Necrophilia according to Erich Fromm

The necrophilia, for Erich Fromm, is The opposite of biophilia. It is one of the greatest evils that afflict humanity.

According to Fromm, necrophilia becomes Lack of love in Western society. Who is necrophile lives mechanically, turning feelings and thoughts into things. The necrophile person also has the peculiarity of wanting to live a life that is predictable. The only security of this person is death, which yearns.

There are several things that this psychoanalyst observes in the western world, such as the facades built with concrete and steel, the modern armament, the nuclear race, the idolatry towards the technology of the large machines and the bureaucracy, where the necrophilia is present.

Necrophilia and attraction to the destructive

Erich Fromm was a recognized psychoanalyst, psychologist and humanist philosopher, of German Jewish origin. The first time he presented his studies on the necrophile character was in 1964, in his work The heart of man, And he deepened this notion in his book Anatomy of human destructiveness, of 1973.

It is estimated that the idea of ​​biophilia, as a ability that human beings have, Fromm took it from the work of Rabbino Rabinkow, from whom he was a disciple, with the difference that, while Rabinkow centered it on the Jews, from applied it to All human beings.

Fromm resumed the humanistic vision of Judaism and did new research on the biophilia of man, examining in depth the ability to love, autonomy and orientation towards solidarity and freedom.

But Fromm also observed the marked interest that man has towards law and order, rather than for life, The claim of the punishment for criminals and the obsession with violence, which are a sample of necrophilia and the attraction it exerts in contemporaneity.

The necrophile person is attracted to what is not alive, such as bodies, feces, garbage and wilting.

Speak more about diseases, deaths and burials. Also, Remember the past more and you are not interested in the future or the present. For Fromm, necrophilia is the Attraction towards everything corrupted, the dead, the sickly and furry, Wanting to transform what is alive for something that is not, destroying and attraction for everything that is mechanical. Defines it as the passion for destroying the structures that are alive.

The necrophyl character has other manifestations, according to this author, such as having the conviction that The only way to solve a conflict is through violence and strength. Given the problems of life, necrophils have an exit that is destructive, evading understanding.

Necrophils can also be identified by their interest to talk about diseases, deaths, the way of reading the newspaper, fixing their attention only in the obituaries or the news in which there are dead. They also have a conversation that is absent from life, staying cold and rigid, such as trying to stay out. The past is what has value and is sacred, not the present.

Fromm clarifies that Only a minority is completely necrophile, since most people have a biophile trend, even if it is a bit weak.

The concept of death in different cultures and religions

Actually, for Fromm, We all have necrophile inclinations and biophiles, which produces internal conflicts, But the result will depend on intensity and social conditions, which can reinforce these orientations, in addition to the events in the life of each one. Fromm pointed out that there were some people who did not show a vestige of necrophilia, such as Albert Schweitzer, Pope John XXXIII, or Albert Einstein himself.

This author emphasizes that people with a strong tendency to necrophilia are dangerous, since they hate, as they do racist people, who prefer to solve problems through wars and destruction. These individuals are dangerous if they come to power, as well as they are if they occupy positions close to dictators.

It can happen, within a family, that emotions that denote joy are restrained, an environment may also predominates in which vitality is lacking, so, In some families no signs of life are detected, since everything is programmed and responds to routines that are inflexible, where parents consider any diversion of the planned as a mistake.

By their nature, children are lively and active, but they can be forced to assume a behavior in which joy is not present. Those individuals who have no joy in their life will have the tendency to accentuate their inclination towards the destruction of life, because otherwise they would have to assume that their life makes no sense. Destructivity would be the product of an unlink life, in Fromm.

Who fears irrational to death also fails not having known how to live, then, this is the expression of a guilty conscience for having wrapped life. Fromm argued that "dying is painfully bitter, but the idea of ​​having to die, without having lived is unbearable".

In contrast to all the above, there is biophilia, which is consists of a love towards life and everything alive, the desire to grow and develop. The biophile person will prefer to build, instead of conserving, he wants to be more and have no more, You can ask questions and marvel, you prefer to see the new rather than find confirmation in travel; He prefers the whole to the parties, wants to influence love and example, rather than force. He is not a consumer passionate about the freshly left in the market and is governed by the ethical principle of Good is everything that favors life and evil is everything that serves death, As stated from Fromm.

These notions of biophilia and necrophilia are related to the concepts developed by Sigmund Freud of life instinct and death instinct. But, while for Freud both principles had a common biological origin, For Fromm the attraction for life is a normal impulse, while the contario is considered a psychopathology, as a result of frustrated development, of a life that was not fully lived.

Finally, for a child to develop love for life, they must be surrounded by people with this orientation, since both trends are contagious. The necessary conditions for life to develop are freedom, affectionate relationships, love, absence of threats and teach through example, while Necrophilia is driven by the lack of stimulus, routine life, coldness and strict order.

Existential psychotherapy, the most philosophical approach to psychology

Bibliography

• Fromm, e. (1977). Anatomy of human destructiveness. XXI century.
• Fromm, e. (1992). The heart of man. USA ECONOMIC CULTURE.
• Fromm, e., & Germani, G. (1977). the fear to the freedom. Buenos Aires: Paidós.
• Fromm, e. (1964). Psychoanalysis of contemporary society: towards a healthy society. Fund of Economic Culture.