A patologia da normalidade: Erich Fromm e a crítica da cultura capitalista contemporânea

Resumo Neste artigo, procuro problematizar a crítica de Erich Fromm à cultura do capitalismo contemporâneo. Para tanto, faço uma releitura especialmente, mas não apenas, de uma de suas principais obras maduras, o livro Psicanálise da sociedade contemporânea (The sane society), no qual o autor sedimenta seu projeto analítico de uma “psicanálise humanista”. Na primeira parte o artigo reconstrói, através da ideia de “patologia da normalidade”, a crítica de Fromm aos fundamentos culturais do capitalismo contemporâneo. Na segunda parte, a reconstrução é levada adiante através dos conceitos de “caráter social” e “alienação”, de modo a compreender como o capitalismo tardio do século XX aprofunda, como nunca antes, uma cultura anti-humanista. Na conclusão, procuro argumentar como a obra de Fromm pode ser de grande valia para a compreensão dos problemas tanto individuais quanto coletivos da atualidade.

The Relevance of E. Fromm's Ideas about Sane Society in 2020

Introduction. The paper discusses E. Fromm's ideas about human mental health, his social needs and society, which promotes and at the same time prevents the maximum disclosure of a person's potential in accordance with his or her nature. In contrast to sociological relativism, Fromm substantiates the position of normative humanism, according to which, when examining a person's paths to happiness, one should analyze, first of all, the mental health of society, and not a person, consider how a particular social system contributes to the productive solution of the problems facing a person. The purpose of the paper is to assess the degree of relevance of Fromm's ideas about a healthy society in2020 in accordance with the realities of our time. Scientific novelty is determined by the small number of similar studies in contemporary Russian sociology.Methodology and sources. The paper uses the approach of normative humanism proposed by Fromm. Psychoanalysis, socio-psychological traditions of behaviorism and cognitivism are also used.Results and discussion. A human, according to Fromm, has a dual nature: he or her is no longer an animal, and even for full mental health, and even more so, for feelings of selfrealization and happiness, it is not enough for him or her to just satisfy biological needs, following instincts. Having lost harmony with nature and at the same time remaining a part of it, having received reason and awareness of his or her own life, he or she at the same time acquires the need to resolve the contradictions of the existence. They express basic social needs that can be addressed in a more or less productive way: involvement as opposed to narcissism, overcoming and creativity as opposed to destructiveness, rootedness and brotherhood as opposed to incest, a sense of identity and individuality as opposed to herd conformism, the need for an orientation system: reason versus irrationality. In modern Fromm's Western society, market capitalism is increasingly penetrating into everyday relations between people, forming orientations towards an unproductive solution to the problem of human existence. In modern society, this trend continues unabated, making Fromm's conclusions and recommendations no less relevant than a few decades ago.Conclusion. Due to the widespread use of the Internet and social networks, the development of mass social movements with radical views on everyday life, strengthening the aggressive manner of communication, the preservation of pre-existing contradictions between representatives of national and other groups, modern society contributes to maintaining a “market” approach to human relations. Under such conditions, the disclosure of a person's potential in accordance with his or her nature is difficult, nevertheless, everyone has the opportunity, critically referring to social stereotypes, and mastering the art of thinking really rationally, to strive for happiness.

The Frankfurt School at Egyptian Universities

The critical theory of the Frankfurt School reached Egypt in 1955, when the Arabic translation of Erich Fromm’s The Sane Society (New York, 1955) was published in Cairo. Later, Herbert Marcuse’s Soviet Marxism (1958) was translated into Arabic in Beirut in 1965, and with the rise of student protests in France, Germany, and the United States, much attention was given to Marcuse; almost all his writings were translated into Arabic between 1969 and 1973. This article explores the nature of individual “receptions” of the critical theory of the Frankfurt School at Egyptian universities. To this end, it briefly introduces the early generation of the Frankfurt School, as well as the reasons of interest in its fate in Egyptian universities. Though master’s theses and doctoral dissertations do not represent a university’s orientation to critical theory, and at best represent the perspective of their individual authors, this article shows that key individual theses and dissertations testify to an early rejection of the Frankfurt School and to the late adoption of it as a critical paradigm of the transformations in Egyptian society.

Subjection and Survival in J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace

Coetzee’s novel, Disgrace, constructs a disturbing picture of the state of post-apartheid South Africa. It was generally criticized on the ground that instead of sharing national enthusiasm, it damaged the hopes of constructing a just and nonracial society by perpetuating racial stereotypes and fueling interracial violence. Disgrace, however, this paper holds, is a realistic, though gloomy, narrative of human condition. It is the scene of individuals struggling for survival amid existential and social forces in post-apartheid culture. Apartheid represented the era of victimization, subjection, and pathological attachments. It distorted intersubjective relations, turned humans’ interactions into power struggles, and produced deformed, stunted subjects. This paper examines the continuing presence of these deformed subjects in new South Africa and the violence that their presence occasions. The residual presence of character deformity and pathological intersubjectivity is a social reality of the new South Africa in Disgrace, a reality that diminishes the prospect of the promised sane society of post-apartheid era.