ABSTRACT
Erich Fromm has often been classified as a Neo-Freudian member of the culturistic school of psychoanalysis. Whereas in rejecting the under-socialized model of human nature characterizing Freud's biologistic instinct theory the culturalists succumbed to an over-socialized, socially determinist model, Fromm embraced a humanistic existentialism offering a dialectical understanding in which human reality is irreducible to nature or culture or their simple interaction. Like Marx, Fromm presents a qualified essentialism distinguishing human nature in general from its various socially and historically conditioned forms. While critical of aspects of Fromm's work, such as his resort to the naturalistic fallacy, exaggeration of humanity's break with nature, sociological relativization of the Oedipus complex, and anthropocentrism, his critique of the authoritarian superego is endorsed, as is his clear understanding of the ethical foundations of psychoanalysis and the role of humane values in clinical practice.
