The Dogma of Christ [Paperback]

This is a great early work by the author of The Fear of Freedom (Routledge Classics), The Sane Society (Routledge Classics) and To Have or to be?, which features the characteristic blending of philosophy, religion, psychology and social criticism for which he has gathered a following.

The book has a very clear contents and a comprehensive index making it accessible to browsing and skimming or a more indepth read. In addition to the original work there is a 2004 preface written by Jeremy Carrette which, counter to the trend in most of the introductions or prefaces composed for the Routledge Classics range, seriously condemns neo-liberalism and contextualises Fromm's work as an early opponent of these trends. Its interesting that while The Sane Society (Routledge Classics) has been enthusiastically taken up by the opponents of neo-liberal trends and The Fear of Freedom (Routledge Classics) taken up by all political quarters, this work has been largely overlooked.

Fromm's own preface states his anxieties about republishing the principle essay of this book, The Dogma of Christ, and other aspects of the collected essays because they where quite early pieces, when he was less critical of Freud (Fromm worked out most of his criticisms of Freud in The Fear of Freedom, this book has some very Freudian material in it, particularly in the chapter on "Sex and Character"). However he was persuaded and here in are contained the genesis of Fromm's theories of "social character", grasping how the internal worlds of individuals are shaped by their social context, in particular the economy and ideology.

Chapter headings break down as The Dogma of Christ; The Present Human Condition; Sex and Character; Psycho-Analysis - Science or Party Line?; The Revolutionary Character; Medicine and the Ethical Problem of Modern Man; On the Limitations and Dangers of Psychology and The Prophetic Concept of Peace.

Of these Sex and Character stands out as uncharacteristically Freudian for Fromm and is very orthodox discussing relations between the sexes in a very traditionally Freudian manner, indeed Fromm was a little embarrassed by this I felt in reading his preface. The principle essay The Dogma of Christ discusses the early Christian community, which Fromm acknowledged would require updating even at the time of this books first print run, discusses how religious outlook related to social context, particularly that of the subordinate and oppressed classes to which it appealed and then how it became a religion of the rulers over time. Psycho-Analysis - Science or Party Line? discusses the schism and fragmentation within the pscyho-analytic community, I felt this essay had ramifications far beyond its immediate subject matter and most of the events and processes he described mirrored/paralleled those which have gone on and do go on in the fields of politics, ideology and sciences beyond the life or human sciences.

The essay on revolutionary character is one which sticks particularly in my mind, Fromm discusses and contrasts what he considered to be essential differences between those who sincerely desire change and those instead are acting out of injured pride, a feeling that they are not given the recognition they deserve and will destroy individuals or systems which they consider the originaters of the slight. Fromm describes the character who will sincerely strive for change as revolutionaries while he characterises the other persona as that of the rebel. While I may not consider some of the examples that Fromm choose in this essay to be the best examples of what he was talking about I did feel that it was a very insightful look at how the individual and social are inter-linked.

Alongside Eric Berne's Beyond Games and Scripts and Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships this essay impressed me as one of the greatest considerations of how transference, projection, identification and other concepts from psychology and psycho-analysis operate. That is, how individuals patterened with particular sets of expectations, styles of thinking, inner dialogue and patterns of behaviour, what Berne labels "internal scripts" or "games playing" and Fromm "social character", can wind up visiting gross revenge upon strangers or the public for their home life or seeking validation or acceptance through state legislation and special recognition.

Through the whole book there can be traced Fromm's opposition to the invasiveness of market forces, his concern that all societies fascist, communist AND capitalist, where tending towards reducing individuals to automatons existing in a managerial society. The conclusion that a trend had already begun in which people where becoming more afraid of living than of dying is mentioned at the outset of the new preface and as Carrette observes this was even before Reaganomics and Thatcherism ensured the ascendency of market forces and managerialism.

As is Fromm's form, and as noted by his biographer in Erich Fromm: His Life and Ideas, at the conclusion of the book Fromm returns to his earliest influences, the old testament prophets and links this with his social critique. This is something which will appeal to his readership and no doubt be familiar to them, new readers or general readers need not be perturbed since it remains a social dialogue as opposed to theological investigation.

Ever wondered why the religion of an obscure Jewish sect grew and grew to envelop the world?

Fromm traces its origins as a reaction to a very real oppression undertaken by the Jewish aristocracy and Roman Imperialists and looks at it from a psychological perspective. Although couched in Freud which he later rejeced this piece of writing is an absolute must for anyone interested in religion, psychology, psychotherapy, history of ideas, history or just the human condition.

Fromm has undertaken the impossible and made the Bible come alive, not through digging into the physical ruins but the memory banks. Drawing on Freud and Marx he has undertaken a geneological unearthing that is fascinating and incendary.

This is how all history should be viewed, as a battle between ideas, fought thrugh economics and psychologies instead of the sterile mundane consumption of facts. Fromm has taken the critical stance of the Franfurt School and rewoven the magical insights.

The other essays written later also brim with more ideas than has been churned out in universities over the past 30 years.

Going backwards into the past will deliver the future because modernity has hit the buffers of the cul de sac.