Social Philosophy

Escape from Freedom

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Erich Fromm

1941

Fromm's landmark analysis of the psychological appeal of authoritarianism, written in the shadow of Nazism. He argues that modern freedom — liberation from the bonds of medieval community — produces an unbearable anxiety of isolation that drives people to escape into authoritarian submission or destructiveness. The book combines Freudian psychology, Marxist social theory, and existential philosophy to explain why free individuals surrender their freedom.