Fromm replaced libido structure with Reich’s concept of character as adapted instinct

Evidence

Fromm now used the term character'which he borrowed from Freud and above all from Wilhelm Reich's Character Analysisfor what he had earlier described as libido structure’: the product of the adaptation of the instinctual structure to particular social conditions through sublimation and the development of reactions. Character traits were transformed impulses of the instincts, characteristic forms of behaviour often representing the unconscious satisfaction of instinctual drives which had been concealed by rationalization. A character structure in which masochism appeared must also contain sadism, according to Fromm, who referred to psychoanalytic findings. He contrasted the concept of the sado-masochistic character, one which reacted to stronger characters with submission and to weaker characters with contempt, with the concept of the anal character, for which the enjoyment of saving, collecting and possessing as an end in itself was just as important as its unpitying lack of relationship to its fellow human beings. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 615

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the sado-masochistic character versus anal character distinction, and how ‘character’ differs from ‘libido structure’.
• XREF: connects to: Fromm conflated sadomasochistic character with authoritarian society, losing the psychological dimension — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 616; Fromm’s shift to ‘authoritarian’ terminology dropped the psychosexual dimension requiring explanation — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 617; Horney’s relational model replaced Freud’s libido-stage theory with social-environmental determinants. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1115

Broader Connections

• Fromm’s shift to ‘authoritarian’ terminology dropped the psychosexual dimension requiring explanation #expands (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 617
• Fromm conflated sadomasochistic character with authoritarian society, losing the psychological dimension #qualifies (0.78) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 616