2025 Letter #7: Roads to Sanity and Self-Healing
Togetherness is happiness! In Pokhara, Nepal
Dear Friend
In last week’s Letter our extract was from Erich Fromm’s book The Sane Society, and in this week’s Letter we return to the same book and same chapter. You may recall the chapter is called Roads to Sanity.
Last week I said this:
Fromm touches upon it in the third paragraph, but he laments that over many centuries man has tried to fix things by focussing on one or another cause, when in fact we need to simultaneously address all causes… Next week I will bring you the next bit of Fromm’s writing, which looks into this in more detail.
And we read of these causes being, variously:
lack of political freedom
economically exploited
spiritually and morally bankrupt
repressing our instincts.
So let’s turn to Fromm’s diagnosis and pathway for the fixing of these causes now.
First thing to say relating to this call to deal with the whole, and reminding ourselves of one of our running themes in these Letters, is that if we desire good health, wellbeing, inner peace and a meaningful life, just focussing on our body and physical health alone is not enough. We have to nurture and nourish our mind, heart-consciousness and soul too, and we have to positively influence and shape - to the maximum degree that we can - the external environment we live, work and play in.
In other words, we are all holistic entities, comprising of conceptually different parts, but which all operate in a synchronistic, interconnected whole. We must therefore pay attention to all these parts.
It is this holistic understanding of life that Fromm is writing about, but in reference to the actual problems and solutions facing humankind for so many centuries. He wants us to address all of the causes simultaneously, instead of only one at a time which has led to failure for over 2000 years.
In many Unleash Your Spirit Letters since the start of 2024 I have talked about how essential it is for us to reflect for ourselves upon what the root causes of our conflicts, problems and suffering are. Yet, despite this making perfect common sense, and despite it leading us directly to an understanding of the law of karma, which every single human being is subject to (even if they know nothing about it!), it often seems to me like humankind has turned its back on this core navigational aid towards health, harmony and happiness in our lives.
Consider this in your own life, and to what extent it applies to you:
If you don’t know why the problems and suffering you face in your life are happening, you will be powerless to prevent them happening again. Now, it so happens that most problems and conflicts in our world - personally and collectively - are ongoing and recurring problems.
Therefore, anybody ignorant of the causes of their problems (even assuming that problems are the norm), will find that their destiny and wellbeing is out of their hands. And in our current times of turbulent and rapid change, this means almost permanent stress, conflict and agitation within one’s whole being. Inevitably that person struggles in their relationships.
Knowing the causes brings us to the remedies. Understanding and living by karmic law enables us to find and implement solutions, and, next time, to prevent the same problems occurring. We become practically intelligent!
What, then, is Fromm’s remedy for all our woes, troubles and conflicts?
This week’s extract
Reading Task
There is no pre-reading task this week. As for the reading task, it’s this:
When you finish reading the extract, read it again, as consciously as you can, and apply what Fromm is saying to your own life’s journey and understandings of life. I have chosen this extract because I consider it such an important message for all human beings. Last week’s extract was to set the scene for this particular extract upcoming.
I have a few discussion/reflection questions for you in the post-reading task. I can’t easily emphasise important bits in bold because every word and sentence is a gem!
“If this chapter is to discuss roads to sanity, that is, methods of cure, we had better pause here for a moment and ask ourselves what we know about the nature of cure in cases of individual mental diseases. The cure of social pathology must follow the same principle, since it is the pathology of so many human beings, and not of an entity beyond or apart from individuals.
The conditions for the cure of individual pathology are mainly the following:
1) A development must have occurred which is contrary to the proper functioning of the psyche. In Freud’s theory this means that the libido has failed to develop normally and that as a result, symptoms are produced. In the frame of reference of humanistic psychoanalysis, the causes of pathology lie in the failure to develop a productive orientation, a failure which results in the development of irrational passions, especially of incestuous, destructive and exploitative strivings. The fact of suffering, whether it is conscious or unconscious, resulting from the failure of normal development, produces a dynamic striving to overcome the suffering, that is, for change in the direction of health. This striving for health in our physical as well as in our mental organism is the basis for any cure of sickness, and it is absent only in the most severe pathology.
2) The first step necessary to permit this tendency for health to operate is the awareness of the suffering and of that which is shut out and disassociated from our conscious personality. In Freud’s doctrine, repression refers mainly to sexual strivings. In our frame of reference, it refers to the repressed irrational passions, to the repressed feeling of loneliness and futility, and to the longing for love and productivity, which is also repressed.
3) Increasing self-awareness can become fully effective only if a next step is taken, that of changing a practice of life which was built on the basis of the neurotic structure, and which reproduces it constantly. A patient, for instance, whose neurotic character makes him want to submit to parental authorities has usually constructed a life where he has chosen dominating or sadistic father images as bosses, teachers, and so on. He will be cured only if he changes his realistic life situation in such a way that it does not constantly reproduce the submissive tendencies he wants to give up. Furthermore, he must change his systems of values, norms and ideals, so that they further rather than block his striving for health and maturity.
The same conditions—conflict with the requirements of human nature and resulting suffering, awareness of what is shut out, and change of the realistic situation and of values and norms—are also necessary for a cure of social pathology.”
Fromm then states he needs to summarise (and remind the reader of) his earlier theoretical discussion in the book as to what ‘constitutes mental sanity.
“The mentally healthy person is the productive and unalienated person; the person who relates himself to the world lovingly, and who uses his reason to grasp reality objectively; who experiences himself as a unique individual entity, and at the same time feels one with his fellow man; who is not subject to irrational authority, and accepts willingly the rational authority of conscience and reason; who is in the process of being born as long as he is alive, and considers the gift of life the most precious chance he has.
Let us also remember that these goals of mental health are not ideals which have to be forced upon the person, or which man can attain only if he overcomes his ‘nature’ and sacrifices his ‘innate selfishness’. On the contrary, the striving for mental health, for happiness, harmony, love, productiveness, is inherent in every human being who is not born as a mental or moral idiot. Given a chance, these strivings assert themselves forcefully, as can be seen in countless situations. It takes powerful constellations and circumstances to pervert and stifle this innate striving for sanity; and indeed, throughout the greater part of known history, the use of man by man has produced such perversion. To believe that this perversion is inherent in man is like throwing seeds in the soil of the desert and claiming that they were not meant to grow.”
Post-Reading Task
Fromm talked of conditions and a process for our cure which I will summarise as: conflict in our nature, awareness of the problem or conflict, making informed changes.
1. Reflect honestly upon your life, and decide what suffering you face - psychologically and physically. Can you relate your problems as being ongoing or recurring?
2. Fromm says that we suffer (individual pathology) because our psyche is not functioning properly, something has caused it to go awry. What might that be? Can you see a sort of ‘macro’ problem? What do you think lies behind (causes) your own mental and/or physical suffering?
3. In my teaching work and my travelling life (meeting and knowing thousands of people from all walks of life and all parts of the world), I have found a common human tendency (likely a self-protection mechanism) to deny to oneself one’s own suffering or problems. We have a multitude of ways to do this. My view is that pretending to ourselves we are fine, trying to put on a brave face for others, virtue-signalling, seeking external validation, numbing ourselves, succumbing to our addictions, are all ways we do this, but with one common reason which I’ve written about before: our nurture (schooling) was so woeful, so disempowering, so disconnecting that we seem to subconsciously recognise we don’t actually know what to do to better our life, to make meaningful and enduring changes, to take charge of our own life and health. We subconsciously feel we lack the skills, knowledge and confidence to do this.
What do you think?
4. Fromm says in #2 that we repress our feelings of loneliness and futility, and that we long for love and productivity. Reflect upon your own schooling and childhood upbringing (and remember that all parents and teachers were subject to the same schooling when they were children), and ask yourself why so many people feel a terrible sense of loneliness (even when in relationships), lack of love, and why life feels rather meaningless to them. To what degree does this describe your life now, or in the past?
Let’s summarise Fromm’s requirements for mental health: productive, connected, expresses love outwards, uses reason to understand reality, feels himself to be a unique individual yet one who feels kinship with his fellow man, lives by the authority of reason and his conscience, considers his life to be a gift, and accepts he is constantly being born until his final day.
I have said before that to live a healthy, harmonious and happy life we need to move into our birthright as intelligent integrated interconnected individuals, which brings us back into alignment with our true nature and the laws of nature and the whole web of life.
5. I would like to ask you to think of your own childhood at home and at school, to think of any experience you may have as an adult with your own children, or with other people’s children, and to consider this statement: We are born as intelligent integrated interconnected individuals, but society gradually and systematically removes from us our innate intelligence by disconnecting and disempowering us through the force and power of external authority; we have our very nature perverted by society itself. Do you agree with this statement, and if so or if not, why?
6. How can you go about systematically optimising your own health, harmony and happiness?
Final Comments
I chose last week’s and this week’s extracts because to me they cut to the heart of what Erich Fromm calls our individual pathology, and the related social pathology of society at large. And there can be little doubt that humankind is in deep trouble, and let’s remind ourselves that humankind is actually just a word, as is society, and what it really means is that billions of human beings are in deep trouble!
Krishnamurti spent his life throughout the 20th century telling us that we are in constant conflict and war, and that it is ‘no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society’. He said there could be no progress until the educators educated themselves. He meant parents, teachers and all kinds so society leaders.
I have said in my ebook, An Education Charter and Framework for the Healing of Humankind, which anybody subscribed to my Letters in 2024 will have received (if you can’t find it, or never got it, please email me requesting a copy and I’ll send it to you) that humanity is stuck in an intergenerational vicious cycle of anti-human schooling.
My main book, Menu For A Spiritual Revolution: Health Harmony & Happiness takes the reader on the complete journey to self-healing.
(If you’ve not got your own copy yet, what are you waiting for?!! Amazon will oblige.)
However, the one thing no book, or body of knowledge, can do is develop our communication skills. To me this means developing and mastering our speaking, listening and social skills. I say that this is really the single fastest route to developing ourselves as confident human beings engaging with life with self-belief and self-awareness rather than self-doubt and self-consciousness.
From this foundation we can become creative, productive, content, well-adjusted and we will build and maintain strong, healthy relationships with all other human beings, even those whose views we disagree with. We also become able to build new communities that enhance the lives of all members.
What every human being needs is a second education combining learning and communication skills development with essential self-knowledge, within a collaborative and confidence-building learning environment with like-minded souls, led by an educator who can deliver just such a learning experience.
I invite you to make a mental note that my upcoming schedule for A Spiritual Revolution Workshop and Foundation Course is now on the visible horizon! I’m nearly there, and I will obviously let you know the moment it’s ready.
Have a great weekend, and never forget the key message from Erich Fromm: be loving, be productive.
All the best
Philip
