Reconsidering Fromm and feminisms, part II: a case for psychosocial compatibilities

This article continues an earlier one about how the work of Erich Fromm and feminist theories are compatible despite the connection usually remaining overlooked. Drawing on Fromm’s critique of Freud’s analysis of Dora, but also going further, I argue that associating Fromm and contemporary feminist thought is particularly important in the context of growing authoritarianism on the right and sometimes as reflected also on the left. The article elaborates upon five points of ‘psychosocial compatibility’ between Fromm’s humanistic vision and the ideas of several well-known feminist theorists including Simone de Beauvoir, Nancy Chodorow, Jessica Benjamin and others. The five points of psychosocial compatibility addressed between From and contemporary feminisms as addressed here are: connecting the personal and the political while stressing the prefigurative; kindred issues concerning objectification and self-love; emphases on relatedness and the pre-oedipal stage of human development; concerns about multi-dimensionality and intersectionality; and shared political beliefs aimed at overcoming gender and other oppressive inequalities