Edge of Catastrophe

Abstract

The prominent 20th-century public intellectual and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm is recognized for his courageous stand against fascism and human destructiveness. Until now, however, little has been known about the extent to which Fromm’s personal experience of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust shaped his outlook. This book introduces for the first time the unpublished Holocaust correspondence in Fromm’s family. The letters shed light on Fromm’s life as a German Jewish refugee and the effect of Nazi Germany’s racial terror on Fromm’s family, a catastrophe that was repeated countless times. In the aftermath of the genocide, Fromm returned again and again to the themes of racism, responsibility, and human solidarity, yet without revealing his own experience. Above all, Fromm argued for the importance of courage and compassion in the face of cruelty and destructiveness. Fromm’s social, political, and psychological writings take on new meaning in light of the traumas and tragedies that he and his family experienced. The image of Fromm that emerges from this book enriches an understanding of what it means to be both a social critic and practicing psychologist. In light of the racial hatred and antisemitism seen today, author Roger Frie demonstrates that a politics of engagement and a psychology of well-being go hand in hand. He argues that there is much to be learned from the urgency in Fromm’s writings when seeking to respond to the social crises and the renewed threat of fascism in the present age.