Time and Place:New York at Kaufman Concert Hall on April 11, 1968

Abstract: The lecture series The Causes of Human Aggression and Destructiveness presents the results of research published by Erich Fromm in his book The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973). In the first part of the fourth lecture Fromm discusses the connection between violence and environmental conditions by particularly drawing on Father Wasson’s experiences with orphaned and often criminal children. For Fromm humans are not destructive because of their instinctual resp. animal inheritance; on the contrary, they are much more destructive than animals. Hence one has to search for the specific conditions of human existence to explain human destructiveness. According to the conditions one can differentiate between different kinds of human. A first type that is described in this lecture is playful destruction as a destruction without destructive intention – as for instance practiced in Zen Buddhism. A second type of destruction without necessarily having a destructive intention is instrumental destructiveness. In the last part of this lecture Fromm speaks from inhibitory factors to exercise instrumental destruction: Why don’t people steal and kill if they want something? – The lecture was given by Erich Fromm on the invitation of the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association at Kaufman Concert Hall. The lecture (55’) is followed by Fromm’s answers (23’) to questions from the audience.

The text of the lecture and discussion can be downloaded as a PDF file.

ID in the directory of Erich Fromm’s works (https://fromm-online.org/en/works/original-writings/): 1968q-eng