Escape from Freedom Revisited: Erich Fromm, Psychoanalysis and the Threat of Fascism
Abstract
There are few psychoanalysts more closely associated with the notion of freedom than Erich Fromm. In 1941, Fromm published Escape from Freedom, which established him as a pioneering psychoanalyst and a public intellectual of global renown. The central chapter of Escape from Freedom was entitled, “Psychology of Nazism,” and in it, Fromm applied the principles of a social psychoanalysis to explain why people would be willing to give up their individual freedoms and embrace an authoritarian leader and a totalitarian regime. With the rise of far-right political parties throughout Europe and the United States, the importance of Fromm’s interdisciplinary study of freedom, and the responsibilities that a positive notion of freedom creates for us, has not diminished. This article revisits Fromm’s Escape from Freedom, focusing on both his social psychoanalytic approach, and on his contributions to understanding the limits of freedom, agency, and dangers posed by the reemergence of a fascist mind-set in the present day.
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Analyses of emerging technologies and conflict typically proceed at the level of governance, strategic risk, or legal-ethical critique; they rarely examine the psychological and characterological mechanisms through which technicized environments cultivate indifference, destructiveness, and moral disengagement.
“Analyses of emerging technologies and conflict typically proceed at the level of governance, strategic risk, or legal-ethical critique; they rarely examine the psychological and characterological mechanisms through which technicized environments cultivate indifference, destructiveness, and moral disengagement (Funk, 2025; Frie, 2025).”
From Toward a humanized technology: a reinterpretation of Erich Fromm’ s humanistic peace psychology (2026) · cites this paper as Frie, 2025
This renewed scholarship is often motivated by contemporary crises-resurgent authoritarianism, widening inequality, ecological precarity-and by the search for conceptual resources capable of resisting dehumanization and cultural resignation.
“This renewed scholarship is often motivated by contemporary crises—resurgent authoritarianism, widening inequality, ecological precarity—and by the search for conceptual resources capable of resisting dehumanization and cultural resignation (Frie, 2025).”
From Toward a humanized technology: a reinterpretation of Erich Fromm’ s humanistic peace psychology (2026) · cites this paper as Frie, 2025
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Toward a humanized technology: a reinterpretation of Erich Fromm’ s humanistic peace psychology
Wang, Y., Li, P., & Liu, W. (2026) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1646601 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
- Authors
- Frie, R.
- Corresponding author
- Frie, Roger
- ORCID
- Frie, Roger
- Venue
- Psychoanalytic Inquiry
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2025-09-18
- Volume
- 46
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 261-271
- ISSN
- 0735-1690 (ISSN-L)
- 1940-9133
- OpenAlex
- W4414312277
- Cited by
- 21
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21
- FWCI
- 52.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychoanalytic Inquiry (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Psychoanalysis and Social Critique
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Politics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › History, Medicine, and Leadership
- Keywords
- Erich Fromm, escape from freedom, socioanalysis, fascism, authoritarianism, freedom, agency, limits of freedom, far-right parties, totalitarianism
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