Fromm proposed a historical-materialist anthropology fusing psychoanalysis with sociology.

Evidence

In this short, programmatic lecture, his view was that both psychology and sociology were necessary, precisely for the investigation of the most significant problems, and that among the most important psychological and sociological questions' was what connections there are between the social development of humanity, particularly its economic and technical development, and the development of its mental faculty, particularly the ego-organization of the human being’. He sketched out the idea of an anti-metaphysical, historical anthropology, which would give a general, historical-materialist form to the historicization of certain psychoanalytical categories which had been undertaken by Wilhelm Reich and Siegfried Bernfeld. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 216

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies what Fromm meant by anti-metaphysical historical anthropology in psychoanalytic terms.
• XREF: Connects to the broader debate between critical theory and orthodox psychoanalysis/Marxism in the early Frankfurt School. — connects to: Fromm was a practising analyst and left-Freudian synthesizer of Marx and Freud. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 213; Fromm diverged from Horkheimer and Adorno by affirming a philosophical anthropology of human nature. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 321; Psychoanalysis was seen as a bridge from economic determinism to ideology formation — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 231 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Fromm saw psychoanalysis as filling Marxism’s missing link between ideology and economic base. #expands (0.90) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 329
• Psychoanalysis was seen as a bridge from economic determinism to ideology formation #expands (0.82) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 231
• Adorno demanded theoretical mediation between superstructure and substructure in historical materialism. #responds-to (0.75) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 280
• Fromm diverged from Horkheimer and Adorno by affirming a philosophical anthropology of human nature. #qualifies (0.70) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 321