Time and Place: New York on October 24, 1949

Abstract: The lecture “The Man – Woman Relation” starts with the notion that this relationship is essentially a relationship between human beings and hence depending on defects in person-to-person relationship. But at the same time, it is a relationship between a victorious and a defeated group. This has been true for the last 5.000 to 6.000 years. In many places, patriarchal societies were preceded by matriarchal societies. Using examples from matriarchal evidence, typical prejudices of patriarchal thinking are discussed, as is the question of psychological equality between the sexes. For Fromm, however, equality never implies a lack of difference. On the contrary, the male and female aspect in every individual is one of polarity. Then Fromm focuses on the damaging effects of social character on the relationship between the sexes— and illustrates this with examples relating to the marketing social character. In this context, the role that love and sexuality play in such gender relationships is also explored. With regard to the actual differences between the sexes, Fromm speaks at length about tenderness. – The lecture was given on October 24, 1949, in the series “Psychiatry and Personal Relations” of Town Hall’s short courses on mental health in New York. The lecture (44’) is followed by Fromm’s answers (25’) 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/): 1949d-eng