how one’s own feelings and thoughts can be subdued and thus make them cease to be part of their ‘self. The psychology of ‘Fascism’, ‘Nazism’, and the inter-relation between freedom and democracy have been analysed in quite a detail, which I didn’t heed much. The analysis of the individual, his emergence from the child, and ultimately the illusions of the adulthood have been dealt with pretty nicely. Somewhere along, to my horror, I found, the conflict between wanting to "break free" and to "belong" is a topic I could easily identify with.
...One is required to fetch and read the book, just for the simple fact that once read, it just helps us to reason as to why some of the aggressive traits exist within us, and in turn helps us control them. what was interesting is that though the book gave me some familir material which i had read before – Games People Play by Eric Berne, and Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal by Ayn Rand – but with a different connotation and transformed into a first rate psycho-analysis. This was achieved because each line in the book bears extraordinary sharpness of observation. You’ll understand what I meant here, only by picking up the book and reading it.
Author : Erich Fromm
Publisher : Rouletedge
Fear of Freedom – What caught my eye when I saw the review of this book on my ‘British Council Recommends’ email was indeed the title. We humans live with all kinds of phobias. But do we fear freedom? That intrigued me…and as it normally happens… I then decided to get into the skin of it… and that’s what I did… it took me a while, for no bookstores in Delhi had this book in its stock. But thanks to a very close friend of mine, I got the same as a gift…out of the blue. It was a pleasant surprise, indeed.
Well, Fear of Freedom is a great book and as it always happens with such great books, it takes a hell of a time to finish them…(to get into the depths I mean)…I am still reading it and is yet to finish the book (figuratively)…though I had covered the ‘finis’ twice!
The main topic that is covered in this book is that ‘Man’, being the most ‘Deformed’ creature in the universe and freaky, and is only because of his power of thinking. Self awareness, reason and imagination helps man emerge from the dependent child he was... and as he becomes the Independent Adult... he becomes an anomaly...cut off from nature and urniverse...he is then left with no choice but to define himself with the world with human relationships and creative work or else seek a ‘false’ security with the environment by destroying his freedom and the integrity of the self that he proudly acquired during his formative years. It is a fact that men cannot live without the cooperation of others.
Thus is born his intense need to escape this terrifying sense of helplessness and aloneness that the ‘individuation’ (which he calls as freedom) lands him with. The psycologist that he is, the author is of the view that it’s only through “reason, productiveness and love” that man can solve the problem of this aloneness and achieve a new ‘Union” with the world around him. Because when one becomes the individual, he stands alone and faces the world in all its perilous and overpowering aspects. The only alternative he then has is to either get away this burden into new submissions and dependencies – escape mechanisms – we humans look for when we are confronted with solitude. Detailed chapters are devoted to explain ideas like ‘Oedipus complex, Nazism, and even ‘Narcissistic personality disorder, etc in this context.
The point to ponder over here is the fact that humans are so concerned and so alone that they completely lose themselves in relationships of dependence that take away their freedom. we can see this tendency of the individual to go to the extent that limits their own growth and freedom.
In this book, the author does emphasis that capitalism has been quite disastrous in this regard : far from solving the problem on man’s alienation, it worsens it to a large extent. Capitalism and individualism thrust upon man an unprecedented freedom that was “bound to create a deep feeling of insecurity, powerlessness, aloneness and anxiety”.
Thus, Fromm fills the book with a prognosis of how the idea of freedom has developed since mediveal ages and reformation periods. There are chapters on the "Psychology of Nazism", 'Freedom and Democracy" and "facets of freedom for modern man", most importantly, there is an investigation into how people seek to escape freedom through "authoritarianism", "Destructiveness" and 'Automation Conformity" (escape mechanisms according to the author)
Personally, I could find answers on what is the ‘self’. And how one’s own feelings and thoughts can be subdued and thus make them cease to be part of their ‘self. The psychology of ‘Fascism’, ‘Nazism’, and the inter-relation between freedom and democracy have been analysed in quite a detail, which I didn’t heed much. The analysis of the individual, his emergence from the child, and ultimately the illusions of the adulthood have been dealt with pretty nicely. Somewhere along, to my horror, I found, the conflict between wanting to "break free" and to "belong" is a topic I could easily identify with.
...One is required to fetch and read the book, just for the simple fact that once read, it just helps us to reason as to why some of the aggressive traits exist within us, and in turn helps us control them. what was interesting is that though the book gave me some familir material which i had read before – Games People Play by Eric Berne, and Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal by Ayn Rand – but with a different connotation and transformed into a first rate psycho-analysis. This was achieved because each line in the book bears extraordinary sharpness of observation. You’ll understand what I meant here, only by picking up the book and reading it.
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