About this title: "The Sane Society "is a continuation and extension of the brilliant psychiatric concepts Erich Fromm first formulated in "Escape from Freedom"; it is also, in many ways, an answer to Freud's "Civilization and its Discontents," Fromm examines man's escape into overconformity and the danger of robotism in contemporary industrial society: modern humanity has, he maintains, been alienated from the world of their own creation. Here Fromm offers a complete and systematic exploration of his "humanistic psychoanalysis." In so doing, he counters the profound pessimism for our future that Freud ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Rinehart, New York
Date Published: 1969
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. shelf and cover wear, water damage to upper corner, edges of pages slightly yellowed but still clean inside and easily read, 10-12-06. 370 p.; 22 cm. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Fawcett, N. Y.
Date Published: 1955
Description: Cover Art. Reading Copy. No Jacket. Paperback. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. ---------Reading copy is rated from good to very fine........The book may have minor flaws that may have gone unnoticed.... read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1983
ISBN-13:9780449300060ISBN:0449300064
Description: Good. No Jacket. Size: 4 1/4" x 7 1/4"; Good Mass Market Paperback w/average shelfwear, some shelf soiling. Some edge/spine wear/chips. Text free of notes, binding good. Confirmation on all Domestic Orders! read more
Edition: Paperback
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Fawcett, 1965, New York
Date Published: 1965
Description: Soft Cover / Good. Fair to Good (underlining)/No Jacket. Paberback Reprint. Trade Paper Nonfiction. Science: A paperback reprint of one of Fromm's books about man in society. In good shape except for some underlining and bracketing in ink. read more
Edition: Hilights/underlining/tan pgs/tite
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Fawcett Premier, New York
Date Published: 1968
Description: Acceptable. The Sane Society is a continuation and extension of the brilliant psychiatric concepts Erich Fromm first formulated in Escape from Freedom; it is also, in many ways, an answer to Freudâ?s Civilization and its Discontents. Fromm examines manâ?s escape into overconformity and the danger of robotism in contemporary industrial society: modern humanity has, he maintains, been alienated from the world of their own creation. Here Fromm offers a complete and systematic exploration of his â ... read more
"Not my favorite of Fromm's -- That honor is still reserved for the three-way tie of Escape from Freedom, The Art of Loving, and Marx's Concept of Man -- but he still impresses with his daunting intellect and analytic capacity.
The book begins well and quickly draws you in, as Fromm reviews his argument against Western society and the way that it alienates man from himself, inadvertently creating a modern "robotism." This line of thought is taken from his previous books (including the ones listed above) and further developed in an engaging way.
The last two chapters, however, where he turns to solutions for transforming our society into a humanistic communitarian socialist democracy, fall flat. This is perhaps chiefly due to the material being dated, most obvious when he actually proposes to dismantle the film industry due to its pernicious effect on our psyches. This is something which might have been half-conceivable in the 50s, though it still strikes one as more than a little bizarre. Then he proposes a hypothetical town-hall bottom-up government in which the politicians refer all of their legislation to 500-person "face-to-face" groups where they can discuss and decide on policy at the grass-roots level. This just struck me as quaint, and would be utterly impossible in today's hyper-mobile age.
Ultimately, Fromm leans heavily on the Communitarian Socialist model proposed by Owen in England, and later popularized to some degree in France. He spends a large portion of Chapter 8 describing one such watch-making community, where the workers are the owners and participate equally in all the decision-making, earning in accordance with how much they contribute to the community, whether it be through watches or extracurriculars such as music, teaching, gardening, or what-have-you.
It is a nice picture that he paints, but when describing the political decision-making process, I couldn't help but feel like there was simply way too much bureacracy involved. Really? I have to go to a weekly, monthly, and bi-annual meeting just to make sure this stuff all runs effectively? What if my idea of fulfilling my human potential is not worrying about all of this organizational BS? What if I require solitude in order to realize my potential? I have no doubt that certain driven people could make this work, and probably quite enjoy it. But to propose it as a solution for all of humanity seems naive, or maybe just asking a lot of them for the time being. I can't help but wonder what Fromm would have thought if he had lived to see where we're at now. He probably would have been depressed."
The basic teaching of this book is that mental health should not be defined based on an individual's adjustment to the norms of an existing society, but rather, based on his faithfulness to his own true being. Man can protect himself from the consequencies of his own madness only by creating a sane society which conforms with the genuine needs of the original man. Not those of the stupid, egoistic "automatons."
So, when it comes to honest psychology, the whole society at large can well be insane. -And currently is, if you ask me! Man is turning into a mere mindless robot.
Even when there is much sense to what is said above, I found this to be a boring book. And in fact, I think I'm done reading Fromm for a while. He certainly had the academic pseudo-talent of being capable of writing hundreds of pages out of thin air. One could probably concentrate the essential contents of this 363-page book in about twenty pages!"
"How sane are we? This is a very hard question to answer because we do not know the line that demarcates sanity and insanity. Erich Fromm investigates the sanity of the present society. He found out that there are manifestations of social sickness that afflicts and distorts human relationship. Freedom is diminished in its worth and human dignity becomes something very ambiguous."
"This has struck me in such a way that I have all but abandoned the idea of having a child of my own. It's not much of an uplifting book, but cold & stark about the suffering of being human."
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