Erich Fromm: The Escape from Freedom — Daily Philosophy

The attractiveness of being unfree

Erich Fromm’s theory of the human condition begins with the insight that freedom itself can sometimes be the cause of fear and anxiety, forcing us to find ways to “escape from freedom”. Authoritarianism, destructiveness and automaton conformity are, according to Fromm, three ways how we try to cope with the freedom we fear.

Welcome back to our year-long challenge of trying out six different, classic philosophies of happiness in our everyday lives! In the first two months, we lived with Aristotle, Bertrand Russell and Richard Taylor, and we focused on the cultivation of our virtues, our practical wisdom, the zest for life, and the creative originality that we can bring to our lives.

We begin now with the third month, and this will all be about Erich Fromm (1900–1980), German/US social psychologist, philosopher and author. And today, we discuss what is perhaps the most basic starting point into Fromm’s diagnosis of what’s wrong with our world: our need to escape our freedom.

The problem of freedom

It is surprising to see freedom identified as a problem, isn’t it? And why would we want to “escape from freedom”?

Why would we want to “escape from…