The Sane Society

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What matters is not the object, but the specific quality of love. This love lies in the experiencing of human solidarity with our fellow man as well as in the erotic love between man and woman, in the love of a mother for a child, but also in one's love for himself as a human being, and finally it is found in the mystical experience of unity.

In the act of love I am one with the All, yet at the same time I am myself, a non-reproducible, separate, limited and mortal human being. Because precisely from this polarity between separateness and unity love is born and reborn. Real care for animals is also about preventing dependency, to give the animal the opportunity to function independently and naturally.

In every step towards a new phase in life, whether he makes it himself or is forced into it, man becomes freer and more bound at the same time. Every phase offers possibilities and insecurities, that may turn out positively or negatively. Another aspect of the human situation, closely connected to solidarity, is the situation of man as a creation, together with the necessity of breaking out of precisely this condition of having been purely passively created. Man is thrown into this world without his knowledge, consent or wish, and is also taken out of it without his will or consent.

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In this sense he is no different from animals, plant-life or the inorganic. Man can create life, a wondrous position that he shares with all living beings, be it that he is the only one who is aware of his creation and of being a creator. This way, man - or rather woman - can create life by giving birth to a child and caring for this child until it is sufficiently mature to take care of itself.

People, men as well as women, can create by sowing, making material things, producing art and ideas, and by making love to each other. In the act of creation, man steps beyond himself as a creature and rises above passivity and the coincidence of his existence into the realm of freedom and meaning. In this need to transcend can be found one of the roots not only of love, but of art, religion and material production.

Now this creation presupposes personal activity and care, and also the love for that which is created.

So how could man solve the problem of transcending himself, if he is neither able to create, nor to love? There is another answer to this necessity for transcendence: Because even the destruction of life is a form of transcendence. Indeed, it is no less wondrous that man can destroy life than that he can create it.

After all, life is the great, unfathomable wonder. In the destructive act man sets himself above life, and steps beyond himself as a creature. So man, as far as he is driven to transcend, is left with a choice to create or to destroy, to love or to hate. The enormous power of the desire to destroy which we have felt all through man's history and which we witnessed during our own time, is rooted inside human nature as much as the drive to create.

The saying that man is able to develop his primary capacity to love and reason, does not imply a naive faith in human goodness per se. The essential point in my plea is nevertheless that destructiveness is just the alternative of creativity. Creation and destruction, love and hate, are not two independently existing instincts. Both answer the same need of self-transcendence, and the need to destroy must necessarily arise in man as soon as the need to create is blocked and cannot be satisfied. The difference, however, is that the satisfaction of the need to create leads to happiness, and destruction leads to suffering.

According to Fromm, humanity is at a crossroads. One path leads to the road to freedom, but is coupled with fear. The other path leads to a repetition of history. Man faces the same choices as humankind, every time the society or he himself is freed further. The individual has to answer the same question every time: Do I choose for myself or do I let others - man or animal - participate in my new achievement?

In summarizing chapter 9 Fromm describes the human situation. Some people politicians, industrials may abuse other people's freedom by enticing them to work hard in order to earn a lot of money for buying things objects, trips so they can enjoy this freedom. According to Fromm we are living in a "manager society" leading to From free man he becomes an automaton, treating himself and other - animals as well - as things and keeping others from these achievements.

One characteristic of an automaton is that he can function separately from other people, but also that he is insensitive.

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The difference between him and a man is that an automaton cannot hate. We have to go from separate disjointed individuals to a society that is once again involved. In short, they are people whose reason pines away while their sense increases, and thus create the dangerous situation that man is equipped with the greatest material power possible but without the wisdom to use it. This alienation and automation leads to increasing mental unhealthiness.

Life has no meaning, there is no real happiness, no faith, no reality. Everyone is 'happy', but no-one really feels, has reason and loves. In the nineteenth century the problem was that 'God was dead', in the twentieth century man is dead. In the nineteenth century inhumanity meant cruelty, in the twentieth it meant schizoid self-alienation. Slavery was the danger in the past, but the danger in the future is that man turns into an automaton. And it is all too true that automatons do not revolt.

But in view of human nature these automatons cannot live and be healthy. They will turn into 'golems' and destroy the world and themselves because they can no longer stand the boredom of life without meaning. War and automation are our great perils. Our only remaining alternative is to radically leave the wrong path and set foot on the road to human self-realization. Please enter the message. Please verify that you are not a robot. Would you also like to submit a review for this item?

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Write a review Rate this item: Preview this item Preview this item. The sane society Author: English View all editions and formats Summary: Fromm offers a complete and systematic exploration of his "humanistic psychoanalysis. Allow this favorite library to be seen by others Keep this favorite library private.

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English View all editions and formats.