The Pathology of Normalcy by Fromm Erich

Author:Fromm, Erich [Fromm, Erich]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: American Mental Health Foundation Books
Published: 2010-10-26T00:00:00+00:00

TWO

The Concept of Mental Health

1 Prevailing Concepts of Mental Health There are basically two concepts of mental health. First, one might call the society-oriented one; and one I would call the man-oriented one—or to use another more familiar and more traditional word, a humanistic concept of mental health.

The society-oriented concept of mental health means that man is healthy if he can fulfill the functions that society gives him, if he can function according to the needs of any given society. Let me give you a special example. Assuming you have a primitive tribe that survives and lives from attacking other tribes and killing their members and robbing what they have, and assuming there is one man who doesn’t like it—that is to say, he is appalled by the idea of killing people and robbing. He will not be aware, probably of this dislike, because in this particular society it is just unthinkable to dislike what everybody likes. In fact, in every society it is always unthinkable to dislike what most people like.

Probably one morning when they go on the warpath, he will not be aware that he dislikes killing people, but he will have an attack of vomiting. Since they probably are not yet advanced enough to have psychiatrists, it will not be diagnosed as a psychogenetic illness or symptom, but certainly they will say—the medicine man or whoever it is—there is something very wrong with the man. Where everybody goes happily to attack the enemy, he starts vomiting, which prevents him from going to the attack. This man is sick in this society, while in a tribe of peaceful peasants, he is the one who would be very healthy. And, exactly the one who likes to kill would be the sick one in a cooperative society of peasants.

The humanistic concept of mental health is an entirely different one. It is one in which mental health is not determined by the proper functioning in any given society but is determined by criteria that are inherent in humankind. What that means, I shall talk about at some greater length later. If there were no conflict between the purposes of society and the purposes of the full development of man, then indeed the two concepts of mental health would be identical, and there would be no point in separating them. But, so far in history there has invariably been a conflict between the interests of individual development and the interests of any given society, and therefore the two concepts of mental health have always been distinct and different. In fact, however, those who present the society-oriented concept of mental health always make it appear as if this concept is at the same time a man-oriented concept of mental health. In other words they always claim that what is good, is best for their particular society is also good and best for the individual. And most people believe that.

The concept of mental health in the society-oriented form of person usually chooses a somewhat more polite word.

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