g that it is primarily a psychological problem of internal attitudes, in which human beings place their trust in external leaders, rather than trust their own authority (pp. 3 4). Rather than move into their freedom and fulfill its possibilities, human beings immediately look for a way to relinquish it, placing it in the hand of someone they believe will do a better job of it than they themselves are capable of.
Why Is Freedom a Psychological Problem
Fromm states that freedom appears to be a psychological problem, but why is this the case? He noted that perhaps there is a corresponding desire for submission, as well as the desire for freedom. At the same time, Fromm is less interested in the concept of instinctual or basic drives, and more interested in how human beings are socially constructed, and their needs, desires, loves, and hates also socially constructed.
Fromm indicated that his analysis depended upon Freud's work on the unconscious and unconscious motivations, but that he differed from Freud in denying the dichotomy between human being and human society. For Fromm, human society is both the creation of human beings and part of the creative force shaping human behavior. His focus is on the interrelationship between human being and society, and the changing nature of that relationship (p. 10).
According to him, human beings have to accept the general mode of production and distribution that is specific to his society. In this and other adaptations, the individual develops powerful drives which motivate his or her attitudes and behaviors. These may not be conscious drives, however, although they mold both the individual and the society surrounding the individual. They provide the context for understanding what Fromm asserts is the main theme of his book: That human beings must either respond to the world through productive work and love or they will be likely to submit to authoritarian forces of some sort or...