Study On Humanist Alienation Theory Of Fromm

Erich Fromm (1900—1980), who emigrated from Germany to the United States, was afamous psychologist, philosopher, sociologist, Marxist and a representative figure ofFrankfurt school.Based on the view of historical theory and concept, Fromm put forward idea ofalienation by compounding Freud’s psychology and Marx’s sociology. He inherited Marxalienation theory of social criticism, and changed Freud’s individual psychology into socialpsychology. But he insisted on criticism of psychological alienation theory, and ignored theroot causes of capitalism. So his alienation theory lack of thoroughness of Marxist socialrevolution theory. However, Fromm’s alienation theory plays a supplementary role in Marxistalienation theory from the angle of psychology.In Fromm’s view, the alienation of modern industrial society is totally different from thealienation of hand industrial era in twentieth century. The principal contradiction of Marx’shistorical society is the handicraft manufacture; the phenomenon of alienation is mainlyobject of labor, that is, the object of labor product, in other words, the fruits of labor wereowned by the capitalists. But in twentieth century, the principal contradiction of modernindustrial society is the machinery industry development; people without creativity turnedinto object and machine accessories. Then psychology in various fields such as production,life and spirit began to emergence alienation phenomenon. So, Fromm thinks that thealienation of era actually is the alienation of people’s psychology. Hence, we can see thatFromm’s theory of human nature alienation is the deep concern of contemporary capitalismperiod, especially various practical problems and contradiction crisis in western social andcultural life. Fromm criticized the capitalism society from the angle of human existence. Heput through the idea of establishing a sound humanitarian society by means of mentalpurification and love of education. It has a certain practical significance for us to get to knowpeople and the capitalist society, and speeds up the construction of our socialist harmonioussociety.Through the study of Fromm’s theory of alienation, the paper points out the core ofFromm’s alienation theory is alienation of human nature. Therefore, according to the steps ofphenomenon analysis--the interpretation of roots--develop the useful and discard theuseless, it chooses Fromm’s alienation theory works in each period as research object, andconducts a comprehensive analysis and interpretation to Fromm’s alienation theory. From theaspects of reality of human nature alienation and people’s morbid symptoms, it analyzes Fromm’s alienation phenomenon; and then it interprets the root causes and sublation ofFromm’s human nature alienation theory; finally, it makes an evaluation to Fromm’salienation theory in contribution and limitation, and raises a research prospect by puttingforward the theoretical and practical significance...