Hope in crisis: revisiting Erich Fromm’s dialectic of transformation

Authors:
Niclas O’Donnokoé International Psychoanalytic University Berlin, Germany

Search for other papers by Niclas O’Donnokoé in
Current site
Google Scholar
Close
,
Christopher Steffen International Psychoanalytic University Berlin, Germany

Search for other papers by Christopher Steffen in
Current site
Google Scholar
Close
, and
Phil C. Langer International Psychoanalytic University Berlin, Germany; Humboldt-University Berlin, Germanyand Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany

Search for other papers by Phil C. Langer in
Current site
Google Scholar
Close
Restricted access
Get eTOC alerts
Rights and permissions Cite this article

In this article we explore Erich Fromm’s concept of hope within the context of contemporary social and political crises. We formulate two primary objections to his vision of a revolution of hope: the individualistic moralisation of societal problems, and the accusation that hope is persuasive and manipulative. By embedding Fromm’s ideas within a broader dialectical framework and engaging with Walter Benjamin’s thoughts on history, we reinterpret hope as a liminal, transformative state rather than a concrete, prescriptive notion. This reconceptualisation presents hope as a fundamental prerequisite for transformative political practice, emphasising its role in fostering active citizenship and collective social change. Ultimately, we argue for the critical importance of hope in navigating and overcoming the challenges of modernity.

  • Andreouli, E. (2019) Social psychology and citizenship: a critical perspective, Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 13(2): e12432. doi: 10.1111/spc3.12432

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Benjamin, W. (2005) On the concept of history, in W. Jennings, H. Eiland and G. Smith (eds) Selected Writings, vol 4, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp 389400.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Boltanski, L. and Chiapello, È. (2007) The New Spirit of Capitalism, London: Verso.

  • Braune, J. (2014) Erich Fromm’s Revolutionary Hope: Prophetic Mssianism as a Critical Theory of the Future, Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Braune, J. (2017) Hope and catastrophe: messianism in Erich Fromm and Herbert Marcuse, in A.T. Lamas, T. Wolfson and P.N. Funke (eds) The Great Refusal: Herbert Marcuse and Contemporary Social Movements, Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, pp 28398.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Bröckling, U. (2015) The Entrepreneurial Self: Fabricating a New Type of Subject, London: Sage.

  • Condor, S. (2011) Towards a social psychology of citizenship? Introduction to the special issue, Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 21(3): 193201. doi: 10.1002/casp.1089

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Dawson, M. (2012) Reviewing the critique of individualization: the disembedded and embedded theses, Acta Sociologica, 55(4): 30519. doi: 10.1177/0001699312447634

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Foster, R. (2017) Social character: Erich Fromm and the ideological glue of neoliberalism, Critical Horizons, 18(1): 118. doi: 10.1080/14409917.2017.1275166

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Fromm, E. (1968) The Revolution of Hope: Toward a Humanized Technology, New York, NY: Harper & Row.

  • Fromm, E. (1994) On Being Human, New York, NY: Continuum Publishing Company.

  • Fromm, E. (2002) The Sane Society, Milton Park: Routledge.

  • Fromm, E. (2013) You Shall Be As Gods: A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and its Tradition, New York, NY: Open Road Media.

  • Fromm, E. (2023) The Pathology of Normalcy, New York, NY: Open Road Media.

  • Funk, R. (1982) Erich Fromm: The Courage to Be Human, New York, NY: Continuum.

  • Funk, R. (1998) Erich Fromm’s concept of social character, Social Thought & Research, 21(1/2): 21529.

  • Funk, R. (2010) Living by the manual: ego-oriented social character–pathogenic effects of globalization, International Forum of Psychoanalysis, 19(2): 8491. doi: 10.1080/08037060902815400

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Gergen, K.J. (2023) The social sciences as future forming, Possibility Studies & Society, 1(1–2): 816. doi: 10.1177/27538699231157624

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Gili, G. and Mangone, E. (2023) Is a sociology of hope possible? An attempt to recompose a theoretical framework and a research programme, The American Sociologist, 54(1): 735. doi: 10.1007/s12108-022-09539-y

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Habermas, J. (1990) The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: Twelve Lectures, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

  • Isin, E.F. (2017) Citizenship in flux: the figure of the activist citizen, in J. Shaw (ed) Citizenship Rights, London: Routledge, pp 34162.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Kühn, T. (2015) Kritische Sozialpsychologie des Modernen Alltags [Critical Social Psychology of Modern Everyday Life], Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Langer, P. (2019) Sozial- als Friedenspsychologie denken [Social as peace psychology], in C. Kirchhoff, T. Kuhn, P.C. Langer, S. Lanwerd and F. Schumann (eds) Psychoanalytisch Denken [Thinking Psychoanalytically], Gießen: Psychosozial, pp 69119.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Maccoby, M. (1995) The two voices of Erich Fromm: prophet and analyst, Society, 32(5): 7282. doi: 10.1007/bf02693341

  • Marcuse, H. (1955) The social implications of Freudian revisionism, Dissent, 2(3): 22140.

  • Marcuse, H. (1956) A reply to Erich Fromm, Dissent, 3(1): 7981.

  • Marcuse, H. (1962) Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud, New York: Vintage Books.

  • Marcuse, H. (1964) One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society, Boston, MA: Beacon.

  • McLaughlin, N. (2017) The Fromm–Marcuse debate and the future of critical theory, in M.J. Thompson (ed) The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Theory, New York, NY: Palgrave, pp 481501.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • McLaughlin, N. (2019) The coming triumph of the psychosocial perspective: lessons from the rise, fall and revival of Erich Fromm, Journal of Psychosocial Studies, 12(1–2): 922. doi: 10.1332/147867319x15608718110871

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Rickert, J. (1986) The Fromm-Marcuse debate revisited, Theory and Society, 351400.

  • Skjoldager-Nielsen, K. and Edelman, J. (2014) Liminality, Ecumenica, 7(1–2): 3340. doi: 10.5325/ecumenica.7.1-2.0033

  • Stenner, P. (2021) Theorising liminality between art and life: the liminal sources of cultural experience, in B. Wagoner and T. Zittoun (eds) Experience on the Edge: Theorizing Liminality, Cham: Springer, pp 342.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Stevenson, C., Hopkins, N., Luyt, R. and Dixon, J. (2015) The social psychology of citizenship: engagement with citizenship studies and future research, Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 3(2): 192210. doi: 10.5964/jspp.v3i2.581

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Turner, V.W. (1979) Betwixt and between. the liminal period in rites de passage, in W.A. Lessa and E.Z. Vogt (eds) Reader in Comparative Religion: An Anthropological Approach, San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, pp 23443.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
Niclas O’Donnokoé International Psychoanalytic University Berlin, Germany

Search for other papers by Niclas O’Donnokoé in
Current site
Google Scholar
Close
,
Christopher Steffen International Psychoanalytic University Berlin, Germany

Search for other papers by Christopher Steffen in
Current site
Google Scholar
Close
, and
Phil C. Langer International Psychoanalytic University Berlin, Germany; Humboldt-University Berlin, Germanyand Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany

Search for other papers by Phil C. Langer in
Current site
Google Scholar
Close

Content Metrics

May 2022 onwards Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 5297 5297 5297
Full Text Views 40 40 40
PDF Downloads 26 26 26

Altmetrics

Dimensions