The Social Determinants of Psychoanalytic Therapy: Fromm’s Anti-Authoritarian “Calling Card”

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines Fromm’s 1935 paper, “The Social Determinants of Psychoanalytic Therapy,” situating it in the context of Fromm’s life and setting forth its contrast between Freud’s “authoritarian, patricentric attitude” and the “humane, philanthropic attitude” of Ferenczi, who was deeply influenced by Groddeck. Despite critiquing Fromm’s tendency to give insufficient attention to the “the individual fate of the person,” such as would be necessary to explain the differences between Freud and Ferenczi, in expounding his concept of the “social character,” the present paper argues that Fromm’s “calling card,” published while Freud was still alive, is “one of the greatest papers in the psychoanalytic literature.”