The Sane Society by Erich Fromm | (PDF) Free Download

Description

A New York Times bestseller about overcoming the profound ills of modern society by a legendary social psychologist, the author of Escape from Freedom. One of Fromm’s main interests was to analyze social systems and their impact on the mental health of the individual. In this study, he reaches further and asks: “Can a society be sick?” He finds that it can, arguing that Western culture is immersed in a “pathology of normalcy” that affects the mental health of individuals. In The Sane Society, Fromm examines the alienating effects of modern capitalism, and discusses historical and contemporary alternatives, particularly communitarian systems. Finally, he presents new ideas for a re-organization of economics, politics, and culture that would support the individual’s mental health and our profound human needs for love and freedom. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Erich Fromm including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s estate.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I read THE SANE SOCIETY when I was 23, and it was possibly the most influential book I ever read. At that time, I had just had the epiphanic realization that society is insane. I have never changed my mind about that, though I’ve learned to live with it less uncomfortably. I thought that if people just read and paid attention to Erich Fromm we could straighten everything out. I have changed my mind about that, but still think it is an essential first step. The insanity of society does not seem like it should be incurable. It is a mental state rather than an organic defect.Fromm spends a lot of time elaborating upon alienation of modern man. For most workers, this alienation is caused by the dissociation of their work from the purpose of that work. This is much more true for manual workers than professionals, though both are plagued by this. I became a school teacher because I’d seen how little education has to do with preparing people for life. “When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it’s a wonder that I can think at all,” as Paul Simon sang. Any education which deserves the name should be about teaching people how to think, but that can’t be done without threatening people’s sense of piety or patriotism. Which are the very things which make people insane.Fromm states that the messages of Moses, Christ, Muhammad, and Buddha (and perhaps even Marx?) are all essentially the same. This implies that there is an underlying objective Truth in the Universe that everyone should be capable of agreeing upon. That there should be criteria for deciding upon moral truths that all reasonable people could agree upon. If we were not alienated from our “true selves.” So the purpose of organized religion is not to help us connect with the core of our being, which was the purpose of the teaching of these men, but to keep us divorced from ourselves. If this was indeed the purpose of our religious founders, (and this was my realization in my epiphanal moment), then it is true that religions are doing the opposite of what their founders had in mind.On the other hand, I find the argument that Moses and Christ and Buddha had the same message difficult to swallow. Reading about Abraham, Job, Moses, and Samuel and so on was what originally made me hate religion. I see no wisdom, nor even sanity, in their stories. I wish someone could explain how it is possible to disagree with this perception.

⭐I think everyone should read Erich Fromm. Over 50 years ago he was laying out what we were to become if we didn’t make some changes in our society. We didn’t and we are apathetic robots, lied to by our elected officials who care only about money and power and not about the country we live in. We have little pride in our jobs, and as unions weaken, the wages of the workers go down and the wealthy grow rich and powerful. They have bought the people we vote in office, and we sit around and watch sports and do nothing. We have lost our democracy and are now an oligarchy and if we keep on in this direction, we will become a third world country. I’m too old to see it all happen, but I have lived during the times when we were a great country, united and strong and respected around the world. No longer. Too sad. Read the Sane Society, Man For Himself and Escape from Freedom.

⭐This was CORRECTLY delivered!! (Made a mistake to say it was not.)

⭐This book was written about 50 years ago and still up-to date, I just copied this small paragraph that give an idea about the core of Fromm message:” The western world have created a great material wealth more than any other society in the history of the human race. Yet we have managed to kill of millions of our population in an arrangement, which we call war. During these wars, every participant firmly believes that he was fighting in his self-defense, for his honor, or that he was backed up by God. The groups with whom one is at war are, often from one day to the next, looked upon as cruel irrational fiends whom one must defeat to save the world from evil. But a few years after the mutual slaughter is over the enemies of yesterday are our friends, the friend s of yesterday our enemies, and again in full seriousness we begin to paint them with appropriate colors of black and white. “Fromm message is a one that should be heard by all human beings: love between neighbors , love in societies , countries and nations, is the only solution.Love.

⭐Takes me back to optimistic times

⭐Sane Society is one of the best books I ever read. Erich Fromm makes a brilliant analysis of why humans tend to like and support dictatorships and authoritarian governments such as the nazis and fascim. He also talks about why in our current democratic contries, people give up being who they really are to become someone dictated by society in order to cope with loneliness and powerlessness and, meanwhile, firmly believing they are who they really are and are expressing their uniqueness. I pretend reread this book soon and do it many times more in the future. It is a wonderful guide into the human soul and helps to explain why there are so many misery, injustice and cruelty in the world. I recomend.

⭐Read this in college, ’70’s. Timeless information. As applicable now as then. But what, I ask, have we learned from Dr. Fromm? We are still making the same mistakes over and over again. One symptom of psychosis.

⭐I read this book in college a long long time ago. It never seemed to gain any popularity or following. The ideas about society are still quite pertinent and really show how little we have evolved in the last 60 years. It helps explain the nonsense that frustrates most of us….but never seems to change. It explains…. but obviously we haven’t solved any of the problems.

⭐I originally read this book several years ago after my flatmates rescued a tattered 1970s edition from a wheelie bin in Edinburgh. From the opening paragraphs it gripped me almost like a novel and I am so pleased there is now an edition on Kindle so that I can take it with me everywhere.The text itself is a classic. In it Fromm explains several ways in which modern, western society operates in a fashion that could be legitimately claimed to be ‘insane’ (and even, on occasion, ‘pathological’). Despite the apparent strength of this claim, this is not, fortunately, another flaming tirade about the corruption and ills of modern society, but rather a careful and considered analysis from a leading psychoanalyst of his day. It is also notable for being one of the rare instances where such a book dares to propose solutions as well as simply identifying problems.Fromm’s style of writing is also praiseworthy. For the general reader this is most definitely an academic book filled with challenging concepts and ideas, but Fromm (most of the time) manages to engage the reader without ever slipping into the light and familiar tone of so many pop-psychology books published today. He treats the reader as neither an expert nor an idiot, but as what his book tells us man should be: a thoughtful and curious creature, engaged with his world and surroundings.

⭐The writer takes you through the evolution of man and his character. The writer also discusses various political systems and there impact on man and vice versa. I liked most of what i read as it helps to understand the reasons of why man acts the way he does. What is fascinating is that lot of points are relevant even today. The book is a good read for someone interested in learning about the growth of man esp in 19th and 20th century and the society along with him.

⭐I have been a fan of Erich Fromm almost since I could read. He writes in a clear easy to follow style but leads you to understand complex relationships and social connections and how they impact on individual feelings of self worth.

⭐On the back cover it states that this book belongs in the psychology section of your local bookstore. To me it seems that it belongs more in the sociology or perhaps social-psychology section. Fromm’s book does deal with psychology but from a societal perspective and that is what gives it its importance.Fromm zeroes in on the bureaucratization which develops in any technological society, whether in the capitalist West or in the Soviet Union. This bureaucratization is the main reason for the alienation that individuals feel. In the West we live in a mass society which requires that we are obedient, yet believe ourselves to be free, that we can be persuaded that we want more of anything and everything that is offered on the almighty Market, yet still believe that we are acting of our own free will and that we are good team players and can conform completely while at the same time believing that we are individuals above all else. Is it any wonder that we feel anxious, stressful, perhaps even a little nuts?Fromm does offer some solutions and he leaves the door open to various options. He states that he is a socialist and that is the basis for his critique of modern society. He states unequivocally that the Soviet Union should not in any way be considered a socialist society; if anything he believed that the working conditions in Stalinist Russia resembled those of early Western capitalist societies with workers subject to overwork, poverty and ruthless exploitation.Erich Fromm’s solutions were based on a Humanistic approach which was diametrically opposed to the exploitation and mind-numbing tedium which he saw in both East and West. The development of a society on a Human scale was what Fromm wanted, a sane society.This book is definitely worth reading despite being published in 1955 and I wonder what Fromm would have made of our current hyper-capitalist system that seems even more inhuman and inhumane than the system the West had in the 1950s. Are we progressing? Regressing? Going in circles? Almost sixty years after the publication of “The Sane Society” are we any less insane?

⭐This is a great read and a really thought provoking book. Enjoyed it enormously. Helps us remember that just because things are a certain way, doesnt mean that’s the best way.

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