The Art of Listening »

Though generally thought of as a brilliant social commentator, Fromm was first a great psychoanalyst. These posthumous writings combine two aspects of Fromm's thinking, building on Freudian theory and also modifying it with a unique humanist view. For Fromm, the essence of psychological health involves communication between the irrational and rational parts of the personality. The art of therapy is the art of listening.

Library Journal

This posthumous work by the noted psychoanalyst and social critic is drawn from transcripts of talks and seminars Fromm gave between 1964 and 1980, the year he died. Even edited, the material meanders too casually, while facile generalizations and digressions abound. There are some gems in the rough: interesting comments on Freud, Reich, Groddek, et al., as well as a case presentation with dream analysis. And there is a useful bibliography. Still, compared with many other works of the last 20 years, this will not rank with Fromm's major contributions or prove particularly valuable to phychotherapists or their patients. Only for comprehensive collections.-E. James Lieberman, George Washington Univ. Sch. of Medicine, Washington, D.C.