Escape from freedom: A look into modern people’s deepest loneliness and fear

The world-renowned and insightful classic of Fromm, the 20th century philosophy master

A social psychology book that has the most profound impact on modern people's spiritual life.

What is freedom? How do modern people understand/misunderstand the so-called "freedom"?

Why do people run away from freedom? Do we really know what we are pursuing?

"Escape from Freedom", first published in 1941, is the book that made Fromm famous in one fell swoop. It not only serves as an interpretation of the social and political status quo after the two wars, but also makes a systematic and strong criticism of contemporary society from the perspective of psychological philosophy. It has become popular since its release. It continues to gain momentum in Europe and the United States and is hailed as a masterpiece of the application of psychoanalysis in sociology.

Fromm starts from psychological analysis, pays attention to the political, cultural and economic aspects, explains the view that human personality traits and social environment are mutually shaped, and aims at the ideological and personality structure of modern people formed under the trend of capital society and democracy. Dilemma, make an incisive analysis. He diagnosed the historical roots of social pathology and clearly prescribed ways to overcome difficulties, pointing out how humans should live rationally, create happiness, and establish a good social structure.

"Traditional society is safe but not free, while modern society is free but not safe; it is this unsafe freedom that gives people all kinds of escape tendencies." With the development of capitalism and democracy, modern society is characterized by "freedom" and "individuality" "Humanization" has liberated all kinds of constraints, but it has caused the anxiety and fear of loneliness at the bottom of human nature and the collective psychology, making people feel that they are insignificant and powerless, and it has also led to alienation from nature, society and interpersonal relationships. Therefore, modern people want to escape freedom all the time, and subconsciously hope to return to the stable economic status and power relations of the Middle Ages in order to seek security and a sense of belonging. It is this psychologically unhealthy tendency (sadism-masochism/destruction-pandering) that forms the social basis of fascism. This isolation and fear are accurately reflected in modern people's yearning for authority, following fashion, catering to social standards, etc. The act of abandoning oneself.

Behind the self-righteous independent taste and independent choice, modern people are facing the crisis of being restricted by capital society and ethical rupture. This book allows us to have a clearer understanding of "why the human heart is captured", and thus have the courage to think about what we really want. What, use your creativity to regain "positive freedom" on the road of self-practice.