Fromm’s split of clinical Freud from metapsychology was judged revisionist by his Institut colleagues.

Evidence

To other observers, however, the jettisoning of the libido theory and other crucial elements in Freud’s original thought, such as the Oedipus complex, meant that Fromm had moved far enough away from the essential elements in orthodox theory to justify calling him a thoroughgoing revisionist. Fromm’s distinction between Freud’s clinical findings and his metapsychology - by which he meant not only Freud’s admittedly controversial speculations about instincts of life and death, but also his more widely accepted theory of the libido - did not satisfy those who saw a more intimate connection between the two, including his Institut colleagues. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 324

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies that for Fromm ‘metapsychology’ covered not just the death-and-life-instinct speculations but also the libido theory itself — a key move in his break with orthodoxy.