Introduction
Why Fromm?
Chapter 1
A Comprehensive Overview of Fromm’s Primary Works
Chapter 2
Fromm’s Main Theoretical Contribution
Chapter 3
Perception of Fromm in Political Theory
Chapter 4
The Relevance of Fromm’s Political Theory for Today
Conclusion
Is Fromm Still Relevant?
Biography
Takamichi Sakurai is a Senior Researcher at Keio Research Institute, Keio University SFC, Japan. Sakurai is the founding Co-Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journal Comparative Political Theory and a member of the Advisory Council of the Association for Global Political Thought (Harvard University). He is author of New Perspectives on Comparative Political Theory.
In an age where ever more millions take refuge in personalized algorithmic silos and rabbit holes, while populist delusions of restoring the homeland to a mythic greatness ravage the international community, it is both a pleasure and a relief to read Takamichi Sakurai’s timely analysis of Erich Fromm’s theory of fascism. It was first written while the final victory of Nazism was still a real possibility, and went far beyond contemporary understanding of fascism by using Freudian Marxism with unusual creativity to explain how millions had mistakenly chosen to taken refuge in the eye of the Axis hurricane which was destroying Western civilization. Sakurai sympathetically explores Fromm thesis attributing fascism’s catastrophic rise to its success in providing an existential shelter from the external chaos and inner anomie had descended on Europe after 1918, a thesis adds a vital perspective to the contemporary wars being waged by some movements to eradicate the “liberal” from liberal democracy.
- Roger Griffin, author of Fascism: An introduction to comparative fascist studies (2018)
