The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness

erich fromm

In this provocative book, the distinguished author writes to break the deadlock in the struggle between the instinctivism of Konrad Lorenz and behavior psychologist B.F. Skinner.

Genres psychologyphilosophynonfictionsociologysciencepsychoanalysispoliticshistorytheorysocial science

576 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1973

Literary awards

national book award finalist,

This edition

Format: 576 pages, Paperback
Published: February 15, 1992 by Holt Paperbacks
ISBN: 9780805016048
ASIN: 080501604X
Language: English

About the author

Erich Fromm, Ph.D. (Sociology, University of Heidelberg, 1922) was a German-American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was a German Jew who fled the Nazi regime and settled in the United States. He was one of the founders of The William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis and Psychology in New York City and was associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory.

Fromm explored the interaction between psychology and society, and held various professorships in psychology in the U.S. and Mexico in the mid-20th century.

Fromm's theory is a rather unique blend of Freud and Marx. Freud, of course, emphasized the unconscious, biological drives, repression, and so on. In other words, Freud postulated that our characters were determined by biology. Marx, on the other hand, saw people as determined by their society, and most especially by their economic systems.