How society shapes human behaviour has been the focus of Erich Fromm’s work since his training. Here, the question of narcissism in particular emerged as something very essential and which may never have been as important as it is now since the 1970s. After all, we have been observing a decline in authority for decades. And according to Erich Fromm, this seems to be dependent on and relevant to the system. A system, according to Fromm in his work ‘To have or to be’, that is closely linked to the maternal upbringing of children and thus obviously also provides a link between patriarchal and matriarchal structures.
Ever since his training as a psychoanalyst, Erich Fromm was accompanied by the question: ‘How can it be explained psychologically that many people behave irrationally?
Why, for example, do people seek their salvation in an authoritarian leader?’
Fromm describes in Haben oder Sein (1973) ‘for the first time in history, the physical survival of mankind depends on a radical psychological change in man’. He concludes that every person naturally strives to experience themselves positively, to internalise an appreciative relationship with themselves.
If we treat people with more appreciation and respect, it is to be expected that excessive self-love, as described by narcissism, would find little breeding ground and escape would be easier. This is because narcissistic selfishness is ‘rooted in a lack of love for oneself’. Narcissism is therefore not innate, as one might think, but the result of a lack of self-love.
Looking at society, which Fromm examined, he later states that socio-economic changes lead to a lack of this self-love and therefore to narcissism, because we want to be successful from a marketing perspective and want to be among the winners. It is not the authority to be aspired to that is at the centre of human endeavour and the development of characters, which ultimately also characterise a person’s soul, but the sales strategy, the marketing of the ego that determines the personal and professional structure of one’s own life to be aspired to.
There are many people who express their destiny through publications in blogs, on websites, books or in other ways. I am familiar with corresponding patterns from these descriptions. So I know that I also experienced what Fromm describes. A radical psychological change can obviously only be brought about by fundamental crises of the individual.
It must pull the rug from under our feet that we can recognise that social cohesion is essential for the survival structure of the individual.
Erich Fromm’s related question about the consequences of leaders is also something we are obviously not facing any more comparable current events than now.
Without seriously wanting to talk it down, reports and studies on poor leadership qualities have been piling up in recent years. And as the Fraunhofer Institute favourably affirms, we are facing or in the midst of a change in the question of leadership and, as Fromm sees it, the need to strive for the authority of the individual. In the age of artificial intelligence, we must assume that a completely new form of leadership will find its way into companies.
Perhaps the USA is currently showing the weakness that would otherwise hardly be more significant than it is now, which already existed under National Socialism. The leaders there were influenced by speculative representations of human existence and pursued a racial delusion. According to experts, the figures that the USA spent on armaments to protect Ukraine amount to around 120 billion and not more than 350 billion, as Trump accused.
Trump has also apparently accepted without checking misrepresentations that at least made the press and originated from Russian President Putin, according to Selensky, the Ukrainian President. It is morally known that one should not allow oneself to be led into evil rumours or follow the gossip of third parties. This is morally anchored in us humans, even if we do it anyway. If people talk about us, we get angry and judge others. A government that is based on ‘stupid gossip’ loses its authority at this moment. How powerful a gesture by the French president to take the lie into his own hands and correct it in front of the world press as a witness. By now, at the latest, it should be over and the powerlessness of the president should be felt in the world.
Documentaries such as that of the Second German Television concerning Auschwitz make it clear, and I think this must be mentioned again and again for historical preservation, that even the murder of children was not shied away from because the National Socialists said that it was not the person himself who was bad, but his blood that flowed in his veins. And this would be inherited and thus bring a soul of evil into the world, as scientists have recently discovered.
Two characteristics come together here: heredity through blood relations and a maximum claim to power.
This came about because any form of social contact was nipped in the bud by the mutual agitation of the prisoners in the extermination camps. The prisoners were unable to form an uprising. Both scenarios are part of patriarchy and here we see the cornerstone of existential annihilation with regard to basic prosocial needs, which ultimately also destroys the human spirit. For in Judaism there was originally no blood relationship. Rather, the offspring were determined by the religion of the mother. Until the Mosaic period came along and there was a transition from idolatry to a Universal God, and thus patriarchy and the sedentarisation of people began.
Hell on earth, as it is practised through and in times of war, is also the obstetrician, as Hannah Arendt described. From this modern, contemporary birth, as I have described in blog posts, the hero myth presumably emerges. Because after the birth, there is a new world order.
Europeans have been lagging behind in armaments for decades; after all, the Germans in particular have been affected by the Nazi era and the question of whether to rearm brings this attitude to its moral limits. Now, however, a rearmament is required which, in terms of time and effort, is certainly comparable to the Second World War. And as the business magazine ‘Wirtschaft vor acht’ showed, there is also a lot of potential for the future. First, however, we will have to emancipate ourselves from the USA as an ally.
This also fits in with a characteristic of the end. Because back then, the Marshall Plan brought about the economic miracle. And today, the potential economic miracle has to be brought about by investing in armaments, of all things. Psychologically, people like to say transfer when the feeling is exactly the same as when it actually happened. How you think about it, however, is a matter of motivation. And that is different from what it was at the time. This is also partly like brainwashing. Where once there was a feeling of annihilation, today there is a powerful feeling of defence. Knowing that I can defend myself in case of doubt creates self-confidence.
A president who puts his facts into the world out of emotion and slander and makes decisions based on them. It is hardly acceptable to be considered a leader when you have to feed off the demise of those affected, as the president and his vice president did at the meeting with the Ukrainian president. He is once again a hero. Because the US president attached great importance to defending his honour instead of finding a constructive solution, as one might expect from a leader. In conflict situations, laying a hand on the other person is just as highly explosive as getting personal and attacking, as Paul Watzlawick once said. Because it is the drift from the factual to the personal that provokes disputes.
The mockery and derision from the ranks of the US government about the Ukrainian president’s clothing must be an obvious own goal. Zelensky is in war mode, which is clearly expressed by his clothing. The nice thing is that he has traditionally done this at all his public appearances, and not one nation has criticised this in any way. On the contrary, he is received accordingly. He is given this respect for staying in dialogue, making an effort and fighting for his nation, even though he only stands for his country and the Russian attack clearly goes against the community of values. Unfortunately, Trump makes it clear that he doesn’t think much of this and that posterity seems unimportant to him. Here, too, you can clearly see Erich Fromm’s sense of the social problem of self-promotion. Because possibly, or very probably, the source of populism also stems from this development.
From these circumstances, one can clearly deduce that the US President has, in my opinion, clearly shown himself to be a conflict driver and provocateur. He is true to himself in this, because that is his entire policy. It is still early days, but with the exception of Hungary, which was itself massively affected by the chaos of the Nazi war, Europe seems to have a tendency to be loyal and to stand behind the right to sovereignty of states and to continue to support Ukraine.
Is this the new birth? A Europe that has emancipated itself from the previous great powers that positioned themselves through the Cold War and is now on the path to autonomy, becoming independent, but above all one that brings together states that are unique in the world. Because no continent has so many smaller states that have to be brought together in one spirit in order to exist in a new modern world. This is truly an art of diplomacy and leadership.
So if we can learn from modern leadership anywhere, I think we can learn very well from a growing Europe. Every state is authoritarian and independent to a certain extent, but they all work together in one spirit. But there is another thing that is very similar to a real birth. That is the transformation of neuroses, as I like to call the outdated name for the sake of convenience. For where a person is neurotic, there lies the full potential of his personality, his individualism. And that is exactly how states are. In a new modern world, each state will certainly emphasise its unique selling points and in this way a special form of individualism will emerge in which everyone will feel responsible for what they can see as their personal strength.
ImageSource
Erich Fromm Philosophie Magazin
Quellen und Infos
Fromm, Erich; Haben oder Sein, 2019 (1973), Die seelischen Grundlagen einer neuen Gesellschaft, dtv Verlag,
Arendt, Hannah, Macht und Gewalt, 2019, Piper Verlag
Lähmende Fremdbestimmung oder individuelle Sinnhaftigkeit, 2024, Interview Fraunhofer-Institut
(http://de.gate-communications.com/fuehrung-leadership/laehmende-fremdbestimmung-oder-individuelle-sinnhaftigkeit/)
Wenn Führungskräfte nach oben buckeln und nach unten treten, September 2022 (http://de.gate-communications.com/fuehrung-leadership/wenn-fuehrungskraefte-nach-oben-buckeln-und-nach-unten-treten/)
Die Entstehung des Rassismus, Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, bpb, 2012,
(https://www.bpb.de/mediathek/video/178985/die-entstehung-des-rassismus/#:~:text=Das%20Konzept%20der%20Rassen%20stammt%20urspr%C3%BCnglich%20aus%20der,geht%20auf%20die%20Kolonialisierung%20Afrikas%20und%20S%C3%BCdamerikas%20zur%C3%BCck)
Ein Tag in Auschwitz, ZDF Dokumentation 2020
Die Todesfabrik Auschwitz sollte ihre „Effizienz“ 1944 noch steigern. Täglich starben Tausende Juden. Was die Opfer erlebten und die Täter antrieb, zeigen erschütternde Zeugnisse.
(https://www.zdf.de/dokumentation/dokumentation-sonstige/ein-tag-in-auschwitz-108.html)
Vom Heldemythos,
(https://www.tumblr.com/blog-for-communications/756046495807143936/vom-heldenmythos?source=share)
Wirtschaft vor Acht, Rüstung und KI, 21.02.2025
(https://youtu.be/Z4ZZkYhfQDs?si=uFFfLreNzWYZ9aHU)
Watzlawick, Paul, Wie wirklich ist die Wirklichkeit, Wahn, Täuschung, Verstehen, 2023, Piper Verlag
Nachama, Andreas, Homolka Walter, Bornhoff, Hartmut, Basiswissen Judentum, Bpb Verlag 2018