Though generally thought of as a brilliant social commentator, Fromm was first a great psychoanalyst. These posthumous writings combine two aspects of Fromm's thinking, building on Freudian theory and also modifying it with a unique humanist view. For Fromm, the essence of psychological health involves communication between the irrational and rational parts of the personality. The art of therapy is the art of listening.
Although Erich Fromm intended to publish his work as a practicing psychotherapist, these plans were never realized in his lifetime. This volume fulfills his wish. Not intended as a textbook about psychoanalytic therapy, these reflections provide welcome new information about Fromm the therapist and the way he dealt with the psychological suffering of his patients. As Fromm envisioned, each chapter is structured to capture the informality and intimacy of his psychoanalytic work so that readers get a new and different sense of Fromm's humanism, honesty and insight. These talks and seminars, given by Fromm between 1964 and his death in 1980, deal with the issues between analyst and analysand that go to the heart of the psychoanalytic process. For Fromm, the analyst is his or her own next patient, as the patient becomes his or her analyst.