Man for Himself

Erich Fromm fought long and hard for the rights and freedoms of the individual. He also recognized that fundamental to this pursuit is the promotion of self-knowledge. In encouraging people to analyze their own behavior, Fromm identified the crucial link between psychology and ethics that underpins all our actions. Moreover, he saw in this a way out of the meaningless impasse which he regarded as the plight of the modern human race. The task that Fromm sets himself, therefore, in Man for Himself is no less than to identify "what man is, how he ought to live, and how the tremendous energies within man can be released and used productively." The resulting book is ample witness to Fromm's success. It makes for exciting, illuminating, even life-changing reading.

Table of Contents

Introduction to Routledge Classics Edition -- Foreword -- I The Problem -- II Humanistic Ethics: The applied science of the art of living -- 1. Humanistic vs. Authoritarian Ethics -- 2. Subjectivistic vs. Objectivistic Ethics -- 3. The Science of Man -- 4. The Tradition of Humanistic Ethics -- 5. Ethics and Psychoanalysis -- III Human Nature and Character -- 1. The Human Situation -- A. Man’s biological weakness -- B. The existential and the historical dichotomies in man -- 2. Personality -- A. Temperament -- B. Character -- (1) The dynamic concept of character -- (2) Types of character: the nonproductive orientations -- (A) The receptive orientation -- (B) The exploitative orientation -- (C) The hoarding orientation -- (D) The marketing orientation -- (3) The productive orientation -- (A) General characteristics -- (B) Productive love and thinking -- (4) Orientations in the process of socialization -- (5) Blends of various orientations -- IV Problems of Humanistic Ethics -- 1. Selfishness, Self-Love, and Self-Interest -- 2. Conscience, Man’s Recall to Himself -- A. Authoritarian conscience -- B. Humanistic conscience -- 3. Pleasure and Happiness -- A. Pleasure as a criterion of value -- B. Types of pleasure -- C. The problem of means and ends -- 4. Faith as a Character Trait -- 5. The Moral Powers in Man -- A. Man, good or evil? -- B. Repression vs. productiveness -- C. Character and moral judgment -- 6. Absolute vs. Relative, Universal vs. Socially Immanent Ethics -- V The Moral Problem of Today -- Index.