The needs of man

The needs of being human

In the previous chapter Introduction to Sane Society we delved into what Fromm terms as human condition. The human condition is constructed by the tension between the natural endowments of man to be instictually and symbiotically connected to nature, and equally essential, but non-biological characteristics of self awareness, reason and imagination. Out of this dialectical tension, man has parted away from nature. And in this predicament, he is aware of his few fundamental needs.

Fromm then categorizes these fundamental needs of man into 5 categories as follows -

graph TD A(1. Relatedness through love) B(2. Transcendence through creativity) C(3. Rootedness in self awareness, imagination and reason) D(4. Sense of identity derived from self, not herd) E(5. Frame of orientation and devotion)

Need 1 : Relatedness vs. Narcissism :

Man’s need for relatedness with other living beings is for Fromm a consequence of being “torn away from primary union with nature”. He needs to quench this primordial need in him. However, in the post modern capitalistic society man cannot relate to the other fellow humans, in love and relatedness. Rather the fellow man is his competitor, hir rival, his enemy. This leads to a state of alienation and loneliness.

For Fromm, false relatedness is as bad as none at all. False relatedness is manifested by phony teamwork, forced in aggregation, fear, control, and manipulation.
True relatedness - love - is essentially symmetrical, based on equality and respect, in contrast to sadistic or masochistic relationships in which either the subjectivity of the other, or one’s own is denied.

Need 2 : Transcendence vs. Destructiveness

Fromm observes that being endowed with reason and imagination, man cannot be content with the passive role of the creature, which the role of dice cast out of a cup. The need to assert himself (transcendence) is a fundamental need, and it can take form of either creativity / love or destructiveness / hatred.
Fromm says -

Creation and destruction, love and hate, are not two instincts which exist independently. They are both answers to the same need of transcendence, and the will to destroy must rise when the will to create cannot be satisfied.

Need 3 : Rootedness brotherliness vs. incest

Fromm observes the dialectics of matriarchal and patriarchal societies, and the similar propensities in man. The former is more nurturing, and the latter is more aggressive and acquisitive. Forms formulates his ideas in term of a balance between the two. Fromm observes that too much nurturing mindset is a regression towards a neurosis of incest, which he uses to project the idea of man’s regression into the oneness with nature’s symbiotic bliss, like other animals. Fromm maintains that the true vocation of man is already something that is parted away from that regressive unity with nature. This new path of unity is the - creative unity which is in unison proclaimed by both Tagore and Fromm.

In this effort to strike a balance between that incestuous tie with the soil and the clan, and that individuality of the self, Fromm, formulates the idea of identity derivation not from the herd, but from the self! This leads us into the 4th need of man.

Need 4 : Sense of identity - individuality vs. herd conformity

The need for an individual identity is, accordingly to Fromm, a further essential characteristic of man. Western culture is not the originator of this need, but rather an attempt to provide or it. Identification with a group is a substitute for the true identity, and represents a regression to an earlier stage of cultural development.
Fromm observes the following -

Mental health is characterized by the ability to love and create,
By the emergence from incestuous ties to clan and soul,
by a sense of identity based on one’s experience of self,
as the subject and agent of one’s powers,
by the grasp of reality inside and outside of oneself,
that is, by the development of objectivity and reason!

Need 5 : The need for a frame of orientation and devotion

This needs has two components : first, a need to be able to make sense of the world in a more than purely intellectual way (“devotion); and the second, a preference for “objective” frames of reference - that is, those which “correspond to reality” - rather than purely mythical ones.
Here Fromm talks about active faith.
The correspondence with the objective reality, and on the top of that having that Devotion beyond what is visible is the fundamental need of man. Here Fromm time and again talks about power of myths, and forgotten language in art and literature, that enables man to unfold his creativity and love, and to transcend the alienation of the modern world.

Later Fromm would methodically build on his conceptual framework, on how man can operate to meet these needs, thereby building a sane society, for himself and the other.