Secularism is religion
Erich Fromm
Psychoanalysis and Religion
Review by Kim Han-Kyung, 2001
Fromm, Erich. Psychoanalysis and Religion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1950.
As a social scientist and psychologist, Erich Fromm suggests a somewhat different definition of religion from those definitions generally in use in the field of phenomenology of religion, which are narrower. For Fromm, religion is “any system of thought and action shared by a group which gives the individual a frame of orientation and an object of devotion” (21). With this definition of religion, Fromm contends that secular systems such as fascism, authoritarianism, and all the different kinds of idealism deserve the name of religion. In addition, by using the term, “private religion,” he gives the title of religion to neurosis, craving for success, money, and the like.
There is no human being who does not have a religious need. Almost every sector of human life reflects religious need and its fulfillment. For example, Fromm sees a kind of totemism in a person whose devotion is to the state or her political party, and a religion of cleanliness in a lot of American soldiers during the World War II, who thought highly of English and Germans and lowly of French and Italians. If this is the case, religious experiences are not unusual or extraordinary in everyday human life. Yet, to analyze those phenomena systematically, Fromm employs a distinction between “authoritarian and “humanistic” religions.
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