To Have or to Be?

Fromme's classic continues to inform the intellectual community, as well as some (admittedly few) policy makers. In this he continues to develop what he terms "radical-humanistic psychoanalysis," working through the concepts of selfishness and altruism, applying these to the crisis of contemporary society and possibilities for solutions. He covers the great promises for modern societies and the reasons why those promised failed, the importance of the difference between having and being, having and being in daily experience, including exercising authority, having and being in the Old and New testaments and in the writings of Master Eckhart, the natures of the having mode and the being mode, and the new man in the new society in terms of religion, character, conditions for human change, and a new science. Annotation c2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Born in Frankfurt-am-Main, Erich Fromm (1900-1980) studied sociology and psychoanalysis. In 1933, he emigrated as a member of the Frankfurt School of social thinkers to the United States, moved to Mexico in 1950, and spent his twilight years between 1974 and 1980 in Switzerland. His books Fear of Freedom (1941) and The Art of Loving (1956) made him famous. Other well-known books are Marx's Concept of Man, Beyond the Chains of Illusion, and The Essential Fromm.