欧宝娱乐

My rating of this book varies from one chapter to another. The first chapters explaining the attempts of Lutherism and Calvinism to fill the void freedom created during the early era of capitalism were good. Basically, when the feudal system was being replaced by capitalism, man was more free, but also more isolated and insecure. The solution offered by Protestanism was total submission to God and work as a means of searching for a sign of salvation. That laid the groundwork for the unhealthy mentality of submission or domination as the panacea for the isolation and aloneness in the modern time.
The middle part of the book where Fromm analyses the modern society is not quite original (possibly because his argument has been so popular that I've come across it too many times) and quite repetitive. (the words isolations/ powerlessness/ insignificant were used 3 times per page, which makes them really insignificant/ powerless). In the chapter about the psychology of Fascism, his remark that "as a matter of fact, certain features were characteristic of the middle class: their love of the strong, their hatred of the weak, their pettiness, their hostility" was quite unfounded and arbitrary. The last chapter on democracy and freedom was the best one. I didn't expect Fromm to provide a solution to the miserable state of the modern man, but surprisingly he does. His answer sounds reasonable, attainable and inspirational.