36 pages • 1 hour read
Escape From Freedom
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Chapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Freedom—A Psychological Problem?”
In Escape from Freedom’s first chapter, psychoanalyst Erich Fromm outlines some of the core ideas from which he will build his exploration into the psychological dimensions of Fascism. In Fromm’s view, American and European modern history is characterized by collective struggles to gain individual liberties. Through these struggles, the tyrannical rule of kings and the church are steadily replaced by democratic institutions which grant each individual citizen the right to freely and peacefully determine how they want to live their lives. These struggles for freedom culminate in World War I, which many individuals, including Fromm, believe to be the final war, heralding an era of peace for mankind.
However, the years following World War I see Fascist movements rise up in Germany and Italy. These Fascist movements are driven by support from the masses, who sought to “surrender their freedom” (19) to authoritarian figures in exchange for a feeling of security. Humankind’s willingness to “escape from [their freedom]” leads Fromm to question whether the desire for freedom is an inherent part of human nature, as well as consider which psychological conditions lead to the rise of Fascism.
Fromm’s analysis of Fascism is part of an academic study called social psychology, which uses psychological concepts to analyze society and social movements. Fromm’s analysis builds off the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud. In his writings, Freud argues that mankind is driven by unconscious base instincts, such as “love and hatred, the lust for power and the yearning for submission” (27). Society exists to repress and rein in these energies. While Fromm agrees with Freud’s idea of unconscious drives, Fromm believes that these drives are largely created by the society in which man lives. However, Fromm also believes that while mankind’s personality may be shaped by social forces, individual human nature also plays an equal role in shaping society.
Fromm closes Chapter 1 by exploring how humans relate to their social surroundings. Fromm argues that humans are not asocial beings, and are driven by an instinctive need to be connected to others so as to avoid feelings of isolation and aloneness. Often, such a sense of connection is created by relating to shared “values, symbols, [and patterns]” (34), such as those representing a nation. According to Fromm, humans have responded to their growing sense of freedom and individuality by seeking two paths of connecting to others: either through “love and productive work” or through Fascism, which gives a sense of “security” while eliminating one’s “freedom and the integrity of [one’s] individual self” (38).
Chapter 2 Summary: “The Emergence of the Individual and the Ambiguity of Freedom”
In Chapter 2, Fromm analyzes the relation between freedom and human individuality. Fromm sees human history as a process of steady “individuation” (40). In early human societies, human beings existed in “a state of oneness with the natural world” (39). As societies have grown and developed into modern society, human beings have slowly grown to think of themselves as individuals, “separate from surrounding nature and [other] men” (40). This understanding of individuality allows human beings their freedom to autonomously determine their own lives.
Fromm argues that the process of individuation undergone by human societies is similar to the process of individuation that each child experiences as they grow into an adult. When human beings are infants, they have no sense of difference between themselves and other human beings, such as their mothers. As infants grow into children, they slowly gain an ability to recognize human beings and material objects “as entities apart from itself” (41) and gain a growing sense of their individuality. During these years, children form “primary ties” (40) with their mother and community, which both offer a sense of security and limit the child’s freedom. As children grow into adults, they let go of these primary ties, becoming free individuals and completing the process of individuation.
Fromm argues that this process of individuation is characterized by two contradicting aspects, known as a “dialectic” (44). As children grow into individuals, their sense of self and personality strengthens. At the same time, however, the individual’s growing sense of freedom leads to the letting go of primary ties to the outside world. This leaves the individual with intense feelings of isolation. In Fromm’s view, adults respond to this sense of lonesomeness in two ways. One method is to submit to outside authorities and relinquish their freedom for a sense of connection. The other method is what Fromm calls “a spontaneous relationship to man and nature” created through “love and productive work” (46), which Fromm believes allows for connection to other human beings while maintaining one’s individuality and freedoms.
Fromm explores how this dialectic of individuation manifests on a biological level for humans. While most animals are driven by instinct, humans are the only animals to live without instinct, instead determining their own ways for adapting themselves to nature. This lack of instinct leads human societies on a path towards self-determination and growing individuation. However, while modern societies may offer human beings a sense of individuality, they can often leave people feeling anxious and disconnected when they fail to provide individuals with methods for spontaneous love and work. Without a proper “basis for the realization of individuality” (52), humans can find their newfound freedoms alienating, leading to the submission to authority that characterizes Fascism.
Chapters 1-2 Analysis
In the first two chapters of Escape from Freedom, Fromm provides readers with an outline of several key concepts that he will explore in further detail in later chapters. In particular, Fromm focuses on explaining in detail the psychological ideas of individuation and freedom which he will later use to analyze the character structures of a variety of societies, including Medieval Europe, Nazi Germany, and modern democracies.
Though Fromm is a psychoanalyst and uses a number of theories that are crucial within psychology, he sees his study as an example of “social psychology”:
[Social psychology’s] task is to show not only how passions, desires, anxieties change and develop as a result of the social process, but also how man’s energies thus shaped into specific forms in their turn become productive forces, molding the social process (28).
As a work of social psychology, Fromm’s Escape from Freedom refuses to treat either the individual or society as separate units of study. Instead, a focus of Escape from Freedom will be to trace how society and human personality develop in tandem with each other, each influencing the other in various ways. Fromm’s analysis also assumes that one cannot understand the workings of society solely on the basis of economic or political factors. Instead, one must consider how the emotions and unconscious of individuals lead to changes in social movements and governments.
In the second chapter, Fromm uses social psychology to analyze how individuation governs both individual human lives and the larger trajectory of history. Fromm thus borrows a number of concepts used to describe psychological individuation in order to analyze larger shifts in modern society. Individuation describes the process by which a child develops into an adult. As children develop and understand themselves as separate from other people, they undergo individuation, gaining both a new sense of freedom and feelings of isolation. Such individuals respond to this sense of aloneness either by fully realizing their personality, or by submitting themselves to other forms of authority and relinquishing their sense of freedom.
A key part of Fromm’s argument is that the same process of individuation that occurs over a person’s life also occurs on the scale of society. Fromm believes that modern society in Europe and America has undergone a process of individuation, resulting in democratic societies that grant citizens a number of freedoms yet leave individuals feeling intensely isolated. Fromm believes that modern society can now develop in two further directions, either as a society that allows individuals the freedom to authentically realize their individual selves, or as an authoritarian society in which individuals give-up their freedoms in the name of a higher power.
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