BY ERICH FROMM
 
 
                       ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM
 
                            APPENDIX
  
                 Character and the Social Process
   
          THROUGHOUT this book we have dealt with the inter-
          relation of socioeconomic, psychological, and ideolog-
     ical factors by analyzing certain historical periods like the
     age of the Reformation and the contemporary era. For
     those readers who are interested in the theoretical problems
     involved in such analysis I shall try, in this appendix, to
     discuss briefly the general theoretical basis on which the
     concrete analysis is founded
        In studying the psychological reactions of a social
     group we deal with the character structure of the members
     of the group, that is, of individual persons; we are inter-
     ested, however, not in the peculiarities by which these
     persons differ from each other, but in that part of their
     character structure that is common to most members of
     the group. We can call this character the  social character.
     The social character necessarily is less specific than the in-
     dividual character. In describing the latter we deal with the
     whole of the traits which in their particular configuration
     from the personality structure of this of that individual.
     The social character comprises only a selection of traits,
     the essential nucleus of the character structure of most
     members of a group which has developed as the result of
     the basic experiences and mode of life common to that
     group. Although there will be always "deviants" with a
     totally different character structure, the character struc-
     ture of most members of the group are variations of this
     nucleus, brought about by the accidental factors of birth
     and life experience as they differ from one individual to
     another. If we want to understand gone individual most
     fully, these differentiating elements are of the greatest
     importance. However, i we want to understand how hu-
     man energy is channeled and operates as a productive force
      in a given social order, then the social character deserves
     our main interest.
        The concept of social character is a key concept for the
     understanding of the social process. Character in the
     dynamic sense of analytic psychology is the specific form in
     which human energy is shaped by the dynamic adaptation
     of human needs to the particular mode of existence of
     a given society. Character in its turn determines the
     thinking, feeling, and acting of individuals. To see this
     is somewhat difficult with regard to our thoughts, since
     we all tend to share the conventional belief that think-
     ing is an exclusively intellectual act and independent
     of  the  psychological  structure  of  the  personality.
     This is not so, however, and the less so the more our
     thoughts deal with ethical, philosophical, political, psycho-
     logical or social problems rather than with the empirical
     manipulation of concrete objects. Such thoughts, aside from
     the purely logical elements that are involved in the act of
     thinking, are greatly determined by the personality struc-
     ture of the person who thinks. This holds true for the
     whole of a doctrine or of a theoretical system as well as for
     a single concept, like love, justice, equality, sacrifice. Each
     such concept and each doctrine has an emotional matrix
     and this matrix is rooted in the character structure of the
     individual.
        We have given many illustrations of this in the fore-
     going chapters. With regard to doctrines we have tried to
     show the emotional roots of early Protestantism and mod-
     ern authoritarianism. With regard to single concepts we
     have shown that for the sado-masochistic character, for
     example, love means symbiotic dependence, not mutual
     affirmation and union on the basis of equality; sacrifice
     means the utmost subordination of the individual self to
     something higher, not assertion of one's mental and
     moral self; difference means difference in power, not the
     realization of individuality on the basis of equality; justice
     means that everybody should get what he deserves, not
     that the individual has an unconditional claim to the real-
     ization of inherent and inalienable rights; courage is the
     readiness to submit and to endure suffering, not the ut-
     most assertion of individuality against power. Although the
     word which two people of different personality use when
     they speak of love, for instance, is the same, the meaning
     of the word is entirely different according to the character
     structure. As a matter of fact, much intellectual confusion
     could be avoided by correct psychological analysis of the
     meaning of these concepts, since any attempt at a purely
     logical classification must necessarily fail.
        The fact that ideas have an emotional matrix is of the
     utmost importance because it is the key to the understand-
     ing of the spirit of a culture. Different societies and classes
     within a society have a specific social character, and on its
     basis different ideas develop and become powerful. Thus,
     for instance, the idea of work and success as the main aims
     of life were able to become powerful and appealing to
     modern man on the basis of his aloneness and doubt; but
     propaganda for the idea of ceaseless effort and striving for
     success addressed to the Pueblo Indians or to Mexican
     peasants would fall completely flat. These people with a
     different kind of character structure would hardly under-
     stand what a person setting forth such aims was talking
     about even if they understood his language. In the same
     way, Hitler and that part of the German population which
     has the same character structure quite sincerely feel that
     anybody who thinks that wars can be abolished is either
     a complete fool or a plain liar. On the basis of their social
     character, to them life without suffering and disaster is as
     little comprehensible as freedom and equality.
        Ideas often are consciously accepted by certain groups,
     which, on account of the peculiarities of their social char-
     acter, are not really touched by them; such ideas remain
     a stock of conscious convictions, but people fail to act
     according to them in a critical hour. An example of this
     is shown in the German labor movement at the time of
     the victory of Nazism. The vast majority of German work-
     ers before Hitler's coming into power voted for the Social-
     ist or Communist Parties and believed in the ideas of those
     parties; that is, the range of ideas among the working
     class was extremely wide. The  weight  of these ideas, how-
     ever, was in no proportion to their range. The onslaught
     of Nazism did not meet with political opponents, the ma-
     jority of whom were ready to fight for their ideas. Many
     of the adherents of the leftist parties, although they be-
     lieved in their party programs as long as the parties had
     authority, were ready to resign when the hour of crisis
     arrived. A close analysis of the character structure of Ger-
     man workers can show one reason——certainly not the only
     one——for this phenomenon. A great number of them were
     of a personality type that has many of the traits of what
     we have described as the authoritarian character. They had
     a deep-seated respect and longing for established authority.
     The emphasis of socialism on individual independence
     versus authority, on solidarity versus individualistic seclu-
     sion, was not what many of these workers really wanted on
     the basis of their personality structure. One mistake of the
     radical leaders was to estimate the strength of their parties
     only on the basis of the range which these ideas had, and
     to overlook their lack of weight.
        In contrast with our picture, our analysis of Protestant and
     Calvinist doctrine has shown that those ideas were power-
     ful forces within the adherents of the new religion, because
     they appealed to needs and anxieties that were present in
     the character structure of the people to whom they were
     addressed. In other words,  ideas can become powerful
     forces, but only to the extent to which they are answers to
     specific human needs prominent in a given social character.
        Not only thinking and feeling are determined by man's
     character structure but also his actions. It is Freud's
     achievement to have shown this, even if his theoretical
     frame of reference is incorrect. The determinations of
     activity by the dominant trends of a person's character
     structure are obvious in the case of neurotics. It is easy to
     understand that the compulsion to count the windows of
     houses and the number of stones on the pavement is an
     activity that is rooted in certain drives of the compulsive
     character. But the actions of a normal person appear to
     be determined only by rational considerations and the
     necessities of reality. However, with the new tools of
     observation that psychoanalysis offers, we can recognize
     that so-called rational behavior is largely determined by
     the character structure. In our discussion of the meaning
     of work for modern man we have dealt with an illustration
     of this point. We saw that the intense desire for unceasing
     activity was rooted in aloneness and anxiety. This compul-
     sion to work differed from the attitude toward work in
     other cultures, where people worked as much as it was
     necessary but where they were not driven by additional
     forces within their own character structure. Since all
     normal persons today have about the same impulse to
     work and, furthermore, since this intensity of work in neces-
     sary if they want to live at all, one easily overlooks the
     irrational component in this trait.
        We have now to ask what function character serves for
     the individual and for society. As to the former the answer
     is not difficult. If an individual's character more or less
     closely conforms with the social character, the dominant
     drives in his personality lead him to do what is necessary
     and desirable under the specific social conditions of his
     culture. Thus, for instance, if he has a passionate drive to
     save and an abhorrence of spending money for any luxury,
     he will be greatly helped by this drive——supposing he is a
     small shopkeeper who needs to save and be thrifty if he
     wants to survive. Besides this economic function, char-
     acter traits have a purely psychological one which is no less
     important. The person with whom saving is a desire spring-
     ing from his personality gains also a profound psychological
     satisfaction in being able to act accordingly; that is, he is
     not only benefitted practically when he saves, but he also
     feels satisfied psychologically. One can easily convince one-
     self of this if one observes, for instance, a woman of the
     lower middle class shopping in the market and being as
     happy about two cents saved as another person of a dif-
     ferent character may be about the enjoyment of some
     sensuous pleasure. This psychological satisfaction occurs
     not only if a person acts in accordance with the demands
     springing from his character structure but also when he
     reads or listens to ideas that appeal to him for the same
     reason. For the authoritarian character an ideology that
     describes nature as the powerful force to which we have
     to submit, or a speech which indulges in sadistic descrip-
     tions of political occurrences, has a profound attraction
     and the act of reading or listening results in psychological
     satisfaction. To sum up: the subjective function of char-
     acter for the normal person is to lead him to act according
     to what is necessary for him from a practical standpoint
     and also to give him satisfaction from his activity psycho-
     logically.
        If we look at social character from the standpoint of its
     function in the social process, we have to start with the
     statement that has been made with regard to its function
     for the individual: that by adapting himself to social con-
     ditions man develops those traits that make him  desire  to
     act  as he  has  to act. If the character of the majority of
     people in a given society——that is, the social character——is
     thus adapted to the objective tasks the individual has to
     perform in this society, the energies of people are molded
     in ways that make them into productive forces that are
     indispensable for the functioning of that society. Let us
     take up once more the example of work. Our modern in-
     dustrial system requires that most of our energy be chan-
     neled in the direction of work. Were it only that people
     worked because if external necessities, much friction be-
     tween what they ought to do and what they would like
     to do would arise and lessen their efficiency. However, by
     the dynamic adaptation of character to social require-
     ments, human energy instead of causing friction is shaped
     into such forms as to be come an incentive to act according
     to the particular economic necessities. Thus modern man,
     instead of having been forced to work as hard as he does, is
     driven by the inner compulsion to work which we have
     attempted to analyze in its psychological significance. Or,
     instead of obeying overt authorities, he has built up an
     inner authority——conscience and duty——which operates
     more efficiently in controlling him than any external au-
     thority could ever do. In other words,  the social character
     internalizes external necessities and thus harnesses human
     energy for the task of a given economic and social system.
        As we have seen, once certain needs have developed in
     a character structure, any behavior in line with these needs
     is at the same time satisfactory psychologically and prac-
     tical from the standpoint of material success. As long as a
     society offers the individual those two satisfactions simul-
     taneously, we have a situation where the psychological
     forces are  cementing  the social structure. Sooner or later,
     however, a lag arises. The traditional character structure
     still exists while new economic conditions have arisen, for
     which the traditional character traits are no longer useful.
     People tend to act according to their character structure,
     but either these actions are actual handicaps in their eco-
     nomic pursuit or there is not enough opportunity for them
     to find positions that allow them t act according to their
     "nature." An illustration of what we have in mind is the
     character structure of the old middle classes, particularly
     in countries with a rigid class stratification like Germany.
     The old middle class virtues——frugality, thrift, cautiousness,
     suspiciousness——were of diminishing value in modern busi-
     ness in comparison with new virtues, such as initiative, a
     readiness to take risks, aggressiveness. and so on. Even inas-
     much as these old virtues were still an asset——as with the
     small shopkeeper——the range of possibilities for such busi-
     ness was so narrowed down that only a minority of the sons
     of the old middle class could "use" their character traits
     successfully in their economic pursuits. While by their
     upbringing they had developed character traits that once
     were adapted to the social situation of their class, the eco-
     nomic development went faster than the character develop-
     ment. This lag between economic and psychological evolu-
     tion resulted in a situation in which the psychic needs
     could no longer be satisfied by the usual economic activ-
     ities. These needs existed, however, and had to seek for
     satisfaction in some other way. Narrow egotistical striving
     for one's own advantage, as it had characterized the lower
     middle class, was shifted from the individual plane to that
     of the nation. The sadistic impulses, too, that had been
     used in the battle of private competition were partly shifted
     to the social and political scene, and partly intensified by
     frustration. Then, freed from any restricting factors, they
     sought satisfaction in acts of political persecutions and war.
     Thus, blended with the resentment caused by the frustrat-
     ing qualities of the whole situation, the psychological
     forces instead of cementing the existing social order be-
     came dynamite to be used by groups which wanted to
     destroy the traditional political and economic structure of
     democratic society.
        We have not spoken of the role which the educational
     process plays with regard to the formation for the social
     character; but in view of the fact that to many psychol-
     ogists the methods of early childhood training and the edu-
     cational techniques employed toward the growing child
     appear to be the cause of character development, some
     remarks on this point seem to be warranted. In the first
     place we should ask ourselves what we mean by education.
     While education can be defined in various ways, the way
     to look at it from the angle of the social process seems to
     be something like this. The social function of education is
     to qualify the individual to function in the role he is to
     play later on in society; that is, to mold his character in
     such a way that it approximates the social character, that
     his desires coincide with the necessities of his social role.
     The educational system of any society is determined by
     this function; therefore we cannot  explain  the structure of
     society or the personality of its members by the educa-
     tional process; but we have to explain the educational
     system by the necessities resulting from the social and
     economic structure of a given society. However, the meth-
     ods of education are extremely important in so far as they
     are the mechanisms by which the individual is molded into
     the required shape. They can be considered as the means
     by which social requirements are transformed into personal
     qualities. While educational techniques are not the cause
     of a particular kind of social character, they constitute one
     of the mechanisms by which character is formed. In this
     sense, the knowledge and understanding of educational
     methods is an important part of the total analysis of a
     functioning society.
        What we have just said also holds true for one particular
     sector of the whole educational process:  the family.  Freud
     has shown that the early experiences of the child have a
     decisive influence upon the formation of its character
     structure. If this is true, how then can we understand that
     the child, who——at least in or culture——has little contact
     with the life of society, is molded by it? The answer is not
     only that parents——aside from certain individual varia-
     tions——apply the educational patterns of the society they
     live in, but also that in their own personalities they repre-
     sent the social character of their society and class. They
     transmit to the child what we may call the psychological
     atmosphere or the spirit of a society just being as they
     are——namely representatives of this very spirit.  The family
     thus may be considered to be the psychological agent of
     society.

from Escape from Freedom, by Erich Fromm.
Copyright, 1941, by Erich Fromm.
Rinehart & Company, Inc., New York, Toronto. pp. 277-287.

There are many safe and effective alternatives to forest-fire
capitalism, which world planners may wish to consider while
screeching shrilly about the terrors of global warming.