The Revision of Psychoanalysis

It was Erich Fromm’s conviction that psychoanalysis needs to retain Freud’s essential insight into the unconscious while replacing his mechanistic-materialistic philosophy with a humanistic one. In this book, never before published in English, Fromm presents such a revision of psychoanalysis, one that is both humanistic and dialectical. The Revision of Psychoanalysis is Fromm’s long-expected account of his own personal way of understanding and practicing psychoanalysis. Of special interest to today’s readers are his continuing efforts to understand the meaning of sexuality, his critique of Herbert Marcuse’s vision of psychoanalysis, and the implications of a Freudian analytical social psychology for the reform of social arrangements. This book is essential reading for psychologists and for social and political theorists in many disciplines. For psychoanalysts, it provides Fromm’s most provocative and unique recommendations for the revision of psychoanalysis.

Erich Fromm (1900-1980) was not only an outstanding social scientist and author of bestsellers (Escape from Freedom: The Art of Loving; To Have or to Be?) but also a first-rate practicing psychoanalyst who applied his experience to the interpretation of social phenomena and reformulated Freud’s basic insights into the unconscious of the individual and of society. Rainer Funk was Erich Fromm’s last assistant and is now literary executor and editor of Fromm’s literary estate.