Erich Fromm — Quote from Escape from Freedom
“Modern man, freed from the bonds of pre-individualistic society, which simultaneously gave him security and limited him, has not gained freedom in the positive sense of the realization of his individual self.”
Escape from Freedom (1941)
Concepts: freedom, escape, alienation
Resonant Quotes
- “Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is respon...” — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness Sartre's condemnation to freedom and Fromm's negative freedom describe the same terrifying discovery: freedom without...
- “Nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than f...” — Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky's claim that nothing is more insupportable than freedom and Fromm's flight from freedom describe identical...
- “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free tha...” — Albert Camus, The Rebel Camus demands absolute freedom as rebellion while Fromm shows modern man has freedom thrust upon him and flees — the ...
- “What makes loneliness so unbearable is the loss of one's own self which can b...” — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism Fromm's negative freedom without selfhood and Arendt's loneliness as loss of self describe the same modern condition ...
- “A man without hope and conscious of being so has ceased to belong to the future.” — Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus Both diagnose modernity's spiritual crisis where liberation from traditional structures leaves individuals existentia...
- “A comfortable, smooth, reasonable, democratic unfreedom prevails in advanced ...” — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man Both Frankfurt School theorists diagnose how apparent liberation from traditional constraints has paradoxically creat...
- “Anxiety is not something we have but something we are. It is our state of bei...” — Rollo May, The Meaning of Anxiety Both diagnose modern anxiety as stemming from the loss of traditional structures—Fromm sees pseudo-freedom creating i...
- “Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment Dostoevsky's fear of the new step and Fromm's flight from freedom describe the same paralysis — the terror of possibi...