Customer Reviews

The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness

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I encountered this book in 1988 or so, and it changed my life. It is I think Fromms best and most important book. This is the book that first let me know that the violence of the dominant culture is not biological in its origin.

The book is centered around the question, obviously, of why humans commit atrocities. Fromm begins this book by exploring many of the theories, such as the notion that we are biologically overdetermined to be so violent. But he conclusively shows that cannot be the case. He then gives examples of nonviolent cultures, and explores why these cultures are the way they are. He then concludes with a powerful and detailed exploration of Hitler, showing how Hitler manifests the essence of this awful civilization that is killing the planet. A powerful book that helped form the foundations of my thinking.

The photo of Hitler unable to pull his eyes away from adecaying corpse is alone worth the price of admission. As this was aBook of the Month Club "featured selection" about 25 years ago, Pr. Fromm explores the dark side of humanity, from ego-centrism, to our twisted love of death. Hurtful at times, addressing basal issues most of us would rather deny, this is a truly life-changing volume. Fromm discusses our vanity and obsessions so objectively, we can actually wade through it without getting mad. A Freudian Delight!

Whichever path through this masterpiece you take, you will need to keep reminding yourself that you entered the land of the brave and you need to go through things that may be too recognizable to accept without resistance. But when you do, it will make you a better person. Then, you may need to be brave enough to forget the part of what you read if you start recognizing too many rationalizations in your everyday walk and talk of life.

This work has amazing composition that allows you to read it in different ways. You can skip the whole Part I, if you don't have time and you know that Fromm knows what is he attacking and why, and you can skip big case studies, if you don't have time and don't particularly care for the brains of Stalin and Hitler :-). And still you will get the whole and earth-shattering definition of the human nature and how and why a human can get hurt so easily and can hurt others so easily.

Or, you can start with big case studies, if that is what motivates you to read, and in order to read through them you will have to read the rest, probably with your own pattern of chapters.

Or, you can start from the page one, to see how deeply wrong currently popular behavioral theory is and take it from there in a linear fashion.

Fromm's volume "The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness" is the most complete and thorough research on the topic of aggression. It validates the theory that malignant aggression or destructiveness is part of human character, one of the passions we possess like love, ambition, and greed. His book takes the reader on a phenomenal journey that enlightens the mind and unearths the deepest passion in the human heart. Fromm explores with surgical precision the various types of human aggression and the history behind it. His fabulous research is unequivocally the most prolific and exhaustive on this topic. This text is a must read. It will help you discover and understand yourself as well as the world that you live in.

If your questioning the sanity of this culture this book is a must read. I've seen this book recommended on Derrick Jensen's book list. Who probably is the best cultural critic I have read.

In my mind this book has put to rest the myth that the destruction and violence done by civilized man is instinctual. It takes a culture like ours to condition us into hating ourselves and the rest of life around us.

Fromm explores non-violent cultures to show us that humans havn't always been so hell bent on destruction and death. That there actually was life affirmative cultures. Fromm's final final chapter has really stuck with me. One of his suggestions for our survival is that the biophiliacs(life loving)people have to have their voices heard and object to the sadistic tendancies of this culture. A must read for anybody who is trying to imagine a better way.

Erich Fromm is considered by most to be the social science thinker that brought critical theory to America. His insights of using both psychology (neo-Freudian) and sociology are timely, especially today when trying to understanding terrorism's mindset of suicide bombing. Though some of the language is dated, nonetheless, his writing style is simple and concise. Because of this, many considered him just a "popular culture" author rather than an actual theorist.

A great work to read. I often use it for research papers and reports. Highly recommended.

...and this is one of the few books that has anything to meaningful to say about antisocial and destructive behavior.

Many books are reviewed and proclaimed to be profound, this is one of them that lives up to the claim. Do yourself a favor and get a copy. While it can be unnecessarily chewy and pedantic in parts, the content far overshadows some sluggishness and dry passages.

5 Stars.

This is a fascinating book. This book and THE TIPPING POINT seem to present firm evidence that humans have become "civilized" away from the environment we are emotionally wired for. We are emotionally wired to deal with small groups (THE TIPPING POINT stresses 150 as the maximum number a group should be), and to have no one have a lot more materially than the rest of us. Envy, violence, etc., did not/do not exist in small hunter/gatherer groups. We are economically and population-wise at the point of no return. It's a shame. But there was a time when humans were not violent, etc., in human history. Before "civilization." Machiavelli in THE PRINCE says that, "War is the normal state, peace the abnormal state." It's the normal state in an abnormal world. It's a shame we can't return to the world we were wired for. The only thing I'm truely grateful for in modern-society is anesthesia. I'd hate to live without that. But every thing else I could do without, if it also meant doing without genocide and murder and rape etc. A brilliant--I would say necessary--book.

Erich Fromms' book is one of the most fascinating and orginal Ive read on this subject matter. A staple for most 4th year Psychology majors, mankind might understand one another if it were required reading for everyone. It delves into the complexity of the human mind as result of our biology and nature when usually society,familial upbringing, and status backgroud are more often brought into focus. What Fromm uncovers is the unfortunate innate instinct of many toward cruel, destructive and extremely aggressive behavior and a lack of satisfaction among many. Thoughts from Freud,Skinner,G.Simpson,S Washburn,Darwin.
One of the many intriguing theories is the cybernetic man-his lonely routine, stereo-typed, and unspontaneous day after day, after day,the same worries,dissatifaction and depression is found in many schizophrenic patients...

This book shifted my way of thinking about humanity as a whole. I remember in college one of the first presentations I went to was entitled "Nature v Nurture" and it wasn't news to me that both setting and genetic predisposition play a role in forming the individual. What is news to me is what is mentioned in this book: that people are not these machines that react according to setting and genes. They also have will. They have the power of conscious thought and reason. Hence we should be talking about "Nature/Nurture/Will".

The book is a pleasure to read from beginning to end and there are many surprises along the way. Fromm talks about famous psychology studies in the Behaviorist School of thought (mainly Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment and the Yale Compliance Study by Milgram) and convincingly argues that the findings from these studies are manipulated to produce a desired outcome (humans can be made into savages with the right stimuli - Prison Experiment) or that they show a hopeful outlook on humanity (the people shocking the patients irrationally went mad). I would share more parts of the book but you should really buy this or check it out at your local library. It's a work of art.