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Erich Fromm's Thought in Giorgio Risari's Reading

Rome, 15 Oct. (askanews) – Born on March 23, 1900 in Frankfurt am Main, Erich Fromm had the merit of exploring in depth the interaction between psychology and society. Applying psychoanalytic principles to the remedy of cultural ills, the American philosopher of German origins believed that humanity could develop a mentally healthy and psychologically balanced society. The Art of Loving is his best-known book in which he explains how experiencing a feeling is fundamental for people, but in many cases, the true meaning. Love is mostly mistaken for the need to be loved. In this way, a creative, dynamic and stimulating act is transformed into a selfish attempt to please. But true love, this is Fromm's thought, is a much deeper feeling, which requires effort and wisdom, humility and courage, and, above all, it is something that can be learned.

Today, Fromm, who died in March 1980, is considered one of the most important psychoanalysts of the 20th century. A student of Freud, he distanced himself on some theories such as the Oedipus complex, the life and death instincts and the concept of libido. Giorgio Risari, a high school teacher from Brescia, is the greatest expert on his thought, which he has studied in depth with a crazy and desperate study: "I managed to find some of his unpublished texts - he explains - which I then collected in a volume". The volume is entitled La visione dell'uomo e del mondo: “It is - says Risari, who, from November, will be teaching at the Pragma School of Philosophy in Milan - a book that aims to help fill the gap in the Italian bibliography on Fromm, giving the possibility of glimpsing new and unknown theoretical aspects of his thought, both in the underlying philosophical part, but also openly expressed, and in the psychoanalytic part, in which he outlines a humanistic psychoanalysis, translatable in an existentialist key”.

Combining the critical dialectical review of Freud's classical psychoanalysis with philosophy understood as a search for meaning, significance, value, Fromm sets himself the goal of developing and perfecting specifically human qualities and faculties, through the practice of an analysis based on meditation and philosophical-humanistic critical thinking, parallel and complementary to individual analysis: "The important critical and bibliographic apparatus of the work - recalls Risari who, the only Italian, will give a report on the topic at a Congress in Brazil - allows one to follow with lucidity and acumen the full depth of Fromm's thought, which is increasingly relevant today. In my work, I have discovered other unpublished thoughts by Fromm that I am translating and that will enrich my book in a forthcoming reprint, making it even more appealing".