Time and Place:New York at Kaufman Concert Hall on April 4, 1963

Abstract: Sixth lecture of the Humanist Psychoanalysis series, given by Erich Fromm on the invitation of the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association at Kaufman Concert Hall

Erich Fromm’s book The Heart of Man (1964) contains three chapters dealing with the origins of human aggression and destructiveness. The three-part lecture series „The Psychological Roots of War and Destruction” Fromm gave at the invitation of the New York Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association in April 1963. The lectures are based on the manuscript for the book The Heart of Man. Part 1 addresses two fundamentally different views of human nature: whether humans are by nature sheep or wolves—in other words, whether humans have an innate type of aggression that seeks to destroy. Fromm distinguishes between five types of human destructiveness. In the first part, he discusses „playful aggression,” “reactive aggression,” and “compensatory hostility.” – In his book The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973) Fromm revisits the question, based on empirical findings, and concludes that there are three types of destructiveness that can only be found in humans: sadistic cruelty, narcissistic violence, and necrophilic destructiveness. The lecture (48’) is followed by Fromm’s answers (17’) 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/): 1963p-eng