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Escape from Freedom (Paperback)

~ Erich Fromm (Author) "Modern European and American history is centered around the effort to gain freedom from the political, economic, and spiritual shackles that have bound men..." (more)
Key Phrases: masochistic strivings, whole character structure, magic helper, Middle Ages, New York, Catholic Church (more...)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
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Customers buy this book with Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party by Max Blumenthal

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Editorial Reviews

Review

An analysis par excellence of our cultural neurosis. -The Nation

"An important and challenging work. "-The New York Herald Tribune

"Fromm's thought merits the critical attention of all concerned with the human condition and its future. "-The Washington Post
-- Review


Review

An analysis par excellence of our cultural neurosis. -The Nation

"An important and challenging work. "-The New York Herald Tribune

"Fromm's thought merits the critical attention of all concerned with the human condition and its future. "-The Washington Post
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

More About the Author

Eric Fromm
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Eric Fromm Page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Modern European and American history is centered around the effort to gain freedom from the political, economic, and spiritual shackles that have bound men. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
masochistic strivings, whole character structure, magic helper, growing individuation, individual insignificance, masochistic perversion, new religious doctrines, masochistic trends, rising capitalism, sadistic person, authoritarian character, primary ties, monopolistic capitalism, independent businessman, pseudo self
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Middle Ages, New York, Catholic Church, Mein Kampf, Jacob Burckhardt, National Socialism
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Customer Reviews

40 Reviews
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4.4 out of 5 stars (40 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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49 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Post WW II philosophy still has something to say, September 10, 2001
By Nancy Moran (Baltimore, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews
I believe the essence of "Escape from Freedom" can be found first in the chapter, "Mechanisms of Escape":

"The person who gives up his individual self and becomes an automaton, identical with millions of other automatons around him, need not feel alone and anxious any more. But the price he pays, however, is high; it is the loss of his self."

And second, under the chapter, "Freedom and Democracy":

"This loss of identity then makes it still more imperative to conform, it means that one can be sure of oneself only if one lives up to the expectations of others. If we do not live up to this picture, we not only risk disapproval and increased isolation, but we risk losing the identity of our personality, which means jeopardizing sanity."

"... We must replace manipulation of men by active and intelligent co-operation, and expand the principle of government of the people, by the people, for the people, from the formal political to the economic sphere."

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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars May change the way you look at the world!, August 2, 2002
By A Customer
This book offers insight into many everyday issues: thinking, feeling, wanting, character, individualism, politics, most of all freedom - the list goes on. You will learn what it means to have a false self including: pseudo-thinking, pseudo-feeling, pseudo-willing, etc. For example, when you have a "thought" how do you know it is yours? When you want something, how do you know it is you who "wants" it?

This book also explains the rise of Nazism from a psychological and historical perspective, making it actually seem understandable.

Fromm starts the book by talking about our experience as children from the womb to breaking away and moving into the world. The problem he describes is that people on the whole do not want to be free and want to cling to ideas that make them feel as if they were back in the womb.

This book talks much about socialization and in my opinion parallels "The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge" by Peter L. Berger, Thomas Luckmann, which I believe to be one the best books ever written.

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29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Definite Piece of the Puzzle - A Book To Be Read, October 6, 2003
By R. Schwartz (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
.
An amazing book that pieces modern society starting from the medieval to the renaissance and reformation, that is, from a well defined structured and fixed group identity, fixed meaning to life, determined purpose to life and the here after, to that of the existential, capitalistic and monopolist society that has produced radical individualism with the type of freedom producing severe loneliness, separation and the need to alleviate such emptiness, which has been fulfilled by illusionary means.

Fromm relates a major piece of Western civilization's struggle in the ability to see the correlation between the medieval, secure, self-employed society to that of the Renaissance, an elite aristocracy employing the masses as dependent employees, commodities under a new capitalistic society. It was here only the limited rich could prosper in creativity, while the masses existed in a new existential despair. And so Luther, and later Calvin, devised new forms of Christianity, existential types, to aid these new psychological needs of the masses in accepting this change from security to exploitation.

Fromm goes both into the psyche of man, the nature of societal structure, the development of western civilization and need for security and certainty to that of either authoritarian rule, internal conscious rule or the invisible rule of democratic conformity to public opinion, or automation.

Basic Masochistic/Sadistic desires of man from the extreme, to what is considered "normal" has been seen in the forfeit of the individual self into totalitarian control, capitalistic profit and religious and social concepts that attempt to fill the void of separateness without keeping the self.

Fromm ends his book in what the positive traits of what Faust would be: that of spontaneous living, not compulsive living, but in positive affirmation and movement, in the process of life, not the results, the experience of the activity of the present moment. I couldn't agree more.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Societal "Bad Faith" as a route to Freedom?
Writing this book in 1941, Fromm, already by then, had become an extraordinary post-Freudian, post-Modern Existentialist Psychologist. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Herbert L Calhoun

5.0 out of 5 stars Freedom and responsibility
This book provides an alternative perspective on the varying philosophies that make up the collective human experience. Read more
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4.0 out of 5 stars Knowing Ourselves
Escape From Freedom is the perfect title for a book that is as applicable today as it was when it was published in 1941.
Mr. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Robin A. Adler

4.0 out of 5 stars A Damning Treatise On The Dangers Of Socialism And Group Think
It takes a village took Nazi Germany to the brink of extiction and exterminated millions.
Quake when you hear people push the socialist agenda.
Published 4 months ago by EAJ

5.0 out of 5 stars A different approach on freedom
Is freedom always positive? Is it the same for every human being? According to Fromm, the society in which we live in leaves men in their own more than ever before in history... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Diego Zlotogora

3.0 out of 5 stars Avoid becoming a mass-minded "automaton"
People have a desperate need to avoid aloneness - and in order to feel like being a part of a bigger group, they usually end up taking the psychological values of their... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Jyriii

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Fromm
I purchased this book for a class. It is a fabulous book and it was in good shape.
Published 11 months ago by M. Skinner

5.0 out of 5 stars Escape from freedom
When I first read it I was enlightened. To me most people want freedom, but are afraid of the results of their actions. Read more
Published 12 months ago by J. A. Dolan

3.0 out of 5 stars A provocative dead end
This book, initially published in 1941, provides an invaluable framework for understanding the rise of Fascism in the 1930s. Read more
Published 12 months ago by William Whipple III

4.0 out of 5 stars Attention All Women Who's Man Won't Commit
To all ladies involved with men who won't commit:

Erich Fromm's Escape From Freedom provides a revealing look into the mind of your man, especially if he has trouble... Read more
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