Existential human needs in the theory of Frome

Over the past 100 years, a large number of schools and fields have appeared on the field of psychology, studying and trying to explain the existential needs of the individual. An important tool for the socio-psychological analysis of human behavior in society is a comprehensive comparison of the subject's relationship with the surrounding world and people. Eric Fromm argued that the behavior of a healthy person in society is due to the realization that by virtue of his natural characteristics he seeks to establish connections in society, to overcome himself, to take root in life, to identify himself, to build his own system of moral values.

1. Existential communication needs

Throughout his life, a person consciously or unconsciously seeks to unite with other people. According to Eric Fromm, there are only 3 ways to meet this need. You can obey the rules and requirements of a group or another individual, you can dominate someone, you can be connected with people or an individual through love. Moreover, From the point of view of his humanistic theory, Frome persuaded public opinion that it was unreasonable to satisfy through his power or subordination his existential needs. This only love is the right way to preserve the integrity of nature, inner strength and self-confidence.

The social bond of people on the model of power - subordination is detrimental, because it can not fully satisfy this need. Due to the collateral appearance of a gross dependence among themselves, the dominating and the subordinate partially lose their "I".

2. The existential needs for overcoming oneself

A difficult concept is to strive for creation.

The productive way lies through the process of creativity and its manifestations in art, science, religion. Man by nature tries to show how he, being a primacy, differs from representatives of the animal world. Therefore, people create social institutions, material values, moral norms, to some extent positioning love as the driving force for the development of their biological species.

An irrational way to meet the need is to display malicious aggression. Killing and turning another into a victim, someone sees their importance in demonstrating the dominant force, subconsciously raising internal conflicts.

3. Man's existential needs for rooting

To feel a full-fledged representative of its kind, it is important for a person to be aware of their roots. Therefore, the mother's connection with the child is so strong. Agreeing with Freud, Fromm acknowledged the presence of incestuous aspirations in the child's psyche, but argued that their cause is not sexual desire, but a subconscious desire to return to the mother's womb in order to take root, to achieve a full sense of security.

The productive way of rooting consists in the natural withdrawal from the mother's breast, in active interaction with the world, in the development of adaptive abilities and in the achievement of the integrity of the personality in conditions of a realized reality.

An unproductive way consists in fixing one's thinking in the limits limited by the mother, without the desire for independence. People who walk this way insecure, overwhelmed with inner fears, are extremely dependent.

4. Existential needs for self-identity

In man, the independent formation of the concept of one's own "I" is inherent in nature, the result of which is the realization of the fact that "I am responsible for myself". It is easier to identify with different institutions: with the state, the nation, religion, profession, social group, place of residence. In the simplified model of identification, a threat of global conformism, herd instinct, dependent membership in the crowd, where the individual remains only a word, loses the objective essence of its lexical meaning.

The other extreme is hidden in a situation where a person is deprived of the ability to identify with someone or something. You can lose your mind. People who do not have psychological problems, are able to identify themselves outside the crowd, while their criteria correspond to reality.

5. Existential needs in the value system

A person devoid of moral reference points, moves through life like a blind kitten. The system of values he creates, as the basis of his behavior, the rules, relying on which lives life is productive or destructive from the point of view Fromm. History knows many personalities who paid their lives for the preservation of their value system.