Paths From Erich Fromm: Thinking Authority Pedagogically

Abstract

Critical psychologist, Erich Fromm, addresses the notion of authority in a way that reveals it as an ethical issue, one that teachers and other political workers must confront everyday. When combined with his work on negative freedom, Fromm provides an important contribution to the way we might think authority pedagogically, using power productively and non-authoritatively in the service of democratic ideals. Drawing from Fromm's work, this article confronts the disturbing relationship between individualism on one hand, and the ability for individuals to think collectively and transform social structures on the other. In this context, atomization becomes a dimension of both fascism and capitalism, one that positions freedom as the antithesis of political action.