A quote from Erich Fromm: The Sane Society

[kentuck]

“The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues, the

fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that

millions of people share the same form of mental pathology does not make these people sane. “

Erich Fromm; The Sane Society

[erronis]

1. I remember reading Fromm and thinking what a sane person, after reading Freud...

Not that I care(d) for psychology as much as the interpretations of psychologists. They are much more interesting and strange than their patients.

Still believe it is a mushier science than even biology or chemistry or physics or quantum reality.

[Laurelin]

5. Wasn't Fromm

A psychiatrist? He was married to a famous one. Though perhaps she wasn't actually as famous as he was since he wrote popular books.

I haven't read the book. It sounds interesting. I did (in high school) read I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. The psychiatrist in that semi- fictional book was Dr Frieda Fromm-Reichmann.

[erronis]

9. It's hard to tell the lines between pycho-analysis, psychiatry, psychology, etc., etc., but

as far as I know he didn't get an doctorate in psychiatry (or whatever it might be called.) Still.

That book "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" was very powerful for me back in the late 60s, especially since I knew several people who were dealing with psychological conditions such as schizophrenia. I guess the milieu of the 60s/70s also made us all a lot more sensitive to the human condition.

[maddiemom]

13. Psychologist with an MD equals a Psychiatrist---most simply put.

[Gaugamela]

2. Similar to the Krishnamurti quote:

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

[H2O Man]

3. Recommended.

That is my favorite book, by my favorite author.

[kentuck]

10. I probably stole that quote from you!

[RobertDevereaux]

4. I found Fromm's work in 1968 at age 21...

And The Sane Society was the finest of them all.

For me, a seminal work.

[housecat]

6. thank you

[SheltieLover]

7. I love Erich Fromm's theory!

Never taught in psych courses or very rarely. Could cause people to "thunk."

[Joinfortmill]

8. True

[Saoirse9]

11. Where I live right now it feels like

the mental pathology has taken over most of my friends.

[Pinback]

12. Fromm was a brilliant thinker and writer.

His Escape from Freedom and The Art of Loving were both hugely influential on me. The second, in particular, helped me develop a mature approach to relationships in my younger years.

Reading Fromm, I have often felt as though I had a kindly guide walking with me and illuminating the way toward truth and balance.