Escape From Freedom

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1941

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-4

Chapters 5-6

Chapter 7-Appendix

Key Figures

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Chapters 5-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 5 Summary: “Mechanisms of Escape”

Fromm shifts in Chapter 5 to discuss various concepts in individual psychology, pertaining to mechanisms that offer individuals an escape from intense feelings of isolation. Although Fromm is discussing behaviors that arise on an individual scale, he feels that these escape mechanisms can be found within society-at-large. Fromm’s psychological analysis is based upon the assumption that human beings are often driven to act by “unconscious forces” (157) that they are unaware of.

Fromm opens the chapter by describing two types of “tendencies” which arise in many individuals: masochistic and sadistic tendencies (164). In Fromm’s view, both masochism and sadism arise as a response to intense feelings of lonesomeness. Masochistic individuals emphasize their feelings of utter worthlessness and seek to completely submit themselves to an outside authority. In doing so, they “get rid of the individual self […] [and] the burden of freedom” (173). In contrast, sadistic individuals seek to dominate over weaker people, which provides them with a sense of “ownership” (168) over another human being. Sadism and masochism are typically associated with sexuality. However, Fromm believes that both tendencies are general personality types that only occasionally manifest as sexual fetishes.

While masochism and sadism seem to contradict each other, Fromm argues that they are both closely connected as means of achieving what he calls symbiosis:

Symbiosis, in this psychological sense, means the union of one individual self with another self (or any other power outside of the own self) in such a way as to make each lose the integrity of its own self and to make them completely dependent on each other (180).

By collapsing the boundaries between individual selves, symbiosis offers sado-masochistic individuals a means of coping with their intense feelings of isolation. Fromm argues that symbiosis will never allow these individuals to fully escape their isolation, as it does not resolve the deeper conflicts of doubt and frustration from which the feelings of isolation arise. Fromm deems sado-masochistic personalities as the “authoritarian character” (186). Authoritarian individuals constantly seek to devote themselves to forces outside of themselves, such as “God, the past, nature, or duty,” which in turn leads to authoritarian societies such as the Nazis (194).

Fromm also describes what he calls “automaton conformity” (208), which he believes is prevalent in modern democratic societies. Such conformity manifests when people act according to how they believe society expects them to. Such people often do not realize that they are behaving according to societal expectations, incorrectly assuming that their thoughts or desires are solely theirs. Fromm uses a psychoanalytic case study to show how a person may substitute another person’s thinking for one’s own. In the example, Fromm discusses a student training to be a doctor. Though he believes he desires to become a doctor, after undergoing psychoanalysis, the man realizes that he is only conforming to his father’s expectations of himself, and that he does not actually want to become a doctor. Fromm argues that in cases such as this, the man has substituted “real” thinking with “pseudo” (229) thinking, mistaking outside beliefs for his own authentic wants. Such substitution eventually leads people to repress their own individual desires and develop a “pseudo self,” leaving them “in an intense state of insecurity” (230).

Chapter 6 Summary: “Psychology of Nazism”

Fromm builds upon his discussion of the authoritarian character in the prior chapter, analyzing how it specifically manifests in Nazi Germany. Fromm argues that to understand the rise of Nazism, one must consider it as both an “economic and political phenomenon” and as a “psychology problem” (231). Nazism, led by Hitler, made use of the authoritarian character prevalent within German society to fulfill goals of political power and domination.

The Nazi party was largely supported by Germany’s lower middle class. During the 1920s, the lower middle class was plagued by feelings of insignificance and anxiety, stemming from the fall of the Germany monarchy in 1918, Germany’s defeat in World War I, and economic stagnation. Members of the middle class responded to this perceived powerlessness by supporting Nazi ideology, which promised to regain Germany’s lost power.

Fromm analyzes a variety of Nazi writings, particularly Adolf Hitler’s autobiography Mein Kampf, to argue that Nazism is emblematic of the sado-masochistic tendencies found within the authoritarian personality. In Mein Kampf, Hitler frequently evinces an intense “craving for power” (246) typical of sadism. Hitler describes his hatred for those perceived as weak and submissive and his adoration of powerful groups. He argues that the masses must submit to a powerful strongman such as himself, justifying that his desire to dominate over Germany is for its own good. Hitler manipulates Darwin’s concept of “survival of the fittest” for justification of his fascist ideologies, arguing that man has a natural “instinct of self-preservation [that] leads to the fight of the stronger for the domination of the weaker” (252).

Nazi ideology also espoused the importance of submitting to outside forces, exemplifying the masochistic side of the authoritarian personality. Hitler frequently argued that the German masses must relinquish their individual desires and seek to serve the general good of the community. According to Fromm, Nazism preached to the masses that “the individual should accept this personal insignificance, dissolve himself in a higher power, and then feel proud in participating in the strength and glory of this higher power” (258).

Hitler similarly described himself masochistically while he sought domination over the masses. Hitler viewed himself as submitting himself to an outside authority. However, the power Hitler sacrificed himself to is “God, Fate, Necessity, History, Nature” (260). Nazism thus created a “hierarchy […] in which everyone has somebody above him to submit to and somebody beneath him to feel power over” (262).

Chapters 5-6 Analysis

In these two chapters, Fromm focuses on how an individual character structure can lead to large-scale social shifts. Specifically focusing on the example of Nazi Germany, Fromm explores how the individual and society each shape each other, leading to a situation in which Hitler was able to manipulate a population’s feelings of anxiety and isolation to create an authoritarian society.

Fromm begins his argument by exploring how capitalism, combined with a cluster of political crises, made the German middle class amenable to Hitler’s racist and authoritarian ideology. In Fromm’s view, capitalism produced a character structure in the 1920s marked by “[the middle class’] love of the strong, hatred of the weak, their pettiness, hostility, thriftiness with feelings as well as with money, and essentially their ascetism” (236). Such a set of personality traits echo Fromm’s description of a sado-masochistic character, which is defined by an adoration for the powerful and a tendency for self-humiliation. In the 1920s, a series of economic recessions left the German middle class feeling increasingly frustrated and powerless: “[I]f the savings of many years […] could be lost through no fault of one’s own, what was the point in saving anyway?” (239). The lack of financial security created a growing frustration in the German middle class. However, instead of focusing on bettering their social situation, they projected their frustration onto Germany’s perceived international weakness, following the “national defeat” of World War I (241).

While Fromm argues that the middle class’ growing anxiety and frustration formed the “psychological conditions” for Nazism’s ascendance, he is careful to note that one cannot say that such conditions were the “cause of Nazism” (242). Such feelings of insignificance do not inevitably result in authoritarianism. Nazism was able to grow due to the fact that Hitler manipulated the middle class’ psychological condition for his own political ambitions. Recognizing the general economic unhappiness of the German masses, Hitler preached a “philosophy of self-denial and sacrifice […] exploit[ing] the very poverty of the masses in order to make them believe in his evangelism of self-annihilation” (259). In Fromm’s view, one cannot understand Nazism as solely occurring due to either psychological or economic reasons. Instead, individual psychology and economy play a part in shaping the other, eventually resulting in large-scale shifts in a nation’s social structure.