Research On Erich Fromm's Thought Of Consumption Alienation

Erich Fromm(1900-1980),as a well-known representative figure of Freudianism-Marxism(1)and a psychological consultant for 40 years,dedicated his life to paying close attention to people's living condition and the value of person.He criticized the western developed industrial society severely which makes people to alienate,and actively explored the ways to healthy personality and society.Fromm's thought of consumption alienation plays a big role in his social critical theory.It mainly appeared in the book The Sane Society(1955)and To Have or to Be(1976).In The Sane Society,Fromm held the view that the vast majority of people had mental disease in the western developed industrial society.It is fundamentally not a personal thing whether a man's spirit is healthy or not,but the thing of the social conditions.In other words,the mental health of people can not be defined as people adapt to his society unconditionally.On the contrary,the society must meet the needs of people.Fromm further pointed out that the relationship between the socio-economic structure and the personality is interactive.That is to say,socio-economic structure shaped the character of the people,and people's character reacts to the socio-economic structure.Through the analysis of non-productive characters(to give up one's own strength and creative potential to be associated with the outside world by the way of alienation)of capitalist society,we can see that the capitalist society is not sane.Alienation is the core concept which Fromm used to analyze these non-productive social characters and the word consumption alienation represents the receptive orientated character and the marketing orientated character which are the dominant non-productive characters of the capitalist society in the mid-20 th century.In his later work To Have or to Be,Fromm proposed a number of specific measures to eliminate consumption alienation from the aspect of the state,government,consumers and so on.According to the evolution of Fromm's thought of consumption alienation,in my paper below,I firstly seek the theoretical roots of this thought.I sum up the meaning and essential features of it and reveal the historical background of it.Then,I analyze the causes of consumption alienation from the analysis of social characters' function,which is the distinguishing feature of Fromm's thought of consumption alienation and also the innovation of my paper.After that,I analyze the manifestations,endangers of consumption alienation and the way to eliminate it.Finally,I evaluate this thought objectively and enlighten it's value for China's social development.